Easy Exercises to Relieve Pain

Body and muscle pains are quite common and people, regardless of their age, often get pains in different part of their bodies. Though exercising with pain is strictly a bad idea, if you want to relieve pain, there are a few exercises that are really helpful.

How Does Exercise Help In Relieving Pain?

How Does Exercise Help In Relieving Pain?

Though exercising is often associated with health benefits, many exercises are there that can relieve pain very effectively. It helps in a number of ways –

  • Exercise makes the joints strong thereby preventing joint related problems and joint pain.
  • The joints become more flexible with exercise
  • Exercise helps you lose weight and thus, minimizes the pressure put on the joints.

With every single pound of weight that you lose, you actually lower 4 pounds of pressure from your hips and knee joints.

Pain and Exercise

Pain can occur in different parts of the body. Some are chronic pains and some are short lasting, but severe. The conditions that lead to serious joint and muscle pain in the body include osteoarthritis, fibromyalgiacarpal tunnel syndrome etc.

Study reports have discovered that with exercise, these pains can significantly reduce. The reduction is prominent in muscle stiffness, joint pain and the overall discomfort that a patient suffers from, when the pain is severe. Motion, strength and muscle flexibility greatly increases with exercises. However, they need to be done properly.

Easy Exercises to Relieve Pain

Step One: Get Physically Active to Relieve Pain

Those, who wish to get rid of their dependency on pain relieving medicines or pills, the first thing that they need to do is stay active. For any treatment of fibromyalgia, the basic condition is to stay active. In that case, warm up exercises are very useful. These include shoulder shrugs, side bends, overhead stretches, arm circles and also bending towards the toes. These can be repeated 3 to 5 times each and these exercises should not cause any pain.

Research studies say that in order to treat fibromyalgia or other body pain and muscle strains, there is no need for sweating. Exercises as simple as stretching, bending, relaxing and just maintaining a good posture, would be enough to relieve pain.

Step Two: Simple or Basic Exercises

  • Walking as an Easy Exercise to Relieve Pain: Amongst the many easy exercises for relieving pain, the first and most preferable one is walking. It is mild and it is easy. This low-impact aerobic activity can help the muscles to gain or receive more oxygen and thus, the pain is reduced. Walking or even jogging can be very effective in reducing rheumatoid arthritis.
  • Swimming, Biking etc., an Easy Way to Relieve Pain: Along with walking, swimming is yet another mild exercise that is very useful for treating body pain. In order to treat fibromyalgia, warm water swimming and light exercises play a great and effective role. Swimming for about an hour thrice a week is a very effective way of reducing muscle pain and its other symptoms. Not just swimming, but also biking and playing tennis or basketball can be equally effective in reducing joint and muscle pains.
  • Getting Stronger to Reduce Pain: Weight training or strengthening exercises can help in building your muscles. Thus, joint pains can reduce significantly. However, when you are on weight training, you must make sure that you are lifting weights that are easy for you and you do not have to use a bad posture or slouch in order to lift them. Resistance bands as well as hand weights can be used for weight training. However, before you start weight training, you need to consult with your trainer, so that you lift the proper weight.

Step Three: Easy Exercises to Relieve Leg Pain

  • Wall Calf Stretch Exercise to Relieve Pain: In order to relieve the pain in the knees or to indulge in more brisk running exercises, you need to stretch the calf muscles or the legs. However, during usual bending and stretching, the calf muscle often gets neglected. Hence, it is a must that you do the wall calf stretch. For this you need to sit on the floor and stretch your legs in front. Now, touch the heel to the floor and touch a vertical wall with your feet. Lean forward to put pressure on the feet, so that a pull and stretch is felt at the calf muscle. This posture should be maintained for a few seconds and then repeated with the other foot.
  • Calf Smash with Lacrosse Ball Exercise for Relieving Pain: In order to release the tension from your hamstrings and calf muscle, this exercise is very useful. For this you need to sit on the floor and bend or fold your right knee, close to your chest. Now you need to smash a yoga or Lacrosse ball between your hamstring and calf muscle. Switch the legs and repeat the exercise and continue a few times, until you feel relieved in the area.
  • Half-Kneel Hip and Quad Stretch for Pain: An amazing pain reliever, this exercise can release a lot of pain. For this, you need to start by kneeling down on your knees. Now, you have to make a 90 degree posture with one knee touching the floor and the other knee folded in front of you. Now, grabbing the ankle or feet, you need to bring the calf muscle of the leg or knee, close to the hamstring and hip. Hold the position and repeat with the other leg.
  • Quad Foam Roller Stretch Exercise to Relieve Pain: Foam roller exercises and stretches help a lot in relieving the stress and pain that are caused by continuous tension caused to the muscles of the hips, legs and the rest of the body. For this, you need to lie face down on the floor with the foam roller beneath your right leg or hamstrings. Now, slowly you need to put pressure on the desired spots, so that you can move up and down on the roller, relieving the stress.
  • Wall Hamstring Stretch Exercise to Relieve Pain: If the cause of the pain is the pressure created to the knees due to the hamstring, you need to practice this stretch. Lie down on the floor with your face up and with the support of a prop or of the wall, stretch your legs up. Hold the position for a few seconds and then repeat with the other leg.
  • Straight-Leg Raise to Relieve Pain: This is easier, where you have to lie on the floor with your face up and bend one leg from the knees and have the other leg straight. You need to rotate the straight leg outwards with pointed feet. This should be repeated with the other leg as well, with a set of 10 to 15 rotations for about three times.

Reducing Pain at Home with Simple Activities

Apart from these exercises, there are a few other exercises and practices that can be done at home. These include –

  • Stepping up and down on the staircase
  • Sitting on an armless chair and standing up with slow, controlled movements
  • Vacuuming and scrubbing the floor, in case you are not a gym person

Pain Specific Yoga Exercises

Easy and Effective Yoga Exercises to Relieve Back and Shoulder Pain

  • Tricep Stretch: Take you left hand above your head and fold it so that the elbow is up towards the ceiling. Hold the left elbow with the right hand and stretch it to the back of your head. Hold the position for a few seconds and repeat with the other hand.

Simple and Effective Exercises for Thigh Muscle, Hip and Groin Pain

  • Butterfly Yoga: Sit on the floor with your feet pressed close to each other. Grab the ankles and flip the knees and hamstring like the wings of a butterfly.

Easy Exercises for Back Pain

  • Cobra: Lie on the floor with your face down and the feet stretched and toes pointed. Place the hands next to the body, folded close to the ribcage and lift the head and chest up to bend backwards, towards the spine.

Yoga is very effective in reducing pain and also for a holistic wellbeing. It is a better alternative to medicines and the best part of yoga exercises is that they can be practiced at home, without any expert advices. There is no need to go to a gym or be trained under a physical trainer. If these exercises or yoga postures are practices regularly, they will not only relieve the existing pain, but also reduce the possibility of further pains by increasing the strength of the muscles.

Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:April 9, 2018

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