5 Steps to Improve your Back

• Tweet

Having good muscular strength in the lower back and core muscles (deep pelvic and lower abdominal muscles) is vital for the stability of your lower back region.  Taking advice from personal trainers or therapists can easily help you go in the right direction with your exercise routine.  Pilates and Yoga can also considerably help improve your back health.

 

 

2. Maintain your flexibility

Contrary to popular belief it is vital to have strength within flexibility, having too much strength versus flexibility and vice versa can seriously affect your spinal health by making it a rigid structure.  Your spine has lots of joints, joints allow movement, your spine must move and be mobile.  The trick is to control this movement!

 

 

By making sure your fluid intake (water and foods containing liquids, and before you ask... alcohol doesn't count!) you can make sure your discs receive the optimal environment to function.  Fluid is important for the discs to receive their nutrition, as they are living breathing structures in your body, they need feeding too!

 

 

Evidence shows that sleeping longer significantly improves the health of your back.  Whilst sleeping your discs are able to effectively rest and restore their original form.  Sitting all day, working hard or playing sports all compress your discs and sleeping doesn't, therefore they recover over night.  Try this to see how much yours recover, measure yourself before you go to bed at night and then first thing in the morning.  You should 'grow taller over night' as your discs effectively suck in fluid restoring their shock absorbing properties.  Normally you can be around 2-4 cm taller in the morning after a good nights sleep!