Movements, postures - how to relieve his back?

Movements, postures  - how to relieve his back?

Studies prove it: manual therapies are more effective than anti-inflammatory drugs in recent low back pain. So no longer bending over, we move!

In his sixties, new pains can appear or even increase: osteoarthritis of the vertebrae (linked, among other factors, to cartilage wear and stiffening of the intervertebral ligaments), discopathies (discs serve as "dampers" between vertebrae and may suffer from microtrauma), even sciatica. Increased ills with age, sedentary lifestyle and sitting position. No fatality for all that! Even old pain can soften. Provided you do not force, and tame his body through a few exercises, practiced with gentleness and perseverance (several times in the day if you can). Once we suffer less, we do not relax, we insert in our daily life preventive movements, history to preserve its achievements. And we practice a sporting activity. "It's better to promote softness: yoga, walking (in a group for the playful side, with sticks to balance), qi gong, even cycling and swimming, which, without strengthening the back, makes the joints work in weightlessness, advises Marc. Pérez, osteopathic doctor and author of Osteo-Gym, the postures that heal (ed Leduc.s) and Relieve yourself your pain with osteopathy (Ed Leduc.s).

Standing rather than sitting to save the upper back

Spend time on a chair? "A catastrophe," warns Bernadette de Gasquet, a physician and yoga teacher and author of a Praise of Maturity (Robert Laffont) "Generally, we cup ourselves, which adds to the normal age-related muscle wasting. However, if osteoporosis and osteoarthritis are almost inevitable, we can fight against it. The specialist advocates an arrangement of the sitting posture so that the back remains elongated, that the discs are not crushed and that the blood circulates normally. In prevention or to relieve themselves, one can thus try to "push back the sky". Standing, without arching or shrinking shoulders, exhale pushing your hands upward, fingers crossed, imagining that your head is also propelled upwards. To untie the neck, stretch the neck to the right and left, as if you were wearing a neck brace. And during your inevitable sitting stations, take the opportunity to relax the neck upside down by wedging the chest and the front of the body on your thighs.

Recalibrate the head to relax the neck

Osteopath in Paris, yoga teacher and author *, Anne-Béatrice Leygues offers various techniques in her books: "To properly realign the skull on the cervical, do as the chicken," she explains maliciously. It is enough to advance the chin as if it were on a horizontal plate, then to move it in the same way. By carrying out this movement in consciousness, one relaxes the back, one grows up on one's axis, and one puts finally at rest all the musculature which permanently adjusts our cervical ones. "

Stretch to soften the dorsal

Do you feel contracted, stiff or rusty? Perform these small static exercises that are practiced on the ground.

On all fours, extend your arms to the ground far in front of you, back well stretched and head in the extension of the spine. Approach the glutes of the heels while keeping the arms forward.

Kneeling, forehead to the ground, arms backwards, palms toward the ceiling. Try to visualize your breathing in the back to release it.

On all fours, arms slightly extended forward, hands in the front of the shoulders, body weight to the rear. On the exhale, push on the fingertips, tuck the buttocks and round off the back. On the inspiration, dig your back as far as possible by taking out the buttocks and the chest. Straighten your head without pulling out your chin.

Lie on your back, arms down your body, and slide a small cushion into your back and under your knees. Breathe deeply into this position.

Finally, on the back, grab the bent knees on the chest with your hands. On inspiration, lift and bring the head closer to the knees; on the exhale, spread your elbows, bring the knees a little closer to the chest and tummy tummy by placing the lumbar well on the ground (see opening image of the article, at the top of the page).

Massaging to untie the lower back

In curative and preventive, long live the self-massage! Three new reflexes to adopt. To stiffen the lower back, lie on your back on a floor mat. The legs are bent on the bust, hands resting on the knees. Make small, slow circular movements in the area of ​​the lumbar vertebrae and sacrum, breathing quietly.

To relieve the lumbar spine (the lower part of the column), lie on your back, raise your legs and place them along the wall, flexed feet. The buttocks should stick as much as possible to the wall. Breathe deeply for a few minutes. In case of acute pain, first put a small cushion under the lumbar and the head. At each expiration, imagine that the breath is hunting the pain. The relaxation is gradually installed and attenuates the sensitivity.

"To relieve the paravertebral muscles and pelvic area, sit on your heels, your forehead on the ground," advises Anne-Béatrice Leygues. Place the thumbs in the palms and fingers on the thumbs to tap the back, one fist after the other, on either side of the column. Go up and down to the sacrum, then go up along the iliac crest (which draws a kind of jet of water down the back). These warmed areas are better stretched. "

* Do in, the way of energy, (Pocket Marabout edition) and Hatha Yoga with small steps (Ed.