“I can’t come to work today because I can’t move.” “I’m stuck with my back, I can’t get there.” These are two of the many phrases that we could quote to justify what is recognized as one of the reasons why we are more often absent from work.
Lower back pain, something that more or less everyone will have to face as we age. Sometimes they appear already at a young age. Other times they are real torments that never leave us. They are often hereditary pathologies.
Having them in the winter due to cold and humidity is certainly more common, but we don’t think that in the summer the phenomenon decreases so much.
Often the cause of pain is disc pain. Let’s imagine the disc as a piece of meat, like a hamburger, inserted between our vertebrae that will act as a sandwich. We can speak of degeneration when ruptures can be seen inside. As if our ideal slice of meat were very fragmented inside. Or, protruse, a term that means that the disc bulges outwards, expanding beyond the vertebrae. Similar speech is for the hernia. In this case, however, a piece of disc broke, causing its contents to escape into the neighboring parts, let’s think of the column. Finally, compression, when the disc wears out, thus thinning the buffer zone between the two vertebrae.
Here are some tips, in addition to physical exercises, to combat back pain and discopathies and live a summer in shape
To ensure that these problems, which almost all of us have, especially after the fateful threshold of the Anta, remain under control we must rely on physical exercise. The most recommended one concerns the stretching of the posterior muscles, that is buttocks and thighs. This is done by simply leaning forward, trying to touch your toes. We need to feel the pull, albeit not excessively.
The second way is the strengthening of the lumbar and abdominal muscles. what in the jargon is called core stability. That is, that part of the body that goes from the diaphragm to the pelvic floor. Strengthening it would avoid compressions that would affect the discs.
The third tip concerns the psoas, the strongest hip flexor muscle. We can find specific exercises that adequately strengthen it by improving posture.
Here are other useful tips
The fourth, on the other hand, is much more practical. Try not to put a limit on what we can do and what we can’t do. That is, running or brisk walking may not necessarily be better than cycling, swimming or other sports. Some individuals think running is bad for the back. Others find it, on the contrary, very invigorating. Movement is fundamental, let’s not preclude one for another. We listen to our body and try not to squeeze it to the maximum by acting on the pain.
Finally, we don’t think about dividing it into watertight compartments. The strengthening of each individual part should be general and balanced. Therefore, we try never to neglect one to the detriment of the other. It may happen, for short periods, but in the long term it would be wrong.
So, here are some tips, in addition to physical exercises, to counter the inflammation that then gives rise to back pain. The knowledge of our body, combined with the advice of specialists, will allow us to better face this important problem.
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