This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 8:23 am and is filed under Bad Backs, Stretching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Part 4 of 10
As with the “Cat Curl” stretch in the previous post this exercise works directly on the erector spinae muscles (the small muscles that run along either side of your whole spine). It is important to stretch the muscles evenly in the directions they can move. With the “Cat Curl” stretch we were concentrating on the front to back plane that the spine can move in. Today we are concentrating on the lateral (side to side) movement that the spine can perform. This stretch will help relax the spine muscles and relieve the pressure that tight erector spinae muscles can put on the vertebrae (the bones of the spine). These muscles get tight due to the pressure put on them from shortened and tight muscles that affect the spine from the rest of our body. The secret is to get a good level of mobility and strength for the whole body. This stretch should be performed with the others at least twice a day (morning and evening). For those of you that have read the other posts, the next section should have been drummed into your subconscious by now. For those of you that haven’t, make sure you apply the following rules to all your stretches.
1. Pain should never be part of stretching.
2. Use a scale of 1-10; 1 being nothing and 10 being agony. You need to stretch to a 6 or 7. This should feel as if it is pulling right in the middle of the muscle and nowhere near your bones. It should feel like a strong pull and not painful or sharp.
3. When taking your body into any stretch, once you have done it, just hold it there. Do not force it any further and definitely don’t bounce ( By “bounce” I mean short regular movements trying to force your muscle to stretch further than it wants to. You can damage the muscle by doing this.).
4. Breathe! Your muscles won’t be able to relax properly if you are holding your breath. Use nice deep yoga-style breathing, take in a lung-full and let the air out nice and slowly right to the end.
5. It is better to get the technique correct than concerning yourself about how far you stretch. Bad technique could result in you receiving no benefits from the stretching or worse still an injury. And that is the kind of irony we don’t like.
6. Try and do stretches first thing in the morning and last thing at night. The more you can do the better, but morning and evening is fine as a minimum.
Stretch 4
For this stretch you will just need yourself and a full length mirror to check technique, but the latter is not essential. This is definitely one of the simplest stretches out of the 5 designed to prevent a bad back. Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder distance apart, both feet should be parallel and facing directly forwards. With this stretch we work one side at a time, so pick which direction you are going to lean towards first. Raise the opposing arm in the air (this helps to increase the stretch in other muscles as well as the spine). Lean to the side so that your raised arm is highest and the opposite shoulder is dropping, as in the picture. Be careful and go slowly, taking it as far as the stretch will allow. Now you may feel the stretch around the spine if it is very tight, however you are just as likely to feel it in your sides. Due to certain muscles being tighter than others, you need to be careful that you are leaning directly sideways on both sides and not slightly forwards or backwards. (There are other stretches that do involve leaning forwards and backwards, but they focus on different muscles and stretching in a different way. We will get into this another time, but for now just lean sideways). Hold the stretch for 45 seconds to 1 minute on one side then repeat on the other. If you really feel the stretch in your spine on this one (and by stretch I do mean a slight pull and not pain) then be careful as you straighten up, as after stretching a tight muscle it can become weak. A weak muscle does not like doing much work, so instead of just standing upright consider bending your knees first. This will relieve some of the pressure and allow standing upright to become easier.
Be Careful:
If during this stretch you feel anything like a sharp pain, stop immediately and consult your doctor. In this stretch you should feel no sharp pain merely a pull, if anything at all. A sharp pain and/or radiating pain to other parts of your body can indicate that a nerve is becoming involved. This can be for many reasons but is more likely to be an underlying problem that you will need to see your doctor about.
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