Some tips for back pain

Both my mum and dad have suffered back pain for as long as I can remember. I sometimes wonder if, subconsciously, with both of them being nurses for more than 25 years and being brought up with a very western approach to medicine, I wanted to get into teaching as a holistic way of healing the body rather than through medication. I also have suffered a few bouts of excruciating back pain and I know how it can really disrupt your flow!

The spine, is one of the most important parts of our body to keep healthy. Not only does it contain and protect your spinal cord which controls all our bodily movements, but it runs through the centre of the body, connecting to muscles thathold up the torso which contains our heart, lungs, organs and digestive system. The spine is the structure that holds every body part in place.

Mobility is a huge part of keeping the spine healthy and moving freely. I work with over 200 clients a week, from all walks of life, and the things that I hear most are, firstly, lower back pain, followed by knee and wrist pain, followed by shoulder mobility issues. I have no stats to prove this, but when I speak with people with these problems, time and again the larger perspective becomes clear.

Here are some exercises to help you keep your spine healthy. I would recommend spending 5 to 10 minutes in the morning to get flowing for the day ahead and allowing more movement through your day, especially if you’re heading to work where you will be seated for most of the time.

Number One - The roll down

One of my favorite exercises which I use in every class I teach. When we create space between our vertebrae by rolling down into a folded position, distance is created between them allowing a release.

First, focus on foot placement and creating a balance across all ten toes and your heels in a standing position. Take a deep breath and feel your spine lengthen then slowly start to exhale keeping your legs straight but knees soft and come into a folded position – but only so far that you don’t feel too much strain on your lower back. I like to hold this forward fold and take three very slow deep breaths, fully filling the lungs, and on the exhale feel that you relax your chest towards your thighs. Keep the head heavy and the knees soft. Take one final deep breath and then keeping energy through the feet, legs active, start to exhale and roll up. Leading with the pelvis tilting and then gradually stacking one vertebrae on top of the next until you arrive in an organized, aligned posture.

When we restack out spine after we have created that room, we feel and appear taller and gather an awareness to our optimal standing posture. You can repeat this 4 times.

Number Two – The bridge

The beloved bridge. A fabulous way to train the back position of the body. The bridge offers so much in the sense that it stabilises and strengthens our core, hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings. It also offers a benefit to our lower leg, the calf and ankle. There are many variations of the bridge but for today, we will use a version I most commonly use in my sessions: the articulated bridge.

Lie with your back flat with your feet and knees shoulder width apart, relax your shoulders and keep long in your spine. Draw your feet a little close to your pelvis. Start to gently rock your pelvis forward and back to bring in a gentle shortening and lengthening of the lower back. This also builds momentum before we commit to our lift. One you have complete a few rocks each way, as you next start to tilt your pelvis forwards activate your feet and push down with your arms and hands and, very slowly, start to peel one vertebra off the mat at a time. Eventually you will find yourself in a full bridge position where your weight is rested on your shoulder blades and your feet, with support from your arms. Here, to bring yourself into the correct position you must ensure that your rib cage is not flaring out and away from the spine, but pulled down and in towards the hip points. Next visualise that your knee caps are getting longer, this will give you more lift in your hips. Take a nice deep breath and then slowly roll back down to the mat placing one vertebra down at a time and keeping the pelvis tilted right until the last minute and then relax. You can repeat this 6 to 8 times.

Number Three – cat to cow

I was first told of this fabulous exercise years ago when I had back pain from working in restaurants. So simple and well known but just a fantastic way to both flex and extend the spine safely.

Come on to your hands and knees, hands directly under the shoulders and knees directly under the pelvis. Your gaze is looking down at your beautiful reflection on your mat so that your spine is long. Inhale, stick your bottom up towards the ceiling and lower your belly button to the floor. Draw your shoulders back towards each other and look up in front of you, feeling a wonderful opening in the chest and a stretch through the throat. From here, start to round your spine, tucking your tail bone under and lengthening out your lower back. Draw your navel in towards your spine and tuck your chin towards your chest. Feel your shoulder blades fall apart from each other as you flex and create space in the spine. Very slowly move through both the cat and cow position around 8 times.

Adding this very short and gentle routine to your day, could, with time, make a real difference to long-term damage from either injury or a sedentary lifestyle. Just remember, movement has the power to heal.