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Archive for the ‘Back Health’ Category

Improper shoveling technique can lead to injuries like a herniated disk, pulled muscles in your shoulder or upper back, or strained lower backs due to overuse. By increasing the work load on these body parts in a very short period of time this leaves the muscles and other structures in the area (discs, nerves, ligaments, etc.) at risk for injury. Correct shoveling techniques can reduce your risk for injury.

First, warm up your muscles by walking, marching in place, or doing squats or jumping jacks, for ten minutes before you head outdoors.

Pick the right shovel. Choose a shovel with a small blade. This will help you by not lifting as much so less strain is on your back. Select a shovel that is comfortable for your height and strength. A short handle will cause you to bend more to lift the load. Using a shovel that’s too long makes the weight at the end heavier. Space your hands several inches apart on the tool grip to increase your leverage. You might consider an ergonomic shovel that has a curved handle and is designed to take the stress off your back.

Begin shoveling slowly, allowing your body to become accustomed to the load demands.

Instead of lifting, push the shovel to move the material whenever possible.

When you do have to lift, squat with your legs apart, knees bent, stomach muscles tight and back straight. Take a small amount of whatever you are shoveling, then lift by straightening your legs, without bending at the waist, then walk to where you want to dump it, holding the shovelful close to your body.

Don’t throw over your shoulder or to your side because twisting while throwing.

Never rotate or twist your body. Pivot with your feet. This will keep the load off your spinal tissues as well as protect your shoulders. Remember the rule “nose follows toes”. Your nose and your feet should always be pointing in the same direction.

Pace yourself by taking frequent breaks. Stand up straight and walk around periodically to extend the lower back.

Try this stretch before, during and after your shoveling: Lean backward, look up and reach your arms toward the sky and slowly exhale. This will provide relief to the spinal muscles that are doing much of the work while you are bent over shoveling. Repeat 3-5 times, stretching 10 seconds on each round.

If you do experience a strain. Keep in mind that most pain goes way after a day or two. Apply a cold pack as soon as possible after the injury at least several times a day for up to 20 minutes and take an anti-inflammatory such as Ibuprofen or Naproxen. After two or three days apply heat.

Sit Up Straight!

Poor sitting postures are major causes of neck and back pain.

Sitting posture while at your computer should be as follows:

• Adjust your chair so that your hips are 3 inches higher than your knees
• Your back should recline slightly so your back is at a 135 degree angle
• Your back should rest against the back of the chair with a lumbar roll supporting spine
• Your monitor should be 20-28 inches from your eyes
• Feet are flat on floor
• Shoulders relaxed
• Elbows at a 90 degree angle
• Wrists in neutral position and resting on palms or wrist support, not edge of desk

Follow the 50-10 rule. For every 50 minutes you work sitting at your desk, take a 10 minute break. During your break, walk around, stretch out your muscles.

One cause of back pain is “gluteal amnesia”. The gluteus maximus doesn’t remember how to work correctly so the body ends up not using the glutes correctly in coordination with the rest of the muscles of the body. This can happen to people who have a job in which they sit for prolonged periods.

Glutes are part of the chain of muscles in the back of your body that help with posture, strength, daily activities and injury prevention of the back. On a daily basis the glutes help push you up and out of a chair.

As a person sits for extended periods of time, the hip flexors (think front of hip) become tight and the gluteus maximus becomes weak. When that happens other muscles must compensate. Typically it’s the low back lumbar extensor muscles and/or the hamstrings. As a result there is a compensation pattern that occurs during every day activities or in exercise training as the glutes aren’t working and then the low back and/or hamstrings try to do the glutes’ job. Normally, the glutes should be activating BEFORE the hamstrings and low back lumbar extensor muscles. The inability to activate the gluteus maximus in a normal pattern can lead to numerous injuries.

The treatment for ‘gluteal amnesia’ is re-education of the neuromuscular system to “teach” your body to fire the glutes. To begin, you need to learn how to activate the glutes, then how to stimulate and integrate them, and finally you can train them with weight lifting exercises.

One of the main problems exercisers find, is not being able to tell the difference between lumbar extension and hip extension, meaning are they using their back or glutes? So, when they try to target the glutes and hamstrings, say with a regular glute bridge, they are not able to fire the glute or stabilize the hips and core. This then uses a lot of lumbar extension (back) rather than hip extension (glutes).

Trainers and physical therapists typically recommend clients perform the Glute Bridge or Supine Hip Extension for glute training.But there is a better choice. One of the best exercises to isolate the glutes is the Cook Hip Lift. The Cook Hip Lift solves this problem by maintaining the lumbar spine in a neutral position so that the glutes are isolated more effectively than a Bridge oe Hip Extension for the person who hasn’t learned to recruit the glutes.

So it is best to begin to re-educate your neuromuscular system to recruit the glutes by first performing the Cook Hip Lift, an excellent gluteal activator, for several weeks. Once you have mastered the Cook Hip Lift you can then move on to the Regular Glute Bridge, Supine Hip Extension and then the One Leg Glute Bridge.

Perform glute activation at the beginning of every workout to develop better awareness of the glutes and to “wake them up” so that they can contribute better to our workouts.  

If you are doing the Cook Hip Lift as part of your mobility and dynamic warm up then perform one set of 8 to 12 on each leg. If you have back pain you can do more sets as part of a low back rehabilitation program.

How to Perform a Cook Hip Lift
1. Lie on your back with knees bent upward and feet planted on the floor.

2. Pull one knee tightly to the chest. So that the knee stays tightly against the chest place a tennis ball just under the bottom rib so that the thigh must pin the tennis ball in place. The tennis ball limits lumbar extension so that the back isn’t being used to do this motion.

3. The opposite knee stays bent at 90 degrees and the foot stays planted on the floor.

4. Push that foot into the floor at the heel and lift the hips upward and hold for 5-8 seconds. At the top position you should feel all the tension on the glute. If you feel it in your hamstring, then chances are you’re having problems activating your glutes. If you feel a cramp in your hamstring, push your foot a bit farther away from you. If you have been doing Glute Bridge or Supine Hip Extension you might notice you can’t get the hip as high as you normally would. This should improve with practice.

 Cook Hip Lift

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I have been a huge fan of Dr. McGill for years now. Dr. Stuart M. McGill is a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo and renowned back pain researcher. He knows more about training abs and backs than anyone.

According to Dr. McGill, doing sit-ups will hurt your back over time. He says our backs only have so many bending cycles in them.  Our backs are like wire coat hangers. Bend that coat hanger back and forth so many times and it’s going to weaken & finally break. Sit-ups place a “devastating load on the disks”.  Inside each disk is a mucus-like nucleus. If you keep flexing your spine and bending the disk over and over again, that nucleus slowly breaks the layers and causes a disk bulge, or a disk herniation.  Every time we bend it the discs are one repetition closer to damaging the disk. It’s very possible to have six pack abs, and a ruined back.

Dr. McGill thinks the traditional sit-up is a great way to cause discs to bulge, herniate and impinge on nerves around the spine. The “full flex” movement, the “crunch” part of situp, puts an unhealthy strain on your back at its weakest point. The section with the most nerves in the spine is the part that bends and strains during a sit-up. The end result is people end up with so much pain and stiffness that it’s difficult to tie one’s shoes or bend down to pick up something off the ground.

Plus, doing a sit-up doesn’t train your ab and core muscles to do the job for which they were designed: keeping your spine straight and secure and providing power for your movements. In everyday life the abdominal muscles are braces. When doing any athletic movement, even opening a door or vacuuming, the spine is in a neutral posture, not flexed, and the abdominal muscles are contracted to brace the spine.

It’s a mistake to focus your exercise selection solely on the abs because that destabilizes the spine, pulling it out of alignment. It’s important to have strong abs, but strong abdominals are not the only thing. The entire core (the muscles and connective tissue surrounding and holding the spine in place) must be strengthened and balanced. Working all of these muscle groups of the core: the pelvis, back, hips and abdomen, is essential to both back health and general athleticism.

If the core is strong and stable, the spine remains upright and it can bear heavy loads while the body swivels around it.

The best way to work your abs and prevent hurting your back is to work your midsection by doing movements that challenge the muscles to perform the way they are designed and expected to work in real life, and not to train muscles in isolation. This will help you create great-looking abs but also increase your athleticism or overall strength. There are many exercises that accomplish this.

Consider the pushup. Not usually thought of as a great ab move, but the pushup forces you to work many muscles at once; your core muscles to stabilize your trunk as your arms and back work to move the body up and down. It is a fully body challenge! It works the abdominals, front of your legs, your arms and your back. That is how you use those muscles in real life.

Like the pushup, the best exercises for back health and a firmer stomach are ones that work your abs while holding your spine straight. Woodchoppers (for rotational strength), Bridges, Bird Dogs, McGill Curl-ups, Single Leg Lifts lying on your back, One Leg Overhead Dumbbell Side Bends (for balance), Planks, Side Plank and the Stir-the-pot Plank are examples of effective and safe exercises. 

These exercises, by working your entire abdominal muscle complex, will build strength in your abs and prevent back pain.