Hello, my name’s Gemma and welcome to Bodyfixit. I wanted to give you my tips for backaches and pain.
You might have muscle aches and pain, stiffness, pulling, might have spasm and feel like you can’t move easily.
So, my number one tip to help with your backache is to get moving so the more you’re stationary, the less blood that pumps around your body. So you want to get up as often as you can, don’t just sit in a chair for long period of time, get up. If you’re at work, try and get up every hour, every half an hour, just walk around, it doesn’t need to be a big movement, it just needs to get the blood pumping so that your body starts to get blood to the area and that can help the healing.
My second tip is that you should drink lots, not alcohol, you need to drink water and make sure that you’re drinking enough regularly throughout the day, don’t just do, “I’m going to have a litre in the morning, a litre in the evening” because you’ll just pee that straight out. So, regularly and consistently throughout the day, drink your water and if you don’t like water in its own just put a slice of lemon in it. I quite like if I get some mint leaves, I stick that in and that just makes it feel fresher and better for me and that way I don’t get bored of the taste of water as well. Just try and do that consistently throughout the day.
My third tip for backaches and pains is support. You might feel like there’s a weakness and you’re hesitant to move then you might actually benefit from some support. So some people buy a Neoprene support. At Bodyfixit, we stick Rocktape on you which is a kinesiology tape that gives you support but doesn’t restrict you from moving because we don’t want to hold you fixed in a position.
My fourth tip is if you’re in a lot of pain, then actually you’d probably need to take medication for it. A lot of us try and avoid medication. Sometimes what you need is that medication to start the pain receptors relaxing, not being a problem anymore and then you’re able to get moving, that’s the key. It’s actually “Can we move in a safe way not okay, now we can go and do box jumps and run up and down hills.” It’s actually “Now I can walk from A to B and I don’t have that pain.” That’s going to help you.
My fifth tip is get treated. So whether it’s through massage, whether it’s through seeing other health professionals, get the help that you need. A lot of people put up with something that actually we can help you get simple relief from and you don’t need to put up with it anymore. So, please and my number one bugbear is people saying, “Oh it’s a bit sore but I’ll wait ’till I’m in a lot of pain to come and see you.” My problem with that is; A – you’re waiting to get in worse pain but also when you come and see me when you’re in worse pain, the treatment that you need; A – you’re probably going to need more treatment and also the road to recovery is going to be longer. So if we can catch your symptoms when you go, “Oh there’s a bit of a twinge there”, that means we can catch that there rather than you waiting to, “Oh, everything’s locked up and I can’t move anymore”, that’s going to take longer for healing.
My sixth tip is sitting posture. So posture is a big thing, it’s a buzz word, everybody likes “postureโ at the moment but it is a big thing because we spend a lot of time sitting, we sit at our desks at work, we sit in a car to get from work and back to home, we also drive the kids in the car so we’re going in and out and we spend a lot of time sitting, we sit in front of the TV in
the evenings, we relax in the evenings, we sit for our meals so think about how you’re sitting. Quite often we sort of slump and by the end of the day being on the computer you feel kind of like you’re like this on the computer so think about actually we don’t want to be like a turtle, I just realized I look like a turtle when I do that, my neck’s in the shell. You want to be standing up tall almost imagining there’s a string attached to the top of your head and it’s pulling you up and that we’re in a neutral spine. So we’re not bending forward, we’re tucking…
My next tip is that if you find a position which is comfortable, for some people that might be lying on the floor with their big knees bent or it could be that they’re lying on the floor with their knees hugged into their chest, if that’s a comfortable position for you then what I recommend is spending some time in it. It’s comfortable, your body’s healing within that position so spend ten minutes just lying on the floor. Spend ten minutes; maybe five in the morning, five in the evening if you can’t do it in one go and just spend ten minutes in that comfortable position and then get moving once everything’s freed up.
My next tip is actually if things aren’t getting any better and you’re struggling on, you don’t necessarily know where to get help, visit your doctor. That’s what they’re there for, they can give you the medication if you need it, they can advise you on help and also if it’s recommended, they can talk about hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, and other options.
My next tip is healthy eating. So a lot of us don’t sort of realize that actually we’re in pain, your body’s in stress mode so it’s trying to survive so if you can put nutritious food, a lot of people say, “JERF” so “Just Eat Real Food”, if you can just eat real food, your body is getting the nutrition it needs, the nutrients it needs to boost your healing. Weirdly, pineapple is particularly good post-event because of the amino acids in it and that can help with your body recovery so pineapple is a good thing to eat.
And my last tip is a cat-camel stretch where you are on all fours on the floor, so on your hands and your knees and you roll upwards, so you curve up so you get a curve in your back and then you do the opposite. So you roll into an extension so you dip into your tummy comes towards the floor, if that makes sense.
So I hope those tips help you with your backaches and pains. If you would like more advice then contact us soon.