Helpful
Hints for Improved Spinal Health
Caution
these notes are intended for use
by persons with no diagnosed spinal medical problems. If you
are following
these notes and you experience pain stop and seek advice
from your Health Care
Advisor.
Improved
Spinal Health involves 3 simple steps, Stress
Reduction, Stretching and
Strengthening.
Physical
and Mental stress cause the muscles and tendons to
tighten around the spine and
this leads to pain and in extreme cases bone rubbing
against bone. Left
unattended this tightening of the spine leads to other
health problems. The
simplest way to reduce stress is a hot soaking bath and
or a massage. In
extreme cases of stress, anxiety reducing drugs and
muscle relaxants can be of
assistance. Herbal anxiety reducers like St. Johns Wart
and herbal muscle
relaxants like lavender, cloves, ginger and lemon grass
can also be helpful.
Combinations of baths and massages with herbs or drugs
give the best results.
If you constantly suffer from spinal injuries or get a
bad back from specific
tasks you need to look at the way you carryout these
task so that you do not
injure yourself. See more under strengthening.
Stretching
can involve both exercises and hanging by the arms with
the feet off the ground.
It is important when doing spinal stretching exercises
that you stretch muscles
in both directions. One of the easiest stretching
exercises is to lie on your
back on a flat surface with the knees up and lift the
knees towards the
shoulders. This stretches the spine inwards. To stretch
the spine outwards lie
flat on the stomach and raise the head shoulders and
legs upwards. The
stretches the spine outwards. This can also be done
standing by tightening the
muscles of the buttocks and pulling the shoulders back.
These two simple
exercises should be carried out twice daily. Gradually
increase the number of
repetitions of each exercise until you can do five in a
row of each. Rotation
of the spine is important as well.
This is achieved by placing the hands on the head behind
the neck and gently
twisting to the right then the left. By
hanging by the arms from a horizontal bar you can
stretch the spine and this is
a good exercise for office workers to restore the spine
to its correct length.
It is possible to gently rotate the hips whilst hanging
as well. Swimming
breaststroke is an excellent exercise for stretching the
spine and by swimming
in a heated pool you will also get the benefits of a hot
bath at the same time.
Breaststroke also helps to strengthen the spine.
Swimming is the best exercise
if you are frail or have long standing spinal problems.
It allows you to
exercise and stretch in a non weight-loading
environment. However where
possible combinations of all stretching exercises
produces the best results.
Strengenthing
The above
exercises and swimming will strengthen your spine. As
suppleness and
flexibility is improved you can increase the number of
times you do these
exercises. Where you suffer from specific back problems
after certain tasks or
you injure your spine regularly you need to look at the
way you are carrying
out these tasks It is important if you fall into this
category that you seek
professional advice. There are a number of specialist
sports medicine clinics
that offer specific medical and physiotherapy advice to
strengthen specific
regions of the spine. It is clearly beyond the
capabilities of these notes to
cover specific problems.
In general
never attempt to lift any object that is more than 10%
of your body weight.
When lifting bend the knees whilst keeping the back
straight and use the big
muscles of the legs to raise the weight. Attempt to
minimise bending and impact
on your spine in your day to day activities.
By
following these notes and using Spinal Gel you can
improve the health of your
spine and feel like a new person.