If you're my age, somewhere north of 40, you probably wake up with either occasional or chronic back pain. In fact back pain is a multibillion dollar business and you could probably find millions of different gimmicks, gadgets, meds and treatments to ease relieve or end the suffering. Because I've been a sufferer since my teen years I quite possibly either heard of or tried most of them. In my opinion the best sources of relief have always been exercise, massage and meds or any combination thereof. New onto the market is Medical Marijuana which has really become a lifesaver to many, myself included. Not only does it ease and relieve the pain it allows you to go to the most important step to back relief pain: exercise. Exercise gets a bad rap as being miserable but actually if you give it 3 weeks you will find that it can be your best friend for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it gives you a break from each day where you can concentrate just one you, on your body and on your soul. It's been my experience that starting your day with exercise clears my head and helps me focus on how I'm going to take on the day. It's also loosening up the tight muscles that you might not know you have but you find out you have when you start to move. You might argue that you don't have time because: a. the kids, b. the dog, c. the job, or d. the significant other, but if you don't take care of you, how can you reasonably expect to take care of them? So let's start with an easy step today on how to loosen those tight back muscles. My first choice would be to by all of you an Inversion Table because other than having a masseuse on call 24/7, this is the next best thing. But most people don't want to work it into their decor or can't afford it so they will never know the benefits, But a really close second is this small piece of equipment you can store in your ottoman or under a chair, the lowly set of hand weights that can be obtained new for around 10 bucks or for practically nothing on the internet, and with them is the most amazing and simple exercise you can do to stretch your back and leg muscles, if you do it properly. You may not be able to do the full exercise to start but even starting is going to make a noticeable difference and from there you can progress to opening your spine from top to bottom. First find a pair of 10lb weights. If you have severe spinal issues, drop to 5lbs. You are going to have to make yourself super safe while doing this but it takes up virtually no space. So here's how it works. Place the weights on a table like a tv tray or something and stand beside it with your back facing the wall, about 6" in front of it. Stand with feet shoulders' length apart--very important. CAREFULLY pick up the weights and face forward. Slowly bend over with weights in outstretched arms to the floor. Do NOT lock your knees. Gently bend over until weights touch the ground. If you're like me you couldn't touch the ground at first. That's okay. Just gently reach for the ground. If you feel like you're falling, well that's what the wall behind you is for. Lean into it. Do not tipple forward. If you can't reach the floor, hold the stretch for 10 seconds and slowly return to standing. Your first goal is to do that 10 times.
but to build up your repetitions to at least 30 which you can do in sets of 10. Now fast forward to the weights are finally finding the floor. Carefully using the weights as wheels slowly roll yourself forward. You can feel the stretch in your spine clear up to your shoulders. Now roll back and feel the stretch in your hamstrings, glutes and piriformis, fancy word for those dips in your hips that are always sore. You can actually feel the muscles release across your spine while doing it, and you'll be good to go. Until tomorrow morning when you do it all again, because you're worth it. #backpain #weights #backrelief #backpainrelief
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