Month: January 2015

So I recently saw one of my clients and they are struggling with low back pain. The causes of low back pain can include many factors such as: stress, poor posture, bad lifting mechanics, exercise like running, playing basketball and lifting weights just to name a few. There are many great things you can do to prevent low back pain that include: stretching – especially your quadriceps, hip flexors, glueteal muscles and hip extensors, and inversion therapy (see December 2014 post). I always recommend that clients make sure to get their fair share of water intake which should roughly amount to 2.5 litres daily. This should be adjusted accordingly to take into account levels of physical activity, climate, and of course alcohol and coffee intake. If you drink alcohol, coffee or tea, increase water consumption equivalent (1 cup of water per 1 cup of coffee) to balance out the diuretic effects of each of the three. I could literally list a multitude of factors but won’t because that’s not the point here.

What I find so commonly overlooked is the footwear that people wear or don’t wear inside their homes. Most homes have some sort of hard surface such as ceramic or porcelain tile in the front foyer, washroom and most importantly the kitchen. I mention this because I believe that flooring and footwear need to match one another. My recommendation is to buy a pair of Crocs, yes I said Crocs, for wear inside the house.

They are in fact movable anti-fatigue mats for your feet. I have a pair, yes they are bright orange for wearing inside the house. They reduce the amount of foot fatigue and most importantly back pain that I get when I stand washing dishes on porcelain tiles in my kitchen. Other footwear like slippers can work but honestly I don’t believe that they have the same cushioning effect.

So if you suffer from foot or low back pain then try some Crocs!

I actually can’t believe that I haven’t posted anything about stretching pelvic muscles, specifically the gluteus maximus, minimus, medius and external rotator muscles of the hip. I show this stretch to my clients all of the time and find it extremely useful when I have muscle tightness in my pelvic muscles and low back. Often these muscles get ignored and people spend time stretching their low back muscles, aka errector spinae, with little relief from muscle tension and pain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that you need to stretch both sides. Repeat with the left leg.

One last thing, this stretch is great to use with my lazy hip flexor/quadriceps stretch. Using these regularly have allowed me to achieve better muscle length between my hip flexors/quadriceps and hip extensor muscles and avoid nagging back pain and keeps me playing Slo-pitch, snowboarding, mountain biking and working out!