6 things you can start doing TODAY to aid your back in its recovery

1. Bite sized moves

When we talk of setting goals, we always know that we must break down the targets into realistic individual tasks.  When you do your back in, you suddenly find those full sweeping ‘in-one’ movements you once made are now a thing of the past.

Since hurting your back, have you ever tried to sit on the floor or, more embarrassingly, tried to get back up off the floor? Do you feel like you’ve aged way ahead of your time? Then you’ll know, all of a sudden, there are a lot of extra limb movements and grabbing onto solid objects (or passers by!) are necessary to help you get up!

I now feel like I’m part of a robotic dance, quite literally breaking down some basic moves; apparently my days of quickly picking up the vac and turning to face the way I’m going in one swoop are gone. Now, it’s a list of instructions: Face upright vac, lift vac slightly off the floor and hold close to body. Shuffle feet around until facing the direction I choose to exit with the vac before finally, placing the vac back on the floor and wheeling it to where I want.

So, if you were into ‘functional training’ beforehand, I’m afraid you need to go right back to basics whilst your back is sending sharp and painful messages. Break everything down with shorter movements in between. No sudden turns or direction changes, it’s all about mechanical manoeuvres. It’s just a way of life for now, until you’re mended.

2. Toe touches and cat-cows

Following from my previous blog (Nov 12th) I recommend you do these every day, It takes moments just to do one or two reps of rolling down a wall and back up again and/or kneeling on all fours doing the dips and arches, compared to months of no improvement from your back having not done these regularly. I have found that when I do these exercises, compared to when I have chosen to opt out, I feel much better within a week as whole, but even on the day. It feels to me that it loosens everything up and helps you with your day.

3. Shorten the lever, make a triangle

As you may be aware, having a small weight extended out on a limb now feels three times heavy, and appears to continue to increase in weight the longer you continue to hold it at arms length. So, minimise stress on your spine by keeping things close to the body when picking up any weight, no matter how minor you may have once thought that weight was.

Making a Triangle simply means shortening the levers and placing hands/forearms across legs etc to complete the stress into a 3-way structure. If you are not ready to touch your toes and relying solely on the spine to take the weight as you roll down, slide your hands down the front of your thighs and stop wherever you feel you can maximise without causing further pain. If you do have a disc/muscle issue, you may find there will be a section of the manoeuvre where it almost misses a tooth in a cog? That’s why it is good to have those hands in position to take on the weight momentarily whilst you pass that section.

4. Be a well oiled machine

Nutrition plays a big part in the recovery of your back. I will be covering this in a full blog of its own; coming soon. But for now, just know that increasing your water intake helps keeps the muscles ‘fluid and free flowing’ (forgive the pun) to take the pressure off the limbs and bones dragging your heavy weight around. And by increasing your Omega 3s into your life through greens and fish, you can but only help and assist your spine as if it were literally a well-oiled machine. 

5. Posture check

With a simple roll of the shoulders up, back and down the spine; ribs lifted and abs engaged, I immediately feel taller and lighter – with a hint of remembering I once had abs under that delightful bag of flab I now carry around my centre!

6. Buy a Padded Back Stretcher

Of all of the contraptions and gizmos I have purchased in an attempt to aid or ease pain in my spine, this has been by far the best and at a very reasonable price. For £12 on Amazon, I was able to find a piece of equipment which helps me rest and stretch my back on the floor as well as placing it on a firm chair for when I need to sit upright.

What I love about this is both the slit removed from the middle so no pressure on the spine whatsoever, but it is also quite ‘tall’, so it actually covers up to the mid part of the thoracic area, which is ideal for me.

You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Padded-Back-Stretcher-Leather-Brand/dp/B0028WJVGW/ref=pd_sim_kh_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1AKSQZJN178FAXPJZEB4