Back Pain

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm still battling an injury and have been unable to workout or do much activity the past three weeks. For us active people, this is hell! I wake up every morning thinking 'hopefully today's the day I can get back into the gym!' No such luck yet, however that does not mean just sit on your butt waiting to feel better. There are exercises and stretches you can do to be proactive and help you heal faster, especially if you are dealing with a back injury or back pain. My go-to moves are the cat/camel and bird/dog. These help strengthen the stabilizing muscles of the spine without any additional weight or load on the body which helps protect the spine as well.

Cat/camel is performed on all fours, hands directly under shoulders with fingers pointing forward and knees directly below hips. With a slow, controlled movement, arch spine up towards the ceiling as much as possible, holding position for 15-20 seconds, then slowly return to starting position with a neutral spine. Next, slowly arch your back the other way, pressing your belly towards the floor, hold 15-20 seconds. Return to neutral. Repeat entire series up to 5 times.

For bird/dog, begin in the same position on all fours. First engage and tighten core muscles for control, then slowly lift opposite arm and leg, extending arm forward away from body, do not let arm pass shoulder level and pushing leg back away from body, do not let leg raise above hip level. Be sure not to arch or sway back and focus on keeping a neutral, flat spine.

Two others I like to do are McKenzie extension and/or Williams flexion. Depending on your specific pain or injury, your body may respond better to either extension or flexion, but sometimes it can even be both. You will have to attempt both and see which makes your pain better. One side note that is extremely important and confusing is the concept of centralization; if you are experiencing any radiating pain (pain down one or both legs, into the glutes, etc), performing these exercises may intensify pain in the low back but diminish radiating pain...this is actually a good thing, even though there may be more pain felt overall, since it is localized, that means the pain is 'centralizing.'

To perform McKenzie extension, begin laying flat on stomach. For beginners, come up onto your elbows with weight resting on forearms (like you are watching TV), letting hips relax and sag into floor. Hold this position for 30 seconds, slowly relax back down to prone lying, then push back up and repeat up to 10 times. After you've done that one for a few days and are comfortable coming up on the elbows, the next step would be to push up all the way onto the hands (prone press-up), with hands directly below shoulders, fingers facing forward, hips still touching floor and stomach relaxed and sagged towards floor. Relax shoulders, being sure not to hunch them up towards ears.

There are three steps to Williams flexion, all begging lying supine/flat on your back, knees bent, feet flat on floor and low back pressed into floor as well. For beginners, slowly bring one knee into chest, holding for 15-30 seconds, then slowly and controlled, switching legs, drawing other leg towards chest and holding. Repeat entire sequence 5-10 times. The next step would be to draw both knees into chest at the same time, instead of alternating, holding 15-30 seconds and repeating up to 10 times as well.

If there is an increase in pain or any discomfort with any of these moves, be sure to stop immediately, do not force through the pain. (Except in the case of centralization explained aboe, if pain is drawn from the extremities and into the low back, that is ok)!