Poor posture, a sedentary life and stress punish our back and limit our mobility. You can prevent it with these exercises that will also help you relax.
Gone is going to perform a physiotherapy session, lying on the stretcher and receiving a treatment in a completely passive way, where the idea is to enter with pain and leave without it. The reality is that the most effective treatment is one that involves the patient.
You are the core of the problem and you will benefit from doing what the therapist prescribes once the session is over. Becoming aware and participating in the treatment facilitates the incorporation of better habits and prevents relapses. These tips from Xavier Julia Eggert will help you.
By Xavier Julia Eggert
There are a variety of exercises for low back pain available to anyone, since you only need a mat to perform them. The five that we propose give comfort to your lumbar spine and, in addition, rely on breathing to produce an analgesic and relaxing effect.
- Pilates also helps you strengthen the abdominal and lumbar area, thus protecting the spine. If you want to learn to practice it but you think it is difficult and you do not know very well where to start, with the online course Pilates at home you will learn how to do it, at home, at any age.
1. STRETCH YOUR BACK WELL
- Lie down and bend your legs, resting the soles of your feet on the ground.
- Bring your hips back. To do this, imagine that you have a cushion in the lumbar area and you want to press it against the floor.
- Take air through your nose, hold it for a moment and while you release it slowly through your mouth, bring one knee towards your chest. Notice how the entire back of your back stretches. It will be easier to bring your knees to your chest if you help yourself with your arms.
- Do the exercise by alternating your legs several times.
2. STRETCH YOUR BACK WITH BOTH KNEES
- Lie down. Keep your back flattened without losing contact of your lower back with the mat.
- Bring both knees toward your chest. It’s a more intense exercise. If you have discomfort when performing it or you find the position uncomfortable, stay in the position described in the previous exercise.
- Do the exercise by alternating your legs several times.
- Keep your cervical spine relaxed. If your neck has a tendency to arch you can place a small cushion so that the cervicals are not in tension.
It is important to perform the exercise by releasing the air. Performing it in apnea or catching air increases abdominal pressure and favors pelvic floor dysfunctions. It can help you relax to close your eyes.
3. STRETCH YOUR BUTTOCKS AND THIGHS
- Sit with your knees straight.
- Bend your right knee and hip and pass your leg over the other, which will stay straight.
- Place your arm straight behind your hips. Keep your elbow straight.
- Bring your knee to your chest and put your left arm around it. This will increase tension in the buttocks and in the back of the thigh.
- Rotate the trunk. The head faces the arm that maintains the support of the body.
- Expire as you bring your knee closer to your chest.
- After a few breaths, change legs.
4. STRETCH FROM SHOULDER TO HIP
- Lie down with your arms horizontally to your body, resting the back of your arm, forearm and hand on the floor. You can bend your elbows when stretching if you feel more comfortable.
- Bend your knees by resting your feet on the floor, as in the previous exercises.
- Flex your hips 90º and drop your legs to the right side. Turn your head in the opposite direction.
- It is not essential that the legs contact the ground. It should be a comfortable position in which you notice the stretch diagonally, from the left shoulder to the right hip.
- If discomfort appears in the spine, it regulates the degree of flexion of the hip. The greater the flexion, the more tension.
- When finished, repeat the stretch to the left side.
5. RELAXED BACK AND BREATHING
- Sit cross-legged as in the picture.
- Keep your back upright.
- Close your eyes and become aware of the posture.
- Lengthen the back so that the chin moves away from the chest, but with the nape of the neck stretched.
- It takes air through the nose. Pause for 2-3 seconds and release it through your mouth slowly.
- Notice how the end of the spine supports you.
- Stay like this for a couple of minutes.
HOW TO IMPROVE BACK PAIN
There is a bad habit of going to the health professional once back pain has established itself in our lives and we cannot develop daily activities normally. So, we look for an urgent solution…
In those cases, we usually ask the doctor for the possible physical cause of the pain we suffer. But what if after the examination and diagnostic tests there is no significant cause to attribute the pain? So, what can you do to alleviate it?
It may be shocking that there is not always a direct correlation between pain and pathology. Well, there can be pain without having an injury. If this is the case, we should ask ourselves if we are listening to our body and if we know how our day to day is causing the pain.
BEWARE OF STRESS AND BAD HABITS
Stressed people tend to shrug their shoulders, bow their heads, overuse their neck muscles, and adopt rapid, shallow breathing. A cocktail that harms the entire musculoskeletal system.
In addition, there are other factors that predispose to the appearance of low back pain. Among them are sedentary life, bad postures, bipedal position and stress maintained over time, one of the biggest enemies of our health and back in particular.
AVOID SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE
The evolution of the human being has caused our spine to be forced to carry the weight that ancestrally distributed the arms and legs when moving on the four extremities.
Therefore, we suffer with static postures and we must avoid it by taking multiple breaks in order to prevent mental and physical fatigue.
PRACTICE PREVENTIVE EXERCISES
We need tools that allow us to manage worries, routine and work stress. The best option is physical exercise. Dedicating a minimum of 45 minutes to our body well-being is highly recommended.
At our disposal we have multiple exercises that give movement to our spine and prevent lumbar problems, and if we already have discomfort, they will reduce them. Performing therapeutic exercise can also become a tool to manage stress and disconnect.