I'll never forget the first time I threw my back out. The pain started in my lower back and shot throughout my entire body. I couldn't stand up, I could barely even roll over it was so bad. I was determined never to let that sort of thing happen again and that's what I want talk about in this article today.

I'm going to give you several simple stretching exercises that you can do to help beat chronic back pain, or really any type of back pain. These simple exercises should work for most cases but as with anything medically related, be sure to consult your doctor before engaging in them.

The first exercise is something I like to call knee raises. Basically what you do is lie down on your back; on the floor or on a mat is fine. Next, slowly raise your right knee to your chest as far as you can. Put your hands somewhere along your right shin and gently pull your leg as close to your chest as you can.

One thing you should notice right away while doing this is a sort of expansion in your chest and also in your abdomen as well. You should also notice a light stretching in your hips as well as your knee and your lower spine too.

After you have stretched your right knee for a while go head and lower it back to the floor and repeat the exercise again with your left knee. I find that doing several sets of these helps a lot but you can generally do as many or as few as you like.

I like to call this next exercise the cat stretch. What you do is get on your hands and knees and let your weight be distributed fairly equally from the front of your body to the backside of it. Next, slowly but surely arch your spine like a cat.

While you're doing that, sort of lower your head and relax the muscles that are in your neck and also the muscles in your shoulders.

You want to hold this position while you take several breaths. As you breathe, feel your back muscles stretch and focus on them in your mind. After several breaths slowly release the arch and then let your back drop and raise your head and look up.

These two simple stretching exercises should help a great deal to mitigate chronic back pain. I like to start and end each day doing them for just a couple of minutes. They should do wonders for you if done consistently over time.