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Low back brushing and flossing
As a chiropractic clinic, the lion’s share of diagnoses we see is related to back pain. When you treat backs all day, you start to hear a lot of similar questions from person to person. “Are there any simple strategies to prevent back pain from coming back?” The short answer is yes! We are advocates of maintaining good spinal hygiene, even in the absence of pain and stiffness.
If you ARE NOT currently experiencing any back pain, there is a simple stretch you can do throughout the day to help balance out certain movements and postural stress. This stretch specifically targets the low back.
Bending backwards to prevent back pain??
A simple exercise/stretch you can do is a standing back bend (extension in standing). Doing this simple move 15-20x/day can help you offset stress that accumulates throughout the day. It’s best if you stretch your reps out throughout the day (pun intended). Performing 2-3 reps every hour is efficient and prevents unwanted soreness. (VIDEO BELOW)
How can it help?
Well, in today’s society, we’ve become forward flexion dominant creatures. Whether it’s postural stress, such as sitting at a desk all day, or repetitive movements, like working a labor-intensive job, forward bending positions are inevitable. Our goal is to offset those daily stresses without giving everyone hours’ worth of daily stretching and exercises. Adding the forementioned extension (backwards) movement can help offset the flexion (forward) movements and positions we put ourselves in throughout the day.
The Postural Bank Account
Imagine you have a postural bank account. Just like with any bank account, you have withdraws and deposits. With the postural bank account, any sustained flexion (sitting) or repetitive flexion (bending) is withdrawing from your account. Now, we don’t want to keep withdrawing until we go bankrupt (i.e., back pain or injury). We can add some deposits to the account by doing some back bends (extension)!
It seems simple but adding this stretch to your daily routine is time efficient and can help prevent back pain and injury. Now, this doesn’t give a bulletproof spine, but it can help with daily stresses.
What if I'm experiencing pain?
If you ARE currently experiencing back pain, you can try this stretch, but we always advice to seek professional help from a McKenzie Method practitioner for proper evaluation and guidance. This is a safe exercise to perform, but if it is painful, don’t push through it. We like to say kiss the pain, which means nudge up to the discomfort and give it a peck. If the back starts to ease up, you should continue to do this stretch. Now, if we feel stiffer or the pain increases with this movement, STOP, seek professional guidance from a McKenzie Method practitioner.
Knowing the cause(s) of symptoms ensures the proper application of the best treatments and strategies to correct the problem as quickly as possible.
Pain is frustrating. At REACH, we take the guesswork out of healing. We use a holistic chiropractic approach, assessing the body as a whole rather than treating just the symptoms. So, you can do more than relieve pain. We teach you how to become unstoppable.
