Being a couch potato and loving to cross your legs will cause you to suffer from back pain! 3 stretching exercises to protect your lumbar spine

Are you a couch potato who often stays at home watching TV? Are you one of those people who often cross your legs while working on the computer in the office? Be careful of these wrong postures, they are the culprits causing low back pain, lumbago and back pain! People who suffer from long-term back pain gradually damage their lumbar spine without realizing it. "A healthy waist needs to be taken care of, protect your waist now"! It is recommended to do some waist and trunk stretching exercises moderately to avoid compromising your health!

Wrong sitting posture is a killer for your waist! Can easily cause backache, lumbago, and back pain

Office workers who sit still all the time can easily lead to muscle strain and degeneration, resulting in insufficient waist strength and gradually causing problems due to excessive load on the lumbar discs. Or incorrect sitting posture can also be a killer for your waist. For example, if you like to lie on a soft sofa and watch TV, once you sit on the sofa for a long time, your buttocks will easily sink and your back will arch. The waist muscles will be stretched, and the waist muscles will easily become fatigued after sitting for a long time, causing back pain. Or if you have the habit of crossing your legs while working on the computer, it can also cause lumbar muscle strain or intervertebral disc aging (such as lumbar disc herniation), causing low back pain.

In his new book "Numbness and Pain in Hands and Feet - A Complete Book of Self-Treatment for Symptoms", Ryu Hirabayashi, a famous doctor from the Japanese Spine and Myelopathy Society, mentioned that to get rid of back pain, you must first improve your physical strength. Trunk stretching and trapezius muscle training are both stretching exercises that can train the back and chest and waist muscles and improve flexibility. Therefore, they can also effectively alleviate problems such as back pain. It is recommended to start with "trunk stretching" first, then do trapezius muscle training and waist stretching exercises:

1. Trunk stretch:

First lie on your stomach, clasp your hands behind your back, and lift your upper body off the ground. Then, maintain this position for a while, and then slowly relax and let your body return to the ground. In the initial prone position, you can also place a pillow under your abdomen as a cushion. Please repeat the above movements ten times in a row. However, if you have lower back problems, doing this exercise may actually be detrimental to your lower back pain. Please be sure to consider the situation and don't force yourself.

(Photo provided by / Dialect Culture)

(Photo provided by / Dialect Culture)

2. Trapezius muscle training: can be done standing or sitting. First, bend your elbows slightly, raise your hands above your shoulders, and maintain this position, swinging your shoulders up and down. The key to this movement is to keep your arms raised high. This movement can contract and activate the back and chest muscles. Repeat the above steps ten times.

3. Waist stretching exercise:

In addition to preventing back pain, waist stretching exercises can also relieve waist pain. Therefore, people who have numbness in their feet due to waist problems may wish to try it. However, I would like to remind you that if your waist hurts a lot, please do not force it.

Lie on your back with your knees bent and do a simple sit-up. You don't have to be perfect, just lift your upper body slightly off the ground. Do it for ten seconds each time and repeat ten times, then take a deep breath at the end. Next, hug your knees with your hands, arch your back into a round shape, and hold this position for ten seconds, then breathe deeply. Next, relax your limbs and lie flat, repeat the previous action on one leg, and hold for ten seconds before switching to the left and right. Take a deep breath after finishing.

After completing the above movements, return to a supine position, fold your hands and place them lightly on your chest, bend your knees, and then use your waist to lift your hips, maintaining this position for ten seconds. Please continue to perform this entire set of movements every day. Waist stretching exercises are actually not difficult to perform. If you feel a little tired and comfortable after doing them, that is the right feeling.

(Photo provided by / Dialect Culture)

Use a waist protector to stabilize the lumbar spine and strengthen the support of the spine

To protect your waist, in addition to doing stretching exercises, using appropriate auxiliary products is also a good choice. When it comes to waist braces (hereinafter referred to as "waist braces"), many people probably think that this type of protective gear is stiff and tight, but in fact there are also "soft waist braces" made of soft materials to choose from.

If worn, the lower end should slightly touch the bend of the thigh root, stabilize the lumbar spine, and stabilize the area near the pelvis. For the elderly, usually fixing the waist can stabilize the trunk, and it will be more comfortable and easier to stand or move than without wearing a waist brace. Because this soft waist protector is easy and comfortable to wear and can significantly reduce the burden on the body, many people become dependent on it.

However, if you rely on a waist brace for a long time, your muscles will gradually atrophy and become weak, and the symptoms will become increasingly difficult to improve. Therefore, this situation should be avoided and try not to wear a waist brace all day. Especially for younger patients, it is recommended to use it as an auxiliary when they need to perform strenuous activities, and at the same time remember to train the abdominal muscles and back muscles, or increase walking and stretching exercises to improve muscle endurance, which will help improve the body's support capacity.