Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Beating back pain ...for good
Back problems have soared by a third during lockdown, leaving many people struggling to bend, sit or stand without pain. But help is at hand with this brilliant two-part plan from personal trainer
Back pain is one of the most common health problems in the UK, with up to 80 per cent of adults affected at some point in their lives.
But the past year has made the situation much worse. For many of us, the combination of being less active during lockdown as well as spending our days hunched over temporary desks trying to work from home, means back complaints have increased by a third, according to research from Nurofen.
Thankfully, says Nicki Philips, you don’t have to just put up with a bad back. After suffering a back injury in her late 20s, she used Pilates and strength-based exercises to rehabilitate and recover, before retraining as a Pilates and personal trainer so she could share her experience with other sufferers.
Now she has put together an exclusive two-part guide to beating back pain – an easy-to-follow plan that will help mobilise and strengthen back and core muscles.
In part one today, she identifies the main reasons people suffer from back pain and outlines simple techniques for looking after your back. Tomorrow she reveals her exclusive seven-step workout that is designed to strengthen the body and help banish this pain for good.
This workout will not only strengthen your core, back, upper and lower body, but it will mobilise your spine to help with better movement and posture.
Don’t forget to consult your GP before trying this or any other new fitness plan.
THE FACTS
Back pain is extremely common, affecting most of us at one stage or another.
The spine is responsible for a huge range of movement and weight-bearing, which means it is constantly under pressure.
Made up of complex interconnected bones, nerves, muscles, tendons and ligaments, it protects our spinal cord, which houses the nerves that carry messages between the brain and the body.
Back pain can be felt in any section of the spine: the cervical (neck), thoracic (mid-back), lumbar (low back) and coccyx (tailbone), but more often than not, pain will be experienced in the lower back.
Acute back pain is abrupt and intense, and it can last anything from a few days to a number of weeks. As uncomfortable as it is, this pain serves a purpose – it is there to reduce the body’s movement and protect you from incurring more pain or injury.
Acute pain indicates that there has been damage to tissues and fibres. But when someone continues to suffer from back pain for more than three months, the pain is called chronic.
Lower back pain usually comes from musculoskeletal or mechanical pain, affecting bone structure, muscles and ligaments. The pain may vary depending on physical stresses and strains.
The good news is the majority of back pain is often nonspecific with no identifiable causes or specific injury to the back, which means with a few lifestyle changes it can be fixed.
The good news is that with a few lifestyle changes it can be fixed
EVERYDAY SPINE SAVERS
By balancing the body’s muscles and working them with specific strengthening exercises that increase bone density and mobilise the joints, it’s possible to considerably reduce back pain.
As well as this, there are also some simple steps you can take
to look after your back at home. Here are my top three:
Desk posture
During lockdown, many of us have been working at home on phones, laptops or makeshift desks, which can all place the spine in misalignment.
Slumping at a desk and looking down at a phone or screen can lead to the head protruding forward and out, resulting in neck pain and tightening across the chest and upper back.
Placing screens at eye level, keeping legs under a table with knees bent at 90 degrees and sitting directly on your sit bones can all help improve posture, reducing the risk of back pain developing.
Core breathing
Connecting with your core is a great way to boost abdominal strength and improve posture. This exercise can be done while standing or sitting.
As you exhale, engage your pelvic floor muscles and allow your tummy muscles to wrap around you, drawing your navel inwards, with the sensation of your hip bones drawing together, as if a corset is being tightened around your waist.
Simultaneously, softly draw your ribs towards your hip bones, all while stabilising your shoulders, torso or pelvis. Relax as you breathe in, allowing the ribs to open to the sides, then repeat.
How to lift safely
Far too often we use our backs to lift, rather than our core, glutes and leg muscles.
Lifting incorrectly can compress the spine, leading to excessive wear and tear of the joints and spinal discs.
When lifting, create a wide base and squat down towards the floor, bending at the hips, knees and ankles, rather than bending over. Keep a neutral spine and pelvis, and connect to your core as you exhale and prepare the body for weight bearing, pushing through the glutes and legs to stand up.