Motivating Mum UK

by Bernadette King, Peaceful Practice

The causes of back pain  and problems are many and varied and may not necessarily be as a result of accident or injury but a complex combination of factors;

• your genetic background
• your work, leisure activities, home (including mattress and pillow)
• your transportation
• your family life
• your emotional disposition, tragedies, triumphs, hopes, dreams
• your body weight and  fat distribution
• your nutrition
• medical or recreational drugs, including cigarettes
• pregnancies and labour

Viewing back pain as a condition isolated from the rest of your life may prevent you from changing certain habits that may be actually perpetuating  the pain. Your spine is an integral component of your whole being. And your whole body affects your back.

The function of the spine is also effected by the alignment, strength & flexibility of other parts of the body, including foot, knee & leg alignment (for example pigeon toed, flat feet),   muscular strength in the legs, buttocks and abdominal wall, the position of the pelvis (tilted forward, back or to either side), the shape of the lumbar curve and so on.

Your whole day also affects your back, with every activity having either potential benefits or harm associated with it. It is necessary to carefully observe the effect of everything that you do, including sleeping positions, driving, household chores, even watching TV and reading..

To be most effective, back care is not to be confined just to exercise time, but incorporated into a way of life.. If you suspect that your back pain is related to poor posture and body mechanics whilst at work (8 hours), commuting (say 2 hours), sleeping (8 hrs), watching TV (2 hrs) then 2 hours of therapeutic exercise  cant make up for 20 hrs of destructive movement patterns.

Correcting poor posture, however, is possible, as are strengthening and stretching practices , suitable for one’s own current needs and not what one wishes those needs were!

Common low back pain

Sacroiliac pain is caused by prolonged stress on or misalignment of the sacroiliac joints on either side of the base of the spine. It is a joint (bone) pain but can also be experienced in the groin, back of the thigh and lower abdomen. Therapeutic exercises stretch the buttocks, hamstrings & lower back muscles as well as strengthening the hip girdle muscles and the abdominal muscles to support the front of the spine.

Sciatica is felt deep in the buttock near the sacroiliac joint, extending down the back of the leg, along the big sciatic nerve.Sometimes both pains can coexist together.

In your yoga practice, pain is NOT gain.  Sensations may depend on your current health-physical & mental/emotional.

It is important to modify stretches that produce either numbness or the sharp, electric shock-like sensations of nerve pain, not necessarily to avoid those stretches  altogether. Stretches should be held at a tolerable level for 15-20 seconds, if working mainly therapeutically,  in order for the muscle to get the message to relax & lengthen. They can be held for longer for a more spiritual practice or if the stretch feels beneficial.

For either physical or spiritual practice, the use of the breath is an integral way of  helping to release and encourage muscles to lengthen; to release emotional tension, which may have resulted in the physiological symptoms and also to see discomfort in a more detached way, examining how you react to it

It is also possible to be over flexible! This usually goes together with muscular weakness. Yoga can bring about a better balance between the two.

We need to be careful, in our yoga practice that we neither emphasise those stretches or postures which are “easy” nor avoid those which we consider we are “not good at” This can result in a lot of physiological and energetic imbalances.

Prolonged pain, after any exercise,  calls for the routine to be revaluated. Was the practice too long? were the movements too intense? Were individual postures held too long or held in poor alignment?

This is where yoga also teaches us the abiding principle of all forms of yoga practice-AHIMSA (non violence or harmlessness). If you need to rest, modify, reduce the time you hold a stretch, use props , and so on then it is important to do so, always be mindful of your inner response. Bear in mind that if you are taking any pain relieving or anti inflammatory medication, then your body will not be receiving accurate feedback  regarding the sensations it is experiencing.

DEALING WITH STRESS

• Learn to pace yourself
• Learn to say no
• Learn to assert yourself when it comes to getting what you need to take care of yourself.
• Get enough sleep
• Allow enough time for relaxation techniques
• Allow enough time for gentle muscle stretching
• Ensure you get proper nourishment
• Decrease or eliminate your intake of stress inducing substances. Consult your GP before reducing,/discontinuing any prescription meds. Maybe devise a schedule with them to safely decrease your intake.

Bernadette
www.peacefulpractice.co.uk

This is one of a series of 31 guest blogs from successful mumpreneurs and coaches that will be published on this site every day during March. Please look at some of the other fabulous posts that we have published over the last few days.

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