Pilates for better backs

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I may have mentioned in previous Blogs that both myself and the Young Bride have had problems with our backs. The YB recently had a couple of spinal injections to relieve her pain, whilst some years ago, yours truly had a micro-discectomy to remove the fragments of a prolapsed disc that was painfully impinging on one of my lumbar nerves!

Back problems are one of the major reasons people attend their Doctors, they cause a massive amount of time lost from work, they cost the economy hundreds of millions each year and they can be bl**dy painful! So we should take back care far more seriously, and do all we can to prevent problems occurring or recurring, and that's why the YB and I have started Pilates classes with an accredited Physiotherapist. And what a learning curve it's been!

Firstly, there is no doubt that as your age increases, your flexibility decreases! Also, modern living dictates that we sit down for far too long which encourages poor posture and reduced movement at hips, knees and ankles - just try squatting down on your "haunches" and keep your feet flat on the ground! Many aged people in poor economies hold conversations and drink copious amounts of tea whilst in the "squatting" position: I could last about 60 seconds before several of my joints would scream "Masochist", and many of patients wouldn't even be able to assume the squat position!

Which leads me onto Pilates, which focuses on the "Powerhouse" area of the body - below the ribs and above the pubic area - commonly known as the abdominal muscles. And what the Pilates experts talks about  is

1. Centering
2. Control
3. Concentration
4. Precision 
5. Breathing

According to our Physio at West Perth & Mosman Park Physiotherapy the exercises are designed to activate these "stabilizers" which reduces the stress on the spine and joints of the body and help attain correct postural alignment and muscle balance.

From our first two sessions I would add laughter too as watching the YB balance on a fit ball whilst trying to raise her left arm and right leg without tumbling off was a sight for sore eyes - we both fell about laughing until we had to move onto other, less amusing exercises.

After two weeks and two lessons we are more aware of the position of our lower back whilst sitting, standing, jogging, on the scooter and even now whilst I am typing. We obviously have so much more to learn and to practice, but I suspect that although it may not be 100% preventative, it will give us more protections and help us recover faster should we suffer from renewed back problems.

I intend to make 2013 the year in which, whenever I can, I'm going to try and improve how we care for our spines and promote all those things that are known to help reduce the burden of back problems. Having strong backs is the only known predictor of reducing the frequency and pain of back problems - so we need exercises like Pilates to achieve that. We also need to look at our work stations - both at home and at work - and spend less time sitting and more time standing: which is the reason the good Lord gave us two legs and one bottom - we should stand twice as much as we sit!

For all of you who do want to start up some back exercises, PLEASE make sure that the person you get your training from knows what they are talking about - that's why I like Physiotherapists who have studied Pilates, because they really do know their stuff.

Reference:
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Driving me crazy!

Tweet I've just driven from the centre of Ireland to the city of Galway and back again to catch up with a friend of ours who has been doing an intensive English course there. And although I want to concentrate on posture in this article, I first must make a few observations of what I saw in that lovely city: 1. So many people were smoking that my heart sinks for their future health, because so many of these people are young people. 2. The number of seriously overweight people was remarkable. But as we know, this is not just an Irish problem, but a universal challenge. But yet again it was the number of young people who are literally carrying 40 to 50 kilos of extra fat around on a daily basis that must inevitably lead to serious health consequences. 3. Being a tourist area there is an added emphasis on alcohol, and yet again it's the young who are at the pointy end of the problem. In all these situations there are those who are putting in a huge effort to promote a healthier alternative, but to the average punter, they are not having the required impact. One obvious casue of these problems is the ease of availability of cigarettes, fast foods and alcohol. I do not advocate prohibition, but perhaps we should look at reducing the number of outlets for each of these products within each community. Naturally there would be a screetching outcry at such a suggestion, but tough decisions need ot be made if we are not to end up paying billions of dollars in the years ahead to combat the health and social impacts of the negative consrquences of these three challenges. Meanwhile, back to the problem of posture. Maybe I am deformed - a suitable pause for ribald comments - but at my age I find that the driving seats in cars eventually will cause me neck and shoulder pains. I find that they cause me to bend forward in the seat with rounded shoulders resulting in my cervical spine (neck) being in an uncomfortable position. Unless I force myself to constantly tighten my lower abdominal muscles to fix my lumbar spine in the correct position, to stick my chest out and push my shoulders back, then after an hour I find myself with tense shoulders and the onset of a mild headache. Perhaps all the creative geniuses out there who deal with ergonomics can give me some good advice!

Sit up straight, and pay attention!

Tweet I've seen my fair share of patients with terrible spinal problems over the years, and yet relatively few of them were the direct result of traumas such as MVAs or sporting injuries. Most of them developed insidiously and were well advanced long before the patient actually became aware of them.
But first a few general principals about the spine:
Health professionals talk about the spine having three sections:

The Cervical Spine which is the neck part and quite flexible in most directions
The Dorsal, of Thoracic, Spine which is the mid section and is the part to which the ribs are connected making it the least flexible part of the spine.
The Lumbar Spine, that is also fairly flexible and links the Dorsal spine to the pelvis.

When viewed from the back, the spine should be a "straight up and down" structure: any deviation to one side or t'other, and we talk of a Scoliosis.
When viewed from the side, the spine presents three natural curves: the cervical spine has a slight curve backwards, the Dorsal spine has a slight curve forward and the lumbar spine has a slight curve backward.
The aim in life is to maintain these three natural curves with their flexibility: unfortunately, most of us don't until it is often too late, because if you do lose flexibility and distort those curves, not only do you lose function, you will invariably suffer pain and discomfort as well.
So, three simple tips to remember to help maintain good POSTURE:

Stick your chest out
Tuck your chin in
Tighten your core abdominal muscles.

When you do this for the first time, like me you will probably feel like the proverbial "Dill": but practice a few times in front of a mirror until you feel comfortable: don't over-exaggerate what you do, it's really only a subtle change just to get those curves back into their natural shape. The next thing to do is to keep remembering to do it on a daily basis, but like most habits, once ingrained, it's difficult to kick.