Exercises
Any remedial work on your back must be appropriately managed. If you're suffering from back pain then these exercise may contribute to your overall management plan but, depending on the degree of your injury, they should not be attempted without seeking professional advice. If you;re not sure then get in touch and I may be able to point you in the right direction.
If you're back is OK you may still want to have a look at these exercises to help with any postural rehabilitation. Strengthening the core postural muscles is vital if you are going to maintain a healthy spinal curve. You have a number of excellent options here including:
- Pilates is a relatively new phenomenon that focuses on maintaining "core fitness". I have no experience at all with it but from what I've seen it's theory is certainly sound.
- Yoga postures generate isometric muscle contraction. That means that you're muscles are working but you're not actually moving, which is what your postural muscles need to do.
- Prescribed exercise programs such as those offered by physical therapists and personal trainers are also a great option for building strength.
There are a few exercises on offer here that can help but this degree of focus specifically on building postural strength is beyond the scope of the program.
Squats are a strengthening exercise that require repetitions. In the early stages it's important that you don’t overdo it, stop as soon as you fatigue and aim to steadily increase the number every day.
- Stand in horse stance with your feet parallel and put your hands on your knees.
- Keeping your back straight squat down as far as you can and slowly come back up.
- Repeat 4 or 5 times to start with. If you're reasonably fit and you're back is OK you can do a few more but it's important when you start a new exercise to err on the side of caution until you are confident that it won't cause any more problems.
- You can increase the stretch you get from the hips by widening your stance, try this once you're confident with the basic exercise.
A typical short exercise sequence for the lower back would go something like this
- Warm up with the dao yin leg sequence and 4 or 5 squats, more if you like.
- Follow that with some stretches in the following sequence.
- Hamstrings
- Medial hip rotators
- Adductors
- Hip flexors
- Remember not to push so hard that it hurts and hold each one for no less than 30, preferably 60 seconds and only do them if you've warmed up sufficiently, you'll notice that you feel less stiff and more mobile.
- Finish with a few more squats