Exercise is an obvious component to health and there are so many shapes and forms of it that everyone should have one type of exercise that they enjoy. Even though exercise is great for the body, it can also be very damaging, especially if done improperly. At Spencare Chiropractic Health, we encourage everyone to live active lifestyles and can even use exercise as a type of treatment for certain conditions such as sciatica, poor posture, and carpal tunnel syndrome just to name a few. If a workout plan is needed or rehabilitation is required, we will be happy to create a plan that works for you. We also know that recovery is just as important as exercise in maintaining your health and we want to be there for our patients to reach their maximum potential.
Avoid Back Stretches in the Morning
Forward stretches such as touching your toes cause a backwards bulge of the veterbral discs.
For those people with low back pain, stretching the lower back is often prescribed to help deal with tight low back muscles. What they aren’t told however is that stretching their lower back up to 2 hours after waking up, can also do harm to the discs in their back, which could cause severe low back pain and or sciatica if a disc protrusion or herniation occurs.
The discs in your spine are naturally filled with fluids to help it protect your back and nerves from physical stresses on the body. Due to gravity and body movement, the discs naturally lose fluid throughout the day like how a cushion slowly gets flatter when sat on for a while. When people sleep at night, the body does its job at healing and restoring the body, including the discs in the back. The recovery process involves the resorption of fluids back into the disc insuring that they are plump in the morning and can resist your physical stresses. Stretching the lower back involves flexing the hip, the same action for when you try to touch your toes. This action causes the disc in the lower back to bulge backwards, which squeezes out the fluids from the disc, helping to wear them out.
According to Dr. Stuart McGill, the foremost authority in low back rehabilitation, the first 2 hours in the morning are when your discs are the most sensitive in losing their hydration. Lower back stretching, especially extreme stretching, such as yoga, can do a great job at decreasing your disc height in the morning. To keep your disc health up throughout the day, try to avoid as much forward bending or positions where your hips are bent for the first 2 hours after you’re awake. This not only includes stretching, but sitting and bending over. Changing posture habits such as squatting to pick something up instead of bending over can go a long way in the long run. For those people that have desk jobs, getting a kneeling chair lessens the degree of hip flexion and reduces slouching that happens in normal chairs.