Posts Tagged ‘Exercise for Back Pain’
Sunday, October 10th, 2010 by Karena
Core strength has been a buzzword in the fitness world for quite a while but now we
We accept your insurance through our partnership with SCV Therapy Services!
are hearing that same buzz from the medical field. Clients are being referred to a Pilates program by their medical doctors who know that increased core strength can only mean decreased physical pain. So how do you know if core strengthening is for you?
Will Core Strengthening Help YOU?
- Have you experienced muscle spasms?
- Have you suffered an injury that has affected your ability to do everyday activities?
- Do you find it difficult to maintain excellent posture?
- Is it difficult to sit for long periods of time or does doing the same prolonged activity exacerbate your symptoms?
These are just some questions that are strong indicators that core strengthening could help you. Here’s why:
- Muscle spasms happen in the large muscles, turning the small, core muscles off.
- Injuries tend to make us rely on our largest muscles because they are the strongest, again, turning the small core muscles off.
- If you can maintain excellent posture throughout the day then your core strength is intact. Excellent posture uses your core muscles all day, every day.
- If sitting still hurts, that pain indicates that your spine is collapsing while you sit; pushing bony structure onto nerves or other bony structures instead of being lifted and supported. Pain while pursuing activities indicates that you lack core endurance.
Core strengthening, while beneficial to all, is especially beneficial to anyone who has every suffered an injury. As an interesting side note, core strength is not just about the spine and the stomach muscles. Every joint has core muscles; all the smallest muscles in charge of the balance and control of the joint are the core muscles. So any injury throughout the body benefits from core strength. Cool, huh?
At Pilates Teck we are able to accept your health insurance through our partnership with Santa Clarita Valley Therapy Services, a physical therapy clinic that offers the most up-to-date and thorough care in traditional therapy as well as occupational and aquatic therapy. Need to know more? Please call us! 661.260.1609.
Tags: ab exercise, back pain, back pain relief, core muscles, core strength, core strength for back pain, Core strengthening for back pain, Exercise for Back Pain, exercise for pain relief, exercises for pain relief, karena thek lineback, Pilates Exercise, Pilates for Back Pain, Pilates for Pain
Posted in Cancer, For Fitness Fanatics, For Professionals, Heal Your Back Pain, Osteoporosis | No Comments »
Thursday, September 16th, 2010 by Karena
As far as I can tell that is the best kind of back pain to have. Lucky you!
In very broad terms, I see two
Many happy hours sitting at the computer can make for a very sad spine.
types of back pain clients: The first has increased pain when they are still, especially sitting, and the second group has increased pain when they are moving. In both scenarios great improvement can be made to pain levels but, generally, the first responds most quickly to therapeutic exercise or pilates exercise.
If you feel pain when you are sitting but feel relief when you get up and walk around the fix is pretty obvious: Move more. As a rule, even painful joints have pain-free ranges of motion. Maybe your back hurts when you do ‘X’ but you can still do ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. That’s very common, so be sure to continue to do ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. The importance of moving, moving, moving is in this short little note. Take a peek if you haven’t seen it already.
I had a frustrated client today. He said: ‘Exercise isn’t going to change the fact that I have a bone spur or how the bone spur pushes on the nerve and hurts like heck.’ I agree on Part I: Your bone spur will not be affected by exercise except that it may not get larger if your alignment is corrected. I don’t agree with Part II: That exercise won’t change the pain you feel from the bone spur pressing on a nerve. When did your pain get bad? Six months or 2 years ago? And when did you develop that bone spur? Probably long before that. If we age inactively then the muscles supporting the area around the injury (the bone spur, in this example) become weak and offer less support in a position of great compression (sitting).
Get exercising. Get stronger. Lose the pain. If you can walk without limping, take short walks that don’t flare up your back muscles and then find a few toning exercises to take care of your weak spine muscles and butt muscles.
Use the navigating tabs to the left to go to find free exercises for back pain: Look up Back Pain Series 1-8. Also, our DVD for exactly the issue of weak spines can be found under the store tab on this site. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Tags: back pain, back pain relief, butt muscles, Core strengthening for back pain, Exercise for Back Pain, exercise for pain relief, karena thek lineback, Pain Relief, pilates, Pilates Exercise
Posted in For Professionals, Heal Your Back Pain | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 27th, 2010 by Karena
This quote-of-the-day comes from a long-time patient and retired doctor who calls
Our 'Five-Toe' is even Cuter than this Sloth!
himself ‘The Five-Toed Sloth”. He retired from doctoring due to back/hip pain and we’ve been working together for about 5 years. He is definitely a believer in the ability of movement to heal pain and is hugely grateful for that pain relief.
So ‘Five-Toe’ (what we call him for short) came in discouraged and out blurted a variation on the ‘death statement’. You’ve probably heard something along the lines of: “It doesn’t matter what I do; we are all going to die anyway”. Yes, but wouldn’t it be great if we could all live while we are still breathing?
Do you know anyone who has spent years of their lives hindered because of disease or pain? How much of this is preventable? Almost all heart disease, all Type II diabetes and approximately 50% of all cancers are preventable with healthier diet decisions. Colon cancer risk is reduced 30% with daily exercise, depression is reduced, energy is increased, pain is reduced… In fact, I’ve never seen a single study that said: “Just eat Twinkies and for heaven’s sake STOP exercising!”
But let’s get back to good ol’ “Five-Toe”. I don’t put him through a series of therapeutic exercises twice weekly in order to keep people from sadly shaking their heads at his funeral: “Too bad he died so out-of-shape.” No, we work together so he can live while he is still breathing. So that when he does pass away no one will say: “What a relief; he suffered for so long.” No, they’ll remember him for doing just what he wanted and just what he loved every day that he lived.
Tags: back pain relief, Exercise for Back Pain, exercises for pain relief, heal back pain, heal pain, karena thek lineback, live without pain, lower back pain, osteoporosis, Pain Relief, Pilates Exercise, range of motion exercise
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Saturday, April 10th, 2010 by Karena
If so, then you might be what we call in the biz ‘extension intolerant’. Simply means that it hurts to bend backwards, even slightly. Besides having pain in your spine when you are going down stairs, you are probably also uncomfortable lying on your stomach, standing for long periods of time and some of the sports you played like basketball and golf have gone by the wayside. So what do you do with this information. You don’t bend backwards ever again. I know, brilliant, huh? Here’s the issue:
What’s happening with ‘Extension intolerance’:
More than likely you have something pinching a nerve in your spine. This pinching could be caused by a number of reasons:
- Arthritic changes in the vertebrae are pressing on nerves.
- A disc herniation is pressing on a nerve.
- Swelling/inflammation is pressing on a nerve.
- A fatty deposit or tumor is pressing on a nerve.
See the common thread? Something is pressing on a nerve. And that something is jammed into the nerve each time you extend the spine or lean backwards: that is why you get those sharp ‘zingers’ or pains. So what you need to learn to do is to hold a neutral spine throughout your daily activities. It’s not easy but you can do it. Professional football players that continue to play into their late twenties and these days into their forties learn how to tackle and fall with a neutral spine. If they can do it while getting roughed around like that then you definitely will be able to learn to do it during less arduous activities than football. Good luck and the explanation for finding your perfect neutral spine is in the previous blog. Follow this link.
Tags: Exercise for Back Pain, nerve pain in the spine, pilates at home for back pain, pilates exercise for back pain, Pilates for Pain, pilates mat exercise for back pain, pilates mat for pain, swelling and inflammation and back pain
Posted in Case Studies, For Fitness Fanatics, For Professionals, Heal Your Back Pain | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 by Karena
There’s quite a few of us out there that would love someone to invent a bra that does the same thing for the backside that a regular bra does for the front side. Why do our booties sag? Is it an inevitable part of aging? Let’s talk about the ‘why’ question first.
Why our Booties Sag…
The obvious answer is that your bootie is sagging because you aren’t using it. But it’s not just a matter of doing an hour long butt-busting workout to make that muscle (gluteus maximus) more toned. I watch clients everyday perform so-called gluteal exercises without using their gluteals. That’s bad news. If the gluteals aren’t working then the low back and the hamstrings are working overtime. The result? Tight spine extensors and hamstrings. This pattern is actually very common with anyone who has ever experienced a bout of back pain. No one really knows why, but those gluteals stop working when the back starts hurting. And when the back pain goes away those gluteals still don’t want to work. Without intense focus those gluteals won’t begin to fire again.
Is a Sagging Bootie an Inevitable Part of Aging?
Yes and no. Yes, because 80% of will experience a serious bout of back pain at some time in our lives. So those 80% will need to really focus on getting those gluteals to fire again if they are to avoid the Bootie-Bra. No, because anyone can learn to reactivate those gluteals again but the more back pain you’ve had the more you will have to work on getting those gluteals to come to back to the party.
Here’s what to look for when you are trying to fire up those gluteals.
- Are your pants puckering? If there is no change in the crease of your pants when you are performing a butt exercise then your butt is definitely not working.
- Is there an indent in the side of your hips? There should be a dent. The size of half a tennis ball.
- Poke your fingers into the sides of your butt muscles. You will feel them tighten if they are working.
- And most obvious of all, you should feel them working. When you are doing a butt exercise you should feel the butt muscles. No? Then you are doing it wrong. Try again. You can do it.
Here a link to a great exercise to get you started: http://bit.ly/625QTL
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. Karena
Tags: back pain, back pain relief, Butt exercise, chronic low back pain, exercise for a toned tush, Exercise for Back Pain, Gluteal exercise, Gluteal maximus, lower back pain, lower back pain exercises, Pilates Exercise
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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 by Karena
Pilates for Back Pain: Part 6 of 8
Moving onward and upward to something a little more challenging. This Pilates exercise challenges the flexors of the spine. It challenges them to NOT flex. Instead, the challenge is to stabilize. To hold the spine in a cushion of safety by not allowing errant twisting, tweaking and torsion. A weak spine tends to be a wiggly spine. This exercise will create strength to prevent too much wiggling (some wiggling is good after all).
Before we get started, here’s an interesting fact. When tested, those with a history of back pain have more endurance in their ability to hold a flexed position of the spine than those who have never had back pain. (A flexed position of the spine in this case is holding a sit-up position when you are halfway up in the process of performing a sit-up.)
Isn’t that amazing that someone with back pain had a better ability to hold this position than someone without back pain? And all these years we’ve been told if we have back pain we need to strengthen the stomach muscles. Appears to be false. It appears that those with back pain have too much strength/endurance there. And do you know where the back pain patients were weak? In their spines.
::Okay, is it just me or does these seem like common sense?::
A weak spine does need stabilization help from the oblique muscles and the spine flexors. But those muscles need to learn to stabilize. So that the upper and lower bodies can move without increasing the wiggle-factorof the spine.
The exercise above is an alternate to sit-ups. You will strengthen your abs by bracing them, not be flexing the spine. Flexing the spine is not only an area that doesn’t need strengthening if you have back pain but it also an enormous amount of pressure on a sore spine. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions about this series of exercises for pain relief.
Tags: Core exercise, Core strengthening for back pain, Exercise for Back Pain, Exercise for core control, exercise for pain relief, Pilates exercises, Pilates for Back Pain, Pilates Teck, Prevent Back Pain, strong core, Weak backs, weak core, Weak spines
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Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 by Karena
Gentle stretching. The key word is gentle. Most of us tend to over-stretch and push into the ‘grimace-range’. If you are grimacing you may be over-doing it. Don’t inflict pain on yourself. Seems obvious, doesn’t it?
The point of this stretch is to improve posture and to get the spine moving in a direction that we don’t often move: side-to-side. We spend our days bent over computers, kitchen counters and steering wheels. This exercise gets the spine moving in a way that will help remind your body that there are other options than slumping forward. By the way, little note here…don’t stretch your spine by slumping forward and hugging your knees. More forward slumping is the last thing your spine needs if you are achy.
Also, this exercise addresses the less flexible side of the spine. Most of us are not ambidextrous. What that means to our spines is that we spend most of the day leaning into the strong side: think about carrying heavy groceries and how the weight-bearing shoulder will be higher while you are holding the extra weight. Or even consider your mouse hand. Ever notice how that shoulder tries to hug your ear? This extra work consistently being done on the same side creates a slight scoliosis or curve of the spine. Muscular imbalances result.
I do want to emphasize that these imbalances are normal. Much the same way as when you look in the mirror you see a slight difference between the right and left side of your face. No one is perfectly symmetrical: not from one side of our faces to the other or from one side of our spines to the other. Now, having said that, it is still very worthwhile to work both sides of your body equally when you exercise. Become aware of the imbalances and see if you can’t create more strength on the weak side and more flexibility on the stiff side. Working on these imbalances will help prevent undue imbalance and the possible resultant muscular discomfort.
With the hips stabilized and pushing into the mat the upper back has the opportunity to move. If the hips are not anchored then the upper back stays stuck. Anchor the hips and allow the spine to move as far as it comfortably can.
Try this exercise. If you have back pain, be sure not to stretch first thing in the morning. The discs take on water at night (just like our hands can be swollen and our rings can be tight when we wake up in the morning). This extra water stresses the muscles around the spine and stretching is an additional stress they do not need first thing in the morning. Let me know if you have any questions about these exercises for pain relief.
Karena
p.s. Oh My, my hair is stunning this week…
Tags: Exercise for Back Pain, exercise for pain relief, karena thek lineback, muscular imbalance, pilates, Pilates exercises, Pilates for Pain, posture, scoliosis, stretching in the morning
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