Want some just some of the easy tips to help reduce or avoid low back pain

See the tips below to easy and instantly implement into your daily life.

These tips come from years of education and experience helping people improve their ability to move and recover quicker; allowing them to continue or get back to the activities they love. They are easy, innovative, vastly different from traditional physical therapy and rehab. You will have experience and design to develop simple solutions to the most complex problems.

What does this mean? It means these tips will disrupt your pain, not your everyday life. I know you need simple techniques that mitigate pain while improving overall movement.

Simple tips for improved back health

Swing your arms when you walk

This helps improve triplanar movement of the joints and overall balance. Arms are made to move away from the body. To reach and to alternate to allow rib cage mobility. When swinging the arms, make sure it is the arm that is swinging and not just the elbow bending and straightening.

Avoid mouth breathing

Mouth breathing is being found to be one of the most dangerous things for overall health. Nasal breathing helps flush toxins, improve cardiovascular performance and calm your system.

Try Mouth Taping at Night

Mouth taping at night ensures that you are keeping your mouth closed while sleeping. Snoring, restless sleep and dry mouth are all sure signs of mouth breathing at night. This effects airway position, O2 and CO2 balance and has been linked to many health conditions (cardiovascular in particular as well as high sympathetic drive)

MyoTape: I like the kids’ version of myotape as it has a bit more resistance

Somnifix: more aggressive hold

Azazar: good middle ground between Somnifix and Myotape

Avoid Your Devices

Remember the bedroom is for sex and sleep. Stay off your devices before bed. Avoid blue light.

Get good sleep

Many people have back pain at night. Good quality sleep is very important. Sleep is when bodies heal, regenerate, and recover. Side sleeping or back sleeping is recommended, and stomach sleeping should be avoided in most situations if possible.

Optimal positions for sleep to avoid back pain

Left side lying sleep: try placing a pillow under the left lower rib cage for positional assistance for breathing and expansion or try placing a pillow between the knees so that your feet can still touch for optimal pelvic position while lying with your left side down.

 

Right side lying sleep: place a pillow between your feet so that your knees are making contact for optimal pelvic position while lying with your right side down

Do not stretch your hamstrings

I understand that all activities, including stretching, have a time and a place. Stretching is rarely something that I teach. Clients tell me all the time that they have pain because they never stretch or because they are not flexible.

Muscles cannot lengthen and shorten if the joints that these muscles attach to cannot move through a normal range of motion. No amount of stretching is going to help if the joints themselves are restricted, the abdominals are weak, the pelvic position is altered, the ribcage is restricted, the teeth are clenching, or the diaphragm is not working efficiently. Get this… stretching can often hinder recovery or further dysfunction if not performed correctly.

You can have a sensation of hamstring tightness because:

1. 1. The hamstrings are over lengthened and feel tight because they are already in a lengthened state (too long). There is such a thing as overstretching or muscles that become overstretched. Since the hamstrings are attached to the “sit bones” of the pelvis and if the pelvis is anteriorly tilted, pulling on the hamstrings, the hamstrings will be long or overstretched all the time. Therefore, giving the sensation of feeling tight, when it is because they are already on stretch or too long.
   2. The hamstrings will present and feel short/tight but, it is because the immobility trunk and rib cage to expand, placing the spine and pelvis in a suboptimal position, therefore not allowing the hamstrings to lengthen fully.

Wear good shoes

I tell my clients that good shoes can often solve 80% of any pain issue. Good shoes can protect your foot from rolling too far in or out, help your brain sense what your foot is doing when it hits the ground, and help with full body positioning and posture. Current footwear trends like minimalist shoes, flip-flops, sandals, and heels do not give the body the support or the input to the brain that it needs to help you maintain a safe and functional posture. These shoes are okay for special occasions or short durations, but good shoes should be a staple in your closet. Good shoes help with joint pain, alignment issues, balance, proprioception, and performance.

See the link below for the updated shoe list from the Postural Restoration Institute. This shoe list changes every 6 months so always check for updates. You cannot go wrong with any of these shoes. That being said, a shoe should be “fit” to your body. I offer shoe fit analysis appointments to evaluate and test the shoe that is right for your individual body.

Here’s a good resource for shoes that fit well from Hruska Clinic.

Breathe

Breathe with intention.

The inhalation should be slow and silent through your nose and then slow and LONG out through your mouth.

The room should be quiet, and the eyes should be closed.

Lay in a 90-90 position, child’s pose, hands and knees, long sitting, or kneeling.

You can change the nervous system from fight or flight to rest and digest within 30 seconds of intentional breathing.

Here is an example of me doing intentional breathing during a workout:

Something I might due before bed or while in bed:

Here are some of the changes you can expect when you try these easy modifications

• Improve balance and movement with walking.
• Improved distance with walking.
• Better pressure management to decrease areas of compression or pain.
• Feel less pain when you wake in the morning.
• Bend and lift without discomfort.
• Feel more comfortable when sitting for longer periods of time.
• Decrease risk for serious injury.
• Sleep better.
• Improve exercise performance.
• Decrease headaches.
• Improved ability to take a deep breath AND improved breathing with activity.
• Potential for a lower respiratory rate and heart rate with exercise.
• Calm throughout your overall system.
• Improved movement variability in the ribcage, spine and pelvis.
• Better sleep.
• Decrease stress.
• Less stress on your heart.
• Improved ability to keep lungs clear.
• Improved sex drive.
• Fat loss.

Feel free to reach out with questions!