One in four Americans live with chronic pain, according to a study by the National Center for Health Statistics. In another study, researchers found three-quarters of these adults used over-the-counter pain relievers within the previous three months. Encouragingly, 55% of that same group used exercise to help reduce their discomfort.
Evidence supporting movement as part of a pain management plan is growing. Across 21 reviews and 37,000 participants with conditions including arthritis, fibromyalgia, and low back pain, a Cochrane overview found favorable effects on pain severity and physical function, with few adverse effects beyond muscle soreness that faded within weeks.
Interrupting long stretches of sitting
How hard you move matters less than how often you move. You would not drink a full day’s water in one sitting, so there is little reason to treat exercise as a single morning event and consider the day’s work finished.
In a small 2024 study, office workers who stretched every 30 minutes showed fewer indicators of back muscle overload than those who sat continuously for 90 minutes. For a practical starting point, Palmer College of Chiropractic recommends five posture habits that fit into an ordinary workday:
- Practice mindful awareness, noticing when you slouch or hunch forward so you can relax, breathe, and correct your position.
- Take short breaks every 20 to 30 minutes to stretch, stand, and reset your body.
- Sit and stand tall, keeping your shoulders back, your spine aligned, and your chin parallel to the floor.
- Use ergonomic furniture, adjusting your chair so your feet rest flat and your monitor sits at eye level.
- Strengthen your core with planks, bridges, and the cat-cow stretch.
Low-impact options that protect joints
Walking requires no equipment and places little load on your joints. In a 2024 Australian trial, 701 adults who had recently recovered from an episode of low back pain were assigned either to a progressive walking and education program or to no intervention. Those who walked went a median of 208 days before pain limited their activities again, compared with 112 days in the comparison group. That difference matters to anyone who has had one episode and fears the next.
Where joints limit how far you can walk, swimming and other water-based activity ease the load further. Buoyancy supports part of your body weight, which lowers pressure on your spine and lets you move through a fuller range of motion with less discomfort.
The federal Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans call for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity each week, along with muscle strengthening on two days, and note that the weekly total can be accumulated in pieces. Several patterns arrive at the same place:
- 30 minutes of walking, five days a week
- Three 10-minute walks a day, five days a week
- Two 45-minute pool sessions plus three 20-minute walks
Pairing movement with chiropractic care
Your doctor of chiropractic (DC) can restore joint motion and ease the restrictions that make moving uncomfortable, while the activity you choose between visits helps maintain that motion. Where stiffness keeps returning to the same joint, daily movement habits are often what the care plan is missing.
You can do all of this without a gym membership or a formal training plan. Stand more often, walk or swim (if available), and treat motion as something you do throughout your day. When pain is already present, your DC can identify which articular movements are safe for your spine and adjust the plan as your capacity improves.
Get started
- To find a DC, click here.
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