ACTION: move those muscles!

One of the hardest things to undertake when you’re in pain is to move. And yet, this is the most crucial of all the steps if you want to take control of your own back issues. Our bodies weren’t built to sit in front of a computer for hours on end. We were never designed to lounge on a cushy couch and watch television or streaming videos for an entire evening. Our bodies were intended to walk, climb, kneel, squat, push, pull, and even sprint! When you take away such a fundamental aspect of our lives—that of frequent movement—you’re bound to encounter trouble.

Having said that, I am fully aware that sometimes it is movement itself that brings on a bout of pain. But that’s a different sort of pain: the pain of acute injury. You know you’ve hurt yourself as soon as you’ve done it, because it’s the body’s way of saying, “Stop! Do no further damage!” However, those injuries are the ones that heal themselves with some rest and perhaps a bit of icing and anti-inflammatories for comfort along the way. Have you ever seen a cat that’s misjudged a leap? After pulling the classic George Carlin stunt of “I meant to do that” to save face, they disappear for a bit to rest, then limp around for a day or two while the injury heals. That’s how animals function, and let us not forget that people are animals, too. We were built to heal, and our injuries shouldn’t hang around for months or years. Truly, if we were that fragile, I doubt the human race would ever have reached this stage of its existence!

Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)

When the pain goes beyond the days or perhaps a few weeks needed to heal a strain, that’s when you know you’re really no longer injured; you’ve just conditioned yourself to think that you need to baby that part of your body! It certainly makes sense, as very few people want to experience pain, so some portion of your brain is going to do everything it can to prevent you from performing an activity that might bring on another bout of discomfort. But if you’re no longer injured, you MUST move beyond that mental limitation. Yes, the physical discomfort is very, very real. But understand that this is a pain that comes not from a true physiological injury, but from the machinations of your mind.

Dr. John Sarno (author of “Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection”) made a remarkable discovery. He found that our bodies will actually decrease bloodflow to certain parts in order to bring on a bout of real pain…but this decreased bloodflow is due to mental tension or stress. If you can use your higher mind to triumph over your subconscious’ attempt to distract you from a mental tension, you can break through this manufactured pain. I know it sounds crazy, but until you understand and internalize this reality, you could find yourself saddled with intermittent bouts of debilitating pain for the rest of your life. Learn to recognize this trick of your subconscious and don’t let it get the better of you.

In order to achieve and retain the natural state of health that is your birthright, YOU MUST MOVE. (Consult with your physician first.) You must incorporate daily, gentle action into your life, and yes, you should occasionally challenge yourself, too. These daily activities are things like walking from your car to a store, hiking through a city park at lunch, biking to the office or around your neighborhood after work, or even swimming at the local YMCA. I know that to even think about “exercise” seems like just one more burden for our already over-burdened lives, but you have to know that this simple energy expenditure and movement is an absolute cornerstone of achieving and maintaining a pain-free back. Moving your body requires the engagement of your muscles, and these muscles act as pumps to move your fluids, including the all-important synovial fluid that bathes your spinal area. If you quit moving, or follow the modern trend of minimizing movement, all those body fluids pool and stagnate, and your tissues become starved and stale. Lack of movement alone is a huge contributor to back and general body pain. Do not let this happen to you…and if it has, take control and fix it!

Strengthening

As if making time to move your body wasn’t enough of an impingement on your already hyper-busy life, now I’m asking you to lift weights? Well, not exactly. Not if you don’t want to. But what I am asking (after you receive the all-clear from your physician) is that you at a minimum focus on strengthening two key areas of your body, at least through the use of isometrics and your own body weight. There is no need to procure Arnold-worthy weights if you don’t want to. These two key areas are the much-lauded core muscles and the leg and glute muscles that are used when you squat. Why do I focus on these? Because your core—those lovely bands of muscles that make up your torso—act as nature’s corset. These are the muscles that give toned people those admirable flat abs, and they’re also the muscles that take a huge load off of your back. By having a lighter load on your back, you’re much less likely to strain or injure the area, and this in turn makes you far less likely to fall down the TMS rabbit hole that we discussed earlier in this section. Strengthening the squat muscles will engage your lower back so that when you do apply stress to it, it can handle it. Additionally, squats will allow you to pick up objects from the ground in a “bend at the knees” posture rather than a stooped posture, again minimizing the chance that you’ll overburden and strain your back…and risk a descent down that darn TMS rabbit hole again!

I’m not going to devote much space to the “how” of your strengthening routine. The internet and your local library are stuffed full of resources on how to firm up your abs and thighs. Just know that you should do this. Start with the daily body movement (your walking, your biking, etc.), and then give this strengthening concept a try. Don’t go all macho man (or woman) and strain yourself when you’re first starting. Heck, after having made this mistake several times myself, I finally decided to begin with an exercise routine I found online that was specifically designed for the elderly. The routines were very gentle and—for my body—not really challenging, but over a few weeks, they got my body used to those strengthening types of movement and paved the way for more rigorous routines. Sometimes you’ve got to start small—and even a bit humbly—to ultimately make those big strides. Believe me: it’s so worth it.

Traction

Please do not get all freaked out and think I’m going to ask you to put on some sort bizarre hospital contraption. The term “traction” has uses beyond the ER room. In this case, I’m merely talking about stretching your spine. With my spine largely fused and embraced by steel rods, this may sound strange coming from me, but I’ve discovered that relieving the pressure between the vertebrae surrounding the fusion can work wonders when my muscles are having a tough day. In my case, I actually purchased the Iron Gym pull-up bar (yes, the one from those late-night infomercials!) and braced it in my kitchen doorway. Whenever I feel like letting my lower back have a thorough release, I grab the bar with both hands and slowly lift my feet off the floor so that my torso-to-knee section is straight, and my knees are bent behind me at a 90-degree angle. I usually hang for a slow count of 12, slowly return my feet to the ground, rest a bit, and then repeat. Although this move can be somewhat challenging on the hands if you’re not used to hanging your full body weight, it is an enormous treat for your lower back. Luckily, the increased hand strength will come quickly.

An alternate way to get similar relief requires the use of a sturdy countertop. Face a waist-high countertop, place the heels of both hands at the edge, fingers facing away from you, and then—with arms firmly against the sides of your torso and elbows locked—lift your feet off the ground. Your full weight is now being taken by your hands and arms on the countertop, and your lower body should be dangling in space, providing that same release to the lower back that you get from the traction bar. Aaaahhh!