I shouldn't bother coming back for an adjustment unless I did the following exercises. That's what my chiropractor told me after several months of weekly adjustments.

According to him, my back muscles weren't strong enough to support my back, so the combined weight of my body and movements I made were sending my back right out of alignment shortly after an adjustment. It was a waste of time and he didn't see a point going forward unless I did something on my own to correct the situation instead of relying on him to continually return my back to temporary alignment.

I didn't have much choice but to agree.

"Your pain will actually improve or go away fairly quickly," he added as I walked out of the adjusting room. "Yeah right," I thought to myself. I know how exercises work. You do them nearly every day and maybe, just maybe, after a few months you'll see some kind of improvement. That had been my experience with exercise for weight loss so I figured that exercising to help my back would work much the same. I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong I was.

I did the exercises he told me to do. I only needed to do them for 15 minutes each day and could take two days off a week. To my surprise, my pain was better the day after I started. I couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense to me how that could be since I knew that muscle development took time. I called my chiropractor to tell him of my success and to ask him how it worked so quickly. He told me that when we don't use muscles often, one of the reasons we have pain in the surrounding joints is because our brain partially forgets to use the muscles to support those joints. It's sort of a "use it or lose it," type of thing. Forcing myself to use those muscles sent electricity into those muscles and reminded my brain to use them. It was like my brain was rediscovering those muscles.

So here are the 3 exercises that sent my back pain packing.

1. Bridge - A bridge is where you lay on your back and push your middle body/pelvic area up toward the sky. You push up and hold it like you are making a bridge for a puppy to walk over. I held the bridge for 30 seconds and would do it 5 times. Then I'd rest for a couple of minutes before doing the next exercise.

2. Plank - This exercise is really popular among the yoga crowd and with good reason. It works the other side of the area that the bridge worked - your abs and so-called "core," area. This is very helpful for back function and will give you extra motivation by helping to sculpt your tummy.

3. Hamstring stretches - This sounds so simple but does so much. Especially when combined with the exercises mentioned above. Stand and put your foot into a chair with your toes pointing toward the sky. Slowly lean forward until you feel a stretch in your hamstring (the first muscle below your butt). Hold this for 20 seconds and try to gently deepen the stretch as you feel the muscle loosen. Do this 3-5 times a day. I usually do it in the shower.

That's it. No weights or long running. No constant trips to a gym. Just those exercises 5 days a week and I bet your back will feel a lot better. Now I go to the chiropractor once a month and my adjustments hold. Often times he doesn't even have to adjust my lower back because my muscles are doing their job of supporting my spine. And that has helped reduce my pain to rare instances and minuscule levels. Try it and see if it helps your back pain as soon as the next day!