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13th December 2017Back Pain is a pain in the…
Back pain affects 80% of adults. I know from my own experience of living with back pain how debilitating serious back pain can be. A crushed disc in my neck in 1990, a ruptured L5-S1 disc with surgery in 2003 when I opened up Cork’s now longest running personal training studio and a re-ruptured disc in 2013 gives me an insight into pain. I don’t sit around whining about it and most of us can’t, we suffer on through. Of course, sitting or lying down for days on end is – in most cases – the worst thing you can do for your back as it tightens up muscles even further and moves the skeleton into sub-optimal positions.
Back Pain Treatments
What can you do about back pain? Plenty. The thing about back pain, like most kinds of joint pain is that it is regularly caused by tight and weak muscles causing inflammation and moving the skeleton into positions that cause pain. Our bodies are like high performance cars: they can do amazing things but need TLC.
Back Pain Exercises – Simple Stretching – Postures
Maintenance can be as simple as 5-minutes stretching and strengthening the appropriate muscles. As we get older we may need a bit more maintenance to keep the “car” on the road. That’s where you might consider coming to your experienced personal trainers at David Sisk Fitness.
The most common back pain can be caused by sitting. What happens when you sit for extended periods? Three major muscles groups are effected by sitting which can then extend to other ares of the body causing more joint issues: external obliques (the muscles along the lower sides that stop at the hip bones), rectus abdominis (muscles of abdominal wall aka “abs”), and hamstrings (muscles at the back of the leg leading towards your backside).
What happens as these tighten they pull you into a “C” shape which loads the lower back. Stretching these in a static corrective hold will help to alleviate this. But it doesn’t end there. What muscles weaken? The whole pelvic area along with your gluteal muscles (your backside) and lower back begin to weaken. At David Sisk Fitness in Cork we believe in buns of steel for our personal training clients!
Buns of steel – Pain-free backs need strength and conditioning
The stronger and more mobile your lumbo-pelvic- hip and glute areas are the better it will be for your back. We would advise avoid doing heavy lifting until the corrective work to address this C-Shape in the
back is complete because you are simply over-loading and exposing an already tight and weak area even more if you follow the way the Instagramers and “experts” with their weekend certifications are lifting (heavy heavy deadlifts, cleans, barbell squats, etc)Change your routine
A final tip on back pain is that you might consider doing every day things differently. for example, if you open all doors with your right hand try using your left more often. If you tie your shoelaces by going down on one knee or sitting try instead putting your foot on a chair and tying the show you normally tie last first. Adjust your car seat so your knees are below or at least level with your hips. All of these things make tiny differences which can make big differences in the long-term.
If you want to try more than some simple exercises you’ll do yourself then contact us and we’ll work with you on figuring this out
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