Back Pain Relief With A 3 Step Simple Routine
Dr Alex Ritza | Yorkville Corrective Chiropractor
I want to help you today if you are struggling with your back or with some sort of issue with your spine.
And I want to give you a mindset and a simple routine that you can use to dramatically make a difference in how your spine moves, functions and feels in the next 30 days.
In terms of mindset, one thing I’ve been communicating more with patients on a regular basis; we should really be thinking about taking care of our spines like we take care of our teeth. We’re ingrained from a young age that we should be brushing our teeth three times a day. And that if we can do that, we can really help to prevent cavities from coming. And of course, if you floss, mouthwash, use a water pick and add all these other strategies to your routine, then you’re going to help to reduce the chance of having a problem with your dental health.
This is something that the dental industry has done really, really well. Their simple communication around prevention in and out of the office has helped to ingrain a ritual around dental care that most that from a young age and continue for the rest of their lives.
One of the most difficult things to do in health care, especially in terms of prevention is behavioural change. Getting a patient to change their routine to add or subtract a behaviour is extremely difficult. But dentists have got us to floss, mouthwash, brush our teeth and be spending upwards of 10 to 20 minutes per day doing those activities.
I want my patients to think about taking care of their bodies and more specifically their spines with the same or greater dedication that they care for their teeth. A 10-20 minute daily routine to care for the spine should not be unreasonable to care for the most important organ in your body – your nervous system inside your spine.
When my patients adopt this strategy, we have seen that they really minimize the chance of having a “cavity” in their spine. And of course, just like anything in health, you can never get the odds to zero, but you can reduce the likelihood that something is going to happen.
Establishing a basic spine care ritual centres around three behaviours that we’re going to go over
They are ergonomics, mobility, and postural strength.
Perfect Ergonomics
Great ergonomics help minimize the chance of developing a repetitive strain injury occurring at work.
The three principles are great ergonomics are:
- Move every 20 minutes at your desk and change position.
- Have your spine always soft against the chair so that the chair is holding you up
- ear over your shoulder.
This is not rocket science. But if you can do that and make sure your ergonomics and habit around interacting with your workstation are good, that is gonna minimize the chance of developing a repetitive strain issue at your desk.
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To more important tips that make these three principles much easier:
- your monitor top should be around Eye level
- Your monitor should be no farther away than an outstretched hand
- Your arms are held beside your body like small tyrannosaurus rex arms and never reaching forward past your trunk ,
Having a desk that is set up to allow these aforementioned points will help you maintain a soft spine against your chair and ear-over-shoulder. That way all you have to think about is moving every 20 minutes.
MOBILITY/CAT-CAMEL
Moving your spine every single day through its full range of motion is vital to preserving its health. Whether you wake up, finish your day or do it somewhere in between, the cat-camels or cat-cow is the safest and easiest way to mobilize the spine.
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How many? At least 10 to 20 times every day for the rest of your life. Why? Because if you want to minimize the chance of having a problem with your spine, then you’re going have to move it. You are going to have to establish a better brain-body connection and ensure your brain has better control of the joints of the spine. The cat-camel must ensure you are taking those spine joints through their full range of motion.
Again it is not difficult as it takes no more than three minutes a day but changing one’s behaviour consistently and adopting a new habit is difficult.
POSTURAL STRENGTH
Developing strength around the spine using the reach back. The reach back is going to strengthen a lot of the thoracic spine muscles that hold you upright and is going to help your posture and neck positioning.
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Are there other things I would like to add to be more optimal? Yeah, of course, but this post is just making sure that you have a basic introduction and very simple checkboxes to think about every day.
Now you have three things that you can focus on for keeping your spine healthier. If you’re doing those things and you don’t notice a difference and your back still feels bad, there might be a problem you need to get checked. That’s where my job is, that’s what your local corrective chiropractor’s job is. Make sure you seek them out and get checked!
If you don’t test, you are just guessing.
