Back pain doesn’t have to be chronic

Back pain became the curse of the century

Nowadays: Everybody has back pain from teenager to the oldest. Having back pain is normal and we get operated from our sciatic like we would remove a cavity: it’s “normal” procedure.

Slipped disks, compression, sciatica:  everyone has it’s own and try to find the remedy with neighbors, colleagues, and friends. To feel better, we take painkillers, multiple visits at the physician and if necessary let’s get the surgery!

Today I’m telling you to endure repetitive back pain is not “normal”, remedies exist and the causes have to be determined.

1. The reasons 

We tend to point out wrong factors, either we have trapezius, middle back or lumbar pain, we accuse mattress, pillow.

From changing your entire bed to taking pain killers, it ends up pricey, useless and sometimes dangerous for your health. Indeed from soft canape, to comfy chairs: this fake comfort just make the situation get worse and hide the true causes of your pain.

We forget the most common and obvious factor: daily life posture.

The more we look for “easy” comfy stuff like lying down in a soft canape or chair, the less we develop right strength and back efficient posture. The vicious circle has started, your muscles support decrease and your vertebrae disks get compressed, while looking for “relax” you in fact make impossible the development of an adapted back & girdle muscles support.

We spend a lot of time either stand up or sitting down:  both of these positions are really tricky for the back and challenging in modern daily life ‘fake’ comfort; If you don’t adopt the right alignment and an adapted girdle: The curse has begun!

Go to chiropractor and osteopath and get mechanical manipulations does help but if we repeat the same actions  we just keep on treating consequences not causes. Only a safe, well repeated exercises and better posture habits will get rid of pain definitively!

• The positions at risk:

Standing : Standing is a very difficult position because we all tend to compensate due to different angles of the joints in this posture. The challenge is against gravity and the standing require some girdle.

Sitting: The worst and most dangerous position for the back.

And that fact itself should explain why more and more people suffer back pain.

Our modern lifestyle make us  more and more sedentary and stationary instead of being active. Our body don’t build the right strength and core muscles anymore and we often sit in offices FOR HOURS.

2. Solutions:

1. Yawn and stretch

Have you ever pay attention at a cat? Well, you should!

Animals and cats particularly spend their time yawning and stretching while going from one position to another one. Indeed, they activate and alternate the hyperextension & flexion, then yawn. Yawning will have a good impact on diaphragm with a bigger engagement, and powerful but soft action on your back.

1. The right posture

It is important to adopt the right posture in every position and every situation; it can be easier to say than do, but becomes it is a game changer and it becomes quite natural when you start understanding body’s mechanic.

• Asymmetry: since childhood, we step with one feet more than the other one, we carry heavy stuff same side, we run, climb stairs and others always the same way. Balance with appropriate gesture, reinforcement and stretches will help this natural compensation and get an appropriate musculature from the other side.
• Aging: Naturally with time and life we tend to arch and back bent. Fatigue makes fight against gravity less active and efficient, without a right posture alignment and good back & abs muscles construction, we might have difficulty to keep the “nice and tall” required spine.
• Sedentary lifestyle: like said before: Where we used to do a lot of physical jobs and expose body to difficult tasks, we now tend to me more sedentary spending hours in sitting position. For example= Most of my students are businessmen and women, they travel a lot, and carry on heavy luggages, spend hours sitting down in a plane, in a car, in front of a computer. That without appropriate and frequent stretches create serious tensions.

4 tips and easy stretches to relieve back pain

• Abdominal breathing

It might be the best way and yet underestimated way to treat, prevent and git rid of chronic back pain. Adopt the right breathing and train to understand abdominal ‘correct’ breathe.

• Correct sitting

At work, home, restaurants, else, practice self extension of the spine “taller” process while sitting.

Put your back straight and let your trunk point in two opposite directions: tailbone and lower back bone push to the floor whereas head and neck push to the ceiling.

Don’t:

-push against the backrest of your chair (that are always too much to the back)

-cross your legs (always the same way) that get asymmetry in your pelvis.

-put a pillow under your butt that will exaggerate the arching.

Do:

-Put a books or anything under your feet to keep your angle 90°C hips-knees

-put a pillow (small) under your back to sit straight.

• right stretches

Don’t:

Arch Back

Break the neck

Put body weight on the upper part of the back / shoulders

 Do:

Push in opposite direction while breathing out

Engage abdominal belt, keep the organs and visceras up and toward the spine

Keep body weight to the back (buttock to heels)

•  Standing

Nice and tall against a wall : feet parallel in front of the wall, wide of your hips. Stand up, push against gravity push top of your head to “the sky” while pressing lower back region against the wall. Engage pelvic floor to feel the lower abs contraction and lower back extension; It’s a big relief if made correctly.

• Standing back extension

Don’t:

Fall down into your shoulders

Break the neck

Let the back curve

Do:

Flat back

Keep one-line angle from backbone to top of your head 90°C to the legs.

Press and push in opposite directions while breathing out, micro bend the knees if needed = meaning if you feel too much stretch in your hamstrings.

Because back muscles reinforcement take time, stay patient, practice your exercises regularly, take a qualified coach to help you, choose activity like Pilates that are non violent for the joints- with One-on-one sessions.