Sydney — I haven’t been kind to my hips for the past few years. During pregnancy, childcare, and the physical burden of working from home, I always feel stiff and painful in the lower part of my spine. I’m not the only one. It is estimated that up to 80% of Americans develop back pain in their lifetime, and 15-20% of adults report back pain on average in one year.
Can exercise prevent some of this pain? The simple answer is probably. It helps to consistently combine aerobic exercise with dedicated core work. However, even experienced athletes are not guaranteed to relieve pain by exercising alone, as there are many mistakes that many of us can make.
The weaker core muscles make the spine more susceptible to pain.
“The waist is the center of our body,” said Dr. Krishna Shah, an interventional pain specialist at Baylor College of Medicine. The spine must be mobile and able to bend and twist in multiple directions while supporting the weight of the body.
Surrounding the spine is the core muscle. We tend to think of the core as the abdomen, but it includes the lumbar muscles that support the spine and pelvis, the quadriceps, the hamstrings, as well as the deep back muscles.
The core muscle works like a back brace, keeping the mid section stable and upright. Therefore, wearing braces provides short-term pain relief for patients with back pain, but over-reliance on braces can weaken the core muscles. Instead, the goal is to build enough muscle to do the brace job.
Dr. Sean Barber, a neurosurgeon and spine specialist at the Houston Methodist Hospital, said:
Acute back pain is often the result of pulling or pulling on a muscle while attempting an exercise that requires the muscle to weaken or stiffen. If this muscle cannot provide the required force, pressure shifts to the spine in a way that leads to pain.
By developing core strength, flexibility, and muscle control, you can avoid these pulled and tense muscles.
Exercise strengthens the spine
The easiest way to strengthen your spine is to work regularly throughout the day, whatever your ability to work for you. This may mean increasing your daily steps, taking short walks on weekdays, or prioritizing slightly longer walks in the morning or evening.
People who are physically active tend to have a lower incidence of back pain, and in a recent meta-analysis of 25 studies, the most effective way to prevent the recurrence of back pain is regular exercise, preferably some physical education. Was to combine with.
“Exercise doesn’t treat everyone, but on average, it’s an effective intervention,” said Dr. Mark Hancock, a professor of physiotherapy at Macquarie University and one of the authors of the study. rice field. There is no single type of exercise that has been shown to be effective, he said. “With a lot of exercise, you can get everything you need,” he added, “it’s the same as your diet.”
Physical activity also strengthens the bones and cartilage of the spine, protects it from age-related degeneration, and increases blood flow to the cartilage discs of the spine, which has a low blood supply, Dr. Shah said.
If you have time, try walking fast or jogging. Many studies suggest that runners have thicker and healthier cartilage discs in their spine than inactive people.
Manipulate the ignored deep core muscles
Moving the core is important to avoid future back pain, but that doesn’t mean shredding your abdominal muscles like Chris Hemsworth. Popular core-enhancing exercises such as crunches and sit-ups primarily move larger outer muscles, but ignore deeper muscles.
For example, the transverse abdominal muscle is a delicate, sheet-like deep muscle that wraps around the center like a corset. There are also multifidus muscles, muscles that line the spine, and numerous extensions that wrap individual vertebrae, much like a bicycle chain wraps a sprocket.
“It doesn’t take much effort to activate these deep muscles, but they are ignored because they are invisible,” said Femi Betic, a physiotherapist at the New Jersey Physical Therapy Center. A person who specializes in the treatment of back pain. He added that a person with a 6-pack may have back pain, even if they are only moving stronger outer muscles.
Deeper muscles engage during movements that require more control than raw force. One way to rejuvenate deep core muscles is to use planks, whether they are regular planks, side planks, or some of many other variations.
If holding a regular plank is uncomfortable, start with your knees on the ground and balance with your toes.
Dr. Shah also suggested squats, push-ups, and bridges. To build and maintain core strength, he recommends two to three dedicated core work sessions a week. “This is a lifestyle change,” he said.
There are also sports and physical activities that require a light contraction of the core, such as kayaking, cycling, dancing, ballet class, boxing, rock climbing and swimming. Activities that require some central control help activate and engage these deeper muscles.
Work on spinal control
In addition to strengthening exercise, new studies suggest that it is important to develop muscle coordination and spinal control. This also applies to athletes who focus on performance and neglect to exercise for the purpose of controlling the spine and pelvis.
In a 2018 study, researchers compared elite athletes to a group of moderately active people. Half of each group had back pain.
To the surprise of the researchers, both elite athletes and the general public with back pain had similar stiffness and lack of control in the spine. This shows a similar pattern of weakness in the back muscles.
“The key factor is how much you can control your muscles,” said Dr. Maria Moreno Catara, a researcher at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the lead author of the study.
To counter this, Betic recommends Pilates. Because, in addition to strengthening the deeper core muscles, exercise promotes muscle control. For many exercises, the spine remains stable or moves very slowly. This controls the muscles along the spine when it is in different positions.
Incorporating Pilates into your fitness routine is as easy as creating a short training video. Many of them require little or no equipment 2-3 times a week.
Incorporate unstable elements into your workout
Slow, controlled movements in Pilates-like exercises teach the muscles to move the spine efficiently. The next step is to start exercising in a more variable environment. This allows for even more adjustment and control.
In another study, Dr. Morenocatara and her collaborators found that adding instability to exercise, such as balancing on uneven surfaces and exercising in noisy environments, was effective in relieving back pain. Did.
Dr. Morenocatara said it was not about the amount of muscle strength, but about the ability to finely control the activation and deactivation of all muscles that stabilize the spine.
“We consider muscle size to be the most important quality, but it’s also the quality of activation,” she said.
Whether it’s a rocky hike or a sudden response to a tennis volley, choosing a sport that includes a responsive element can result in similar levels of muscle development and control. Weight exercises such as push-ups, chin-ups, burpees, and squats are also useful because they require whole-body adjustments rather than weightlifting alone.
Like many, I’m guilty of moving the outer core muscles and ignoring the deeper ones. But over the past few weeks, I’ve started making short Pilates videos, each 10-20 minutes, focusing on slow, controlled movements. Two weeks later, the stiffness of my back began to fade and disappeared for hours. After all, all I really needed was to develop a little more coordination and control.
This article was originally published in The New York Times.
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