The Good Tips to a Fantastic Spine

Over 80% of all working Canadians report having back pain each year.  

As a yoga therapist and a teacher of thousands of public yoga classes over the last ten years I see many students with poor body alignment, and the inability to flex, extend and twist their spine normally.

Immobility and poor alignment are the two main causes of back pain.  The good news is most people with mild to moderate pain will find relief once they are moving and aligned properly using the tools of Yoga.  The key is having the right knowledge and expert instruction.  My workshop series, Get Aligned-Get Happy, covers this topic in detail but I want to share some powerful information and tips with you now to jump start your healing process.

Here are the 5 Keys to a Fantastic Spine that will give you basic knowledge, insight, and tools to understand and heal your low back from the perspective of yoga.

5 Keys to a Fantastic Spine:  
1. Knowledge and awareness are KING! 
2. Listen to your body’s warning signs. 
3. Investigate what in your daily life is contributing   
    to your low back pain. 
4. Learn good body mechanics and proper body 
    alignment. 
5. Use specific yoga-based alignment tools to heal 
    your spine.

#1 Knowledge and awareness are KING. 
You cannot heal what you are not aware of or what you do not acknowledge. Noticing that your low back is at risk of further injury is #1. 

In the early stages of misalignment the pain is often mild and intermittent, and therefore relatively easy to manage. They key word here is manage, that does not mean heal. Common ways of managing these flare-ups are anti-inflammatory medication like Ibuprofen, or by doing less of the pain triggering activity. For example, you may not go hiking or cycling as often as you used to.  To manage low back pain you may buy a new ergonomic chair, get shoe inserts or place a lumbar pillow to support your spine. Sound familiar? 

Spending hundreds of dollars on external objects designed to align your body from the outside-in may help, but they will likely not help heal the root of the problem. Crossing off the things you love from your activity list is not a great option for most of you either.  You need to understand how your spine became misaligned, what is keeping it that way, and how you can make positive changes to shift the spine toward optimal alignment.

#2  Listen to the feedback you are receiving from your body on a daily basis.
Your body is constantly sending you messages about how aligned or mis-aligned you are during daily activities such as sitting, standing, lifting and resting. Awareness is key and here is the knowledge. The early warning signs that your spine is in need of attention and care are below.
Early Warning Signs your Spine is at Risk:

• Discomfort in the low back after prolonged sitting.
• Pinching sensation near your sacroiliac joint, lumbar curve or hip joint.
• Burning sensation down the back of your legs to the knees or feet.
• Sharp pain deep in the center of the gluteus maximus muscles (buttocks).
• Tingling or numbness in the area of the vertebral discs, legs or feet.

#3  Investigate what in your daily life is contributing to your low back pain. 
The biggest cause of slowly progressing, intermittent type of back pain that gets worse over 5 to 10 years is poor posture in both seated and standing positions. Poor posture can result from immobility, tension, and lack of awareness. 

A common trigger while seated is slouching. This reverses the spinal curves by rounding the shoulders forward, tipping the pelvis back, and reversing the lumbar curve (Photo 1, left). Rounding the spine places extra stress on the vertebrae and spinal discs. Compare that to the upright posture shown on the right where the lower pine can maintain its healthy natural inward curve.

In general, sitting is one of the most challenging positions for the spine because by positioning alone it puts three times as much pressure on your vertebra and discs than standing.  Have you ever noticed that your low back aches after a long and uninterrupted period of sitting?  

When you combine sitting with slouching that is double the stress on your spine, not to mention the hips.  Eventually, the lumbar discs protrude posteriorly from the pressure on the vertebrae. Your discs act as natural shock absorbers and protect your spine from compression they can remain healthy when we maintain a  natural curve in our spine while we sit and stand.

Small tasks we do everyday like lifting and carrying objects also trigger low back pain, especially when performed out of alignment.  It is not just heavy objects that pose a risk, it is the repetitive lifting and carrying of purses, backpacks, grocery bags, children, and laundry to name a few that can make minor tweaks to the spine through the day. Photo 2 shows how the normal curves of the spine become misaligned while holding a large bag. To compensate for the load of the bag the right shoulder drops, the lumbar curve pushes  out to the left and the sacrum compresses on the right. 
This poor alignment held for repetitively over a long period of time will eventually cause pain. Make positive change by  carrying a smaller bag, distribute the weight evenly on both sides, alternating sides you carry objects, change bags to a cross the chest strap or backpack, or set your bag down while you stand.  Then on the movement side of things, do alignment based yoga to strengthen, stretch and gain good alignment.


#4  Learn good body mechanics and proper body alignment. 

 Healthy spinal curves are designed to have a sleek S-shape from front to back that allows for proper articulation of the vertebra while preserving the shock absorbing qualities of the spinal discs (Photo 3).  In the C-shape configuration the shoulders round forward, the chest collapses, the pelvis tilts back, and the low back rounds (see Photo 1, left). 
When the bones are out of alignment for a long period of time your muscles compensate in an attempt to correct the alignment. Unknowingly, we continue to do the triggering action in the same habitual way (like the infamous slouching when we sit). Eventually, this causes imbalance in the muscles that fixates the bones in poor alignment. 

This creates rigidity and immobility (think hunched over old person walking with a cane and you get the picture). Over time, certain muscle groups become overused and therefore chronically tight, while other muscle groups become weak from lack of use. 

The end result of improper use of your body for a long period of time is compression or torsion in the vertebrae of the spine, pinched nerves, bulging discs, and an overall decrease in function and stability of your spine.

Why does it feel uncomfortable to stand or sit up straight?  
Even with knowledge of proper posture and the best of intentions, the habit of slumping and collapsing the spine can sneak back in quickly. In fact it may even feel good to slump and completely unnatural to stand or sit up straight.  You know the term “use it or lose it”, it applies here. 

If you have not been exercising the muscles that hold you up and support good alignment it will feel awkward and even tiring to stand or sit straight for more than a few minutes.  The muscles that have been overworking are chronically tight and need to stretch.  

The tense muscles will not fully let go until the weak muscles get stronger and take some of the work load off the over-working muscles.  This is why yoga is such a powerful tool in healing and preventing back pain.

What is good standing alignment?  
The ideal posture in Photo 4 shows correct alignment while standing versus five common misalignment postures. Do any of these look familiar? 

Good alignment is when you can draw an imaginary line along the side of your body from the ear opening down to the outer edge of your shoulder, outer hip, side of your knee, and ankle bone. A common misalignment in the low back is too much curve (sway back) or too little curve (flat back). 

You can see how all of the misalignments change the natural S-shaped spine into a different shape and it effects the vertebrae and supporting tissue all the way up to your head.  Luckily, yoga can teach you the principles of good alignment and provide you with powerful yoga poses that you can do daily to help gain and maintain the mobility and health of your spine.

#5 Use specific yoga-based alignment tools to heal your spine.
It is never too late to improve mobility and health in your spine with yoga, and the sooner the better. Yoga aligns your bones and encourages proper use of muscles that support upright posture and alignment. Yoga poses build strength in weak muscles and flexibility in over taxed muscles.  

Through balanced action of muscles over time the spine will become more supported and at ease in an upright position effortlessly maintaining the natural spinal curves.  You may notice an energy boost to standing and sitting tall as it just feels and looks better than slouching.

Here are 5 Key Yoga Postures and a Daily Yoga Routine you can do in 20 minutes or less:
  Chair Pose
  Prone Backbend
  Hamstring Stretch
  Outer Hip Stretch

 Thigh Stretch


DAILY YOGA ROUTINE:

• Chair pose 3 times, one-minute holds with 15 second rest in between.
• Prone backbend 3 times, 30 second holds with a 15 second rest in between.
• Hamstring stretch 2 times alternate sides, 45 second holds with 15 second rest in between.
• Outer hip stretch 2 times alternate sides, 45 second holds with 15 second rest in between.
• Thigh stretch 2 times alternate sides, 45 second holds with 15 second rest in between.
• Rest in child’s pose or on your back with knees to chest for 30-60 seconds at the end.

This routine performed daily with good instruction and alignment will help to heal back pain over time. There are many other postures in my yoga tool bag, but this is an excellent start! I recommend consulting with a therapeutically-trained yoga teacher to ensure you are doing the poses correctly, and to offer pose adaptations if needed.

Listen and trust your body. 
Therapeutic yoga pose applied correctly and engaged properly should relieve or at minimum decrease pain right away. If pain increases, come out of the pose and rest. If this continues to occur then find a different type of yoga or select a different yoga teacher. If you are in acute pain and have inflammation, I recommend that you wait a few days until the swelling subsides before doing any exercise or yoga. If you have concerns check with your doctor.

All yoga is not therapeutic. 
In my experience of working with hundreds of clients I have found that certain types of alignment-based yoga is far superior in setting the proper curves in the spine and keeping them there. I have also found that yoga done improperly or without good quality instruction can put your spine at risk and cause damage to vertebrae, discs, muscles, and ligaments.  An alignment-based yoga with the professional tailoring of these specific types of yoga to an individuals unique needs and goals is the safest and most effective way to practice yoga.