I recently went away on holiday to Spain with my family. We went to the northeast of Spain, near Girona. It was a great trip with the kids and there is also some fantastic cycling around there.
A lot of the professional cycling teams are moving away from your classic Mallorca cycling training camps due to the overcrowding with so many cyclists and they are moving their camps to Girona.
Anyway, the point of the story is that I didn’t do any weight training for two weeks, I did lots of cycling but no resistance work on my muscles.
When we got home, I booked a CrossFit class, low and behold after 3 weeks of not doing any weight training, it was the hardest session I have done in a while. The point is my back and legs were stiff the next day as I hadn’t worked them in a while.
I was lifting the kids in and out of the bath and for the first time in ages I felt my back, it didn’t spasm, but I knew it was there. It got me thinking that the kids are getting older and therefore heavier, I can’t do the same movements as I used to with them.
Picking them up and putting them in the bath is different now.
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What should you not do?
The number one thing you should not do is lift and twist when you have back pain.
If you lift and twist it loads the disc up in the base of the spine which is like squishing a jam donut and then twisting your hands together. Can you imagine what happens to that poor jam donut?
They are not good at being loaded and twisted.
How should you twist and lift?
You need to make sure you use your legs to turn rather than your core:
- Bend your knees and hinge at the hips to lift the object (child, plant pot, suitcase)
- Engage the tummy button-pull it in
- Squeeze your glutes
- Shuffle the feet and legs and turn with your legs NOT your core
- Keep the core engaged and then place the object down
To stabilise the core in a twisting movement is tricky, the best movement is a bicycle crunch without the crunch part. All you need is some gentle head flexion to activate the core in rotation.
How to do this:
- Repeat 10 times on both sides, 3 sets through
- Lie on your back
- Bring both legs up to 90 degrees
- Gently pull your chin up (if it causes neck pain don’t do this)
- Bring the knee to the opposite elbow-you won’t be able to touch them
- Gently swap them over to the other side
#BackPainMistakes #BackPainManagement #AvoidBackPain
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If you do know someone who wants more advice, please send them our details. You can send them this assessment as well to diagnose their back pain. It is a great tool to understand where your back pain is coming from, it is free and takes 60 seconds. Click here for assessment
