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verbminxhttp://www.backworks.com
http://www.backbenimble.com
Now, I'm not saying that all these things are snake oil, or that they help no one. There's a number of items (a lot of the more expensive exercise equipment and back-arc stuff) that I've never tried. However.
I own a - get ready for this -
- thumping massager with heat
- full-length heat and massage pad
- wet/dry heating pad
- several body wraps (rice bags you heat in the microwave & wrap around your neck/shoulders)
- tempur-pedic pillow
- various small handheld quasi-spherical hard things that you're supposed to smoosh into your back (massagers)
- pillow-top feather bed
- body pillow
- "total gym"
- gigantic rubber exercise ball (to lie backwards over)
- plethora of muscle-warming creams
and additionally have use of one of those hot-stone massage kits.
Let me tell you something...
NONE of them help that much. Sometimes the heating pad and rice bag help, sometimes lying back arched over the big rubber ball helps, but not one of these things is a magical panacea for back pain (and neck pain, and headaches, and sciatica, and fibromyalgia pain, and etc). A lot of things that these sites sell are just variations on the basic theme - support belts (which are great if your problems are lower-back-related, and not in your shoulders or neck), weird miniature hills you're meant to stretch out across, various types of mattress, pillow, bedding.
The only major category of Back Crap that I've tried, liked, and don't own is the gravity inversion table. I think that's probably going to be what I'm asking for this Xmas. (I keep wanting a PS2, but I'd probably use the inversion table more often. I'll hang upside down by my ankles and watch Planet of the Apes movies or something.)
http://www.backbenimble.com
Now, I'm not saying that all these things are snake oil, or that they help no one. There's a number of items (a lot of the more expensive exercise equipment and back-arc stuff) that I've never tried. However.
I own a - get ready for this -
- thumping massager with heat
- full-length heat and massage pad
- wet/dry heating pad
- several body wraps (rice bags you heat in the microwave & wrap around your neck/shoulders)
- tempur-pedic pillow
- various small handheld quasi-spherical hard things that you're supposed to smoosh into your back (massagers)
- pillow-top feather bed
- body pillow
- "total gym"
- gigantic rubber exercise ball (to lie backwards over)
- plethora of muscle-warming creams
and additionally have use of one of those hot-stone massage kits.
Let me tell you something...
NONE of them help that much. Sometimes the heating pad and rice bag help, sometimes lying back arched over the big rubber ball helps, but not one of these things is a magical panacea for back pain (and neck pain, and headaches, and sciatica, and fibromyalgia pain, and etc). A lot of things that these sites sell are just variations on the basic theme - support belts (which are great if your problems are lower-back-related, and not in your shoulders or neck), weird miniature hills you're meant to stretch out across, various types of mattress, pillow, bedding.
The only major category of Back Crap that I've tried, liked, and don't own is the gravity inversion table. I think that's probably going to be what I'm asking for this Xmas. (I keep wanting a PS2, but I'd probably use the inversion table more often. I'll hang upside down by my ankles and watch Planet of the Apes movies or something.)
