have back problems?

[ich bin ein berliner]

hey, i just stopped on to check out this side of the forum, i think i'll be more active in here.

 

on the subject of my thread, ive had some back trouble starting in highschool at 18, im 22 now and i have to do stuff to keep my back in half way decent shape so i don't have rediculous amounts of pain. ive got a few things that may help that bad back of yours. these tips are mostly for your lower back, i dont have much advice for upper back.

 

stretching - if you want to feel better, stretch. the place where you need to focus streching is your legs.

 

my favorite stretch that makes my back losen up almost right after i do it is (apologies for no pictures. i'll describe as well as i can)

1.) i have no name for this stretch. kneel on one knee. your other leg foot in front of you bent at the knee, foot flat on the ground. hehe heres an ansii (<- wt heck is the proper acryonym)

- use your hands and place them on or above your backside, rear, whatever

- push your rear end forward

- if ur doing it right, you'll feel a stretch right at your hip, where your femur goes into your hip bone

 

you do this 3 sets for :20 for each leg, 5 seconds rest between each interval.

 

2.) put your leg up where you sit on a chair, place your foot so it makes a 90 degree angle with your calf on the back of the chair. your other leg is straight, holding most of your weight.

- keeping your back straight, make your arms straight and point them towards your foot on the chair

- reach to the right of your foot, at your foot, then left of your foot.

- dont bounce when doing this, you'll mess up your back

- you should feel the underside of your knee streching

- 3 x 21 reaches per foot

 

3.) strech your gluts, im not even going to explain these because they'll be way too confusing.

 

if you guys have questions because this is too ambiguous, i'll see what i can do about posting pictures.

 

4.) AB workouts! as much as it sucks doing abs when your back is tender, it helps out a lot. I would guess this would depend on how bad your back hurts and your age. with my body, i have problems doing some ab workouts but my back can be in some pain while im doing them. by doing consistant ab workouts, even if you have no tone to your abs, they'll get stronger and take pressure off your back.

 

5.) remember to modify your workouts. using walls for certain excercises help or wearing a back brace.

 

advice for one workout: if your doing heavy weight for the curl bar, this can be absolutly insane punishing your lower back. if you brace yourself up against a wall with your legs and then use the curl bar, this will prevent you from leaning too far forward and impossible to bend backwards which does the most damage to your back when doing this exercise.

 

i'll post up some more advice when i get back from class... im late. hope this helps!

 

edited *added*

 

the reasoning for streching your legs is to loosen the muscles around your hips. when you dont stretch your legs, the muscles pull the front part of your hips down and in effect, make the back of your hips higher in your back. this makes your back musles have less room to move and creates spazzsm-ing or tightness. loosening the muscles in your hips will help them to level out and give your lower back more room for the muscles.

 

in direct application to bigbone's problems with the 'sleepyness' in his leg and tingle-ing: when your lower back is screwed up, the added pressure of your muscles tightening up will make your lower back vertebrae squeeze together and in effect squeeze your nerves that go down to your leg. when these nerves squeeze, there will be numbing or a feeling of an electrial impulse going through your leg. stretching your legs, again, will help your hip from being in the incorrect position and give your lower back muscles more room to prevent problems arising/becoming worse.

 

/end addition

Edited October 31, 2005 by ich bin ein berliner

[MrDuke]

Where were you 15 yrs ago?

[ich bin ein berliner]

Where were you 15 yrs ago?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

in 7th grade, being a total loser out of shape kid. struggling to try to play the most boring sport possible that i sucked at: baseball.

[ich bin ein berliner]

pictures for streches (crude but effective)

 

the red circles are the areas where you should feel the stretch.

 

1.) position 1

 

 

position 2: executing stretch for 20 seconds

 

 

2.) basic positioning

 

Edited October 31, 2005 by ich bin ein berliner