Fast Fitness - Easy Handstand for Balance, Upper Body Strength -The Movie

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - a quick, safer way to try a handstand. Standing on hands has many health and strength benefits and can be easily practiced in this way.

My student Dennis, Olympic medalist in wrestling, demonstrates in this short movie. Click the arrow to watch the movie:

1. Stand with your back about a foot in front of a wall, and crouch to put your hands on the floor (avoid slippery surface)
2. Put one foot high up on the wall, then lift the other foot up too
3. To get down, step one foot back down, then the other

To see step by step still photos and more explanation, click the post Fast Fitness - Easy Handstand where David from Belgium shows the handstand plus how to add a nice overhead hamstring stretch.


Keep breathing. Smile. Relax. Send in your own photos of trying this. Be safe and have fun.

Labels: arm, balance, circulation, fast fitness, handstand, shoulder, strength, upper back, video/movie, wrist

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Fix One Pain, Don't Cause Another

When you stretch and exercise, especially if you stretch and exercise to improve your health, remember that the purpose is not to recreate unhealthy movement habits.

Two similar letters came in recently.

Reader Tina wrote:

"Thanks so much for your posts on stopping upper back pain. I have stopped my upper back pain. But, when I pull my neck and shoulders back, I get pain in my lower back. Which stretches should I do to stop this pain?"

Alicia wrote:

"I recently stumbled upon your articles on the Internet about how to reduce back pain. Thanks so much for providing this information! I am experiencing less pain for sure already… but I have a question. When I am keeping my neck back and shoulders back and correcting the lower back arch, I get a pinching sensation in the middle of my back. What am I doing wrong?"

Tina was doing a common unhealthy movement habit. She didn't need stretches to fix the pain; she needed to stop old injurious movement habits. Tina was leaning her upper body backward thinking she was pulling her shoulders back. Leaning backward is not correcting rounded forward shoulders, even if it seems to move the shoulders rearward. The shoulders have not moved at all just stayed rounded while the upper body pinched backward at the lower spine.

Leaning the upper body backward increases the inward curve of the lower back, making a sharper angle between the pelvis and the lower spine. That increases the normal lordosis (inward lumbar curve) to hyperlordosis, which put painful pinching compression on the area. The shoulders may even still be rounded forward, as in the photo at left. The two segments are different. The photo is a performer who had just finished a trapeze performance. All the exercise and stretching she did every day didn't change her bad positioning habits.

Slipping into familiar unhealthy ways of moving may be habits that occur without thinking. You need to think a bit.

Alicia was just pulling back so tightly that she pinched the area between the shoulder blades. There are sources that say that you should squeeze shoulder blades as if holding a penny between them to fix posture, but of course, that is painful and too tight.

Alicia wrote back:

"Thanks! That helps actually. The pinching was in my upper back, but it's gone now! Thanks so much for responding to me. I look forward to your class in July.
Alicia"

Pinching back does not fix posture or stop upper back pain. Instead, stop the causes of the rounded shoulders and the pain. These three posts help understand and fix the causes: First read and try Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain. Then the second stretch is Nice Neck Stretch. The third stretch to help restore upper body positioning is Friday Fast Fitness - Better Shoulder and Triceps Stretch.

Don't exercise one area and hurt the next:

• The post Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain shows a photo of the common bad habit of leaning the upper body backward when raising the arms.
• The post Prevent Back Surgery shows several photos of how people learn the upper body back or tilt the hip out in back during several common exercises, stretches, and daily activities. Both increase the pinching compression on the lumbar spine.

Remember to think and watch for causes instead of just *doing* exercises and stretches.

Labels: fix pain, lordosis, lower back, neutral spine, posture, shoulder, upper back

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Tax Preparation Health

Taxes are due April 15th. Piles of papers, forms, schedules, receipts. Readers have asked how to be healthier while working at the desk, and how to keep their cool during tax preparation.

Several readers asked how to stop neck pain when looking down over deskwork. Reader John M, specifically asked "How do you suggest someone look down (to look at a chart etc at work) without pushing the (herniated neck) disc out more (or aggravating symptoms)?

Three photos above show tilting the neck forward and/or jutting the chin forward. Holding the head forward of the neck and body is a major source of upper back and neck pain. The "forward head" is hard on the soft tissues, the joints of the vertebrae called facets, and the discs of the neck, and is a major overlooked cause of "upper crossed syndrome." The forward head is just a bad posture, and easy to stop. It is not necessary to jut the neck or chin forward to look downward.

Check how you are sitting right now. Are you letting your neck hang forward, are you jutting your chin forward, or are you pushing or rounding your neck and upper body forward? Instead, keep chin in, loosely and gently. If needed, bring your chair closer in closer to the desk and lean the upper body back instead of rounding your lower back against the chair back and leaning the upper body forwad.

To look down comfortably - tip chin down in relaxed straight position instead of jutting the head and neck forward. That is healthy positioning for everyone - injured or not. No need to lean or hang the head or neck forward, or round your upper back to look downward.

More posts with quick techniques to feel better during desk work:

• Stretch upper body in your chair - Tax Stretch
• Stretch and relax upper body - Quick, Feel-Good Upper Back and Chest Stretch
• Stretch and relax lower body - Quick Relaxing Hip Stretch
• Stretch and relax your breathing - Do Breathing Exercises Work?
• Stretch and relax your spirit - Fast Fitness Friday - Strong Spirit.

Labels: disc, facet joints, fix pain, holiday, neck, posture, sitting, stress, upper back

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Readers Ask About Watching Body Positioning

How many of you caught that the photo in the Fast Fitness post - Fix Positioning by Watching Others is of terrible body positioning that is a common source of upper body pain and injury?

I received letters asking about the photo. Several readers did not catch that the reason for the photo was that both people were standing in terrible rounded forward posture. Some readers thought the photo was not of bad posture, but showed people with interest in the game or that they way they were standing was a needed position to see the ball.


The rounded and tilted forward position of the upper back, neck and head is a bad positioning that is a major cause of:

• Upper back pain sometimes called Upper crossed syndrome
• Herniated neck disc
• Numb fingers
• Shoulder pain and rotator cuff injury

Here are short posts to show you how to spot the cause of upper back and neck pain and what to do:
Breasts Causing Upper Back Pain is a Myth
Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix

One way to tell is to check your arm rotation, shown in
Thumbs Can Show Tightness That Leads to Upper Back Pain

Crunches, many common Pilates exercises and many other exercises done every day done for "health" are in rounded forward or bent forward positions. They are counterproductive to health, to posture, and to strengthening:
Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
Common Exercises Teach Upper Back and Neck Pain
and The Stretch You Need The Least


Look in your fitness magazines and videos and look around during fitness classes and the gym to see if you can see the forward head and a rounded upper body. It's a handy reminder that it is not healthy, and to exercise in better, healthier ways.

Labels: arm, disc, fix pain, impingement, injury, neck, upper back

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Fast Fitness - Quick Homemade Almond Milk and Rice Milk

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - easy, inexpensive almond milk and rice milk.

Good tasting and healthier than dairy milk or soymilk. See Is Your Health Food Unhealthful?

Use in place of milk in most recipes, desserts, in coffee or tea.

For almond milk:

1. Soak a cup of raw almonds for several hours until soft. Four hours is a good start.
2. Use a blender or other mixer to blend softened almonds with several (about 4) cups of clean water until you like the consistency.
3. Optional flavors can be cinnamon, vanilla, unsweetened undutched cocoa, nutmeg, small fresh piece of ginger root, fresh berries, and others.

For rice milk, throw cooked rice in a blender or bowl and mash with water until the consistency you want. Flavor as above.

Don't slouch your neck forward as in the right-hand person in the second photo above. Stand straight, pictured in Fast Fitness - Homemade Sports Food.

Labels: fast fitness, nutrition, posture, upper back

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Long Sitting - Simple and More Comfortable

As you read this, we will have been on several days of flights and trains.

Sitting for long periods does not have to be uncomfortable, whether at the desk, on a flight, when driving. Most lists of instructions for sitting without hurting your back tell you to sit in exact ways at exact angles. This is not needed. Instead, it's better to understand the concepts of how and why strain and injury occur when sitting. Then you can sit in healthy ways that are comfortable, easy, and healthy.

Many desk chairs, even expensive ergonomic chairs are made so that you sit with your spine rounded forward. Sitting rounded eventually creates herniating forces on your discs, explained in The Cause of Disc and Back Pain and Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?

Commercial airline, bus, and train seats often have a concave seat back, encouraging prolonged, enforced rounding. So do many car seat backs, even those saying they have lumbar support.

• If your seat back is too concave, pad the space with a small cushion.
• Use a pad about the size of your own forearm.
• Place the pad in the small inward curve of your lower back.
• Don't remain sitting rounding forward against the lumbar pad out of habit. A lumbar roll will not make you sit right.
• Lean your upper back against the chair. Don't press your lower back against the pad.
• If your lumbar roll hurts, it is not right. It should not be a hard material that hurts you. See if you have it positioned in the right place.
• At a desk, move your seat in closer so that you do not round or lean forward to reach or see the computer.

Future posts will cover more about lumbar roll use and misuse.

If the seat is very concave, you may need two pillows, one for the small inward curve of your low back, and the second above that one for your upper back, in the space still left by the rounded seat. The upper back has a small outward curve, however sitting with a large outward curve creates upper back pain.

Get up frequently to move. Here is the link to last year's travel sitting post on Exercise and Stretch for Long Travel Sitting.

Labels: disc, fix pain, lower back, lumbar roll, posture, sitting, upper back

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Is Your Drinking Hurting Your Neck?

A reader sent me this Hauku:


The photo above shows an injurious positioning called "a forward head." A forward head position presses cervical (neck) discs outward, causes upper back and neck pain often called "upper crossed" syndrome, and can press the nerve going down the arm, leading to arm pain and hand/finger numbness. Jutting the chin upward with the neck forward can, over time, create a spondylolisthesis (vertebral shifting). Raising the arm with the shoulder rounded and the neck forward adds to shoulder and rotator cuff injury.

Check yourself for a forward head position when eating and drinking (and on the phone):

• Corner of the jaw is far forward of the shoulder
• Neck tilts forward
• Jaw juts forward
• Neck pinches backward, with high compressive force
• Shoulder rounded

Don't round your back or jut your chin forward. Instead, keep chin in when you eat and drink and talk on the phone. To look upward, get the upward motion more from straightening your upper back, and not from one joint in your neck. The neck is not a hinge joint. For more on looking upward, click Gaze Perseid Meteors Without Neck Pain. For neck and upper back health looking downward over desk, click Tax Preparation Health.

Don't rely on, "Keep ear over shoulder" thinking that is straight posture. You can see in the photo that the ear is over the shoulder, but the neck is craned badly.

Use healthful positioning for built-in upper body muscle exercise and easy pain prevention. Check yourself sideways in a mirror. Watch other people eating and drinking for an easy reminder. Happy Holidays.

Labels: fix pain, impingement, injury, neck, rotator cuff, shoulder, upper back, yoga

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Fast Fitness - Upper Back, Shoulder, Triceps, Arm, Wrist, and Hand Stretch

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - nice stretch for hands, upper back, and everything in between.

1. Stand with your back about a foot from a solid surface


2. Reach upward and backward to place both hands on the wall, all fingers facing downward


3. Press, lifting upward, keeping the stretch in your chest and upper body.

Vary the stretch by straightening elbows more. Do not hinge from the lower back, which increases lordosis (causes hyperlordosis). Tuck hip to neutral to stop compressive pain in the lower back. Here is how.

Breathe. Smile. Feel good stretching your upper back out of forward rounded posture.

Labels: arm, fast fitness, hand, lordosis, neutral spine, shoulder, stretch, upper back, wrist

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Fix Neck, Play Hockey, Use Brain, Fun Life

Rich Tarpinian, IT systems engineer, musician, hockey coach, and vegan, fixed grinding neck pain, back spasms, disc pain, and tension-type headaches. He had not been comfortable sleeping in any position. Rich said the neck grinding and discomfort, "felt like it was never going to go away."

Rich writes:

"Thanks again for your help! Here's my update. I stopped cranking my neck around and the grinding stopped within the 2 weeks or so that you had indicated.

"I am controlling my body positioning, more aware, and have eliminated lots of neck tension even though I work at a computer all day. The anxiety I was having about disc problems, etc., has mostly been replaced with good knowledge, a feeling of control, and an ability to heal.

"Every morning (instead of sitting on the bed) I get out of bed the way you have recommended - why? because it makes sense. I don't sit on the bed and then try to straighten my body as I start to walk. I get up from the face down position in the already standing position.

"I've always had an interest in the mechanical aspect of how the body moves and what the sources of problems can be which is why, when I was pouring over information on the internet, your information regarding cause/effect relationships instantly caught and held my attention.

"I eat a pretty good diet - vegan with a good amount of raw foods, but had not paid much attention to posture and movement. I will now.

"As a side note, I coached hockey for about 8 years and played up until about 4 years ago. I had an opportunity to get back into some coaching recently but was really worried about the neck issues that I had been having for weeks. I also used to get a lot of back spasms when I played/coached. After experiencing the progress from your recommendations, which came just in time, I stepped confidently back on the ice a couple of weeks ago and have felt good given some expected muscle soreness that is now gone. The hardest thing was lacing up the skates but, once I was on the ice, I felt great.

"What you have done effectively is to empower people with the knowledge of how to find and return to the correct answers in order to maintain their own bodies. You've done that by providing reasons where needed, presenting conflicting information to show contrast, and using repetition to help solidify the important concepts."

"The key is that I now understand the causes of the problem and can, for the most part, manage the process when things start going wrong. As I cruised the internet looking at information, my anxiety meter kept rising - until I found your article on fixing the neck grinding problem which prompted me to read your other articles on sitting, lifting, etc. The article was immediately positive with a no strings attached approach to fixing and preventing the problem. My overcoming the neck issues is directly attributable to you."

Rich first fixed his pain using my web site summary sheets.
These Fitness Fixer posts also describe techniques used:

• To understand and spot the injury and pain from unhealthful head and neck position - Upper Back Exercise and Neck Pain Prevention Too
• Spot and prevent upper body pain when carrying a backpack - Prevent Neck Pain and Get Upper Back Exercise Carrying Backpacks
• Two important stretches to do first thing in the morning and throughout the day to restore ability to sit, move, and stand without unhealthful neck position - Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain and Nice Neck Stretch
• Looking upward with good neck mechanics - Gaze Perseid Meteors Without Neck Pain
• Two nice upper back stretches to relax - Tax Stretch and Quick, Feel-Good Upper Back and Chest Stretch
• Stopping neck pain from sitting - Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
• Stopping neck pain from exercise - Common Exercises Teach Upper Back and Neck Pain
• Photo of healthful neck position when cooking - Fast Fitness - Homemade Sports Food
• Do this Wall Test to check for unhealthful neck positioning - Breasts Causing Upper Back Pain is a Myth.
• Having muscles soreness is not bad, it means you're out having fun. Make sure there is no pain or soreness in the joint. That is the difference. See Teen Dies After Using Muscle Soreness Rub
• November is Vegan month. More on vegetarian and vegan eating - World Vegetarian Day.

I wrote Rich to congratulate him on his initiative and great work, and thank him for his story. He replied:

"Just when I've corrected the forward head problem, I'm going to need those neck exercises to treat "swelled head syndrome."

Smile and laugh. It's healthy too.

Labels: disc, hockey, lower back, neck, nutrition, readers inspiring story, sitting, sleep, upper back

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Friday Fast Fitness - Better Shoulder and Triceps Stretch

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Quick shoulder and triceps stretch, without adding new bad positioning. Use this instead of the usual stretch of pulling elbow overhead with the other hand, which usually results in leaning the head forward and arching the lower back.

Instead:

1. Stand diagonally in front of a wall.
2. Raise elbow (the one closest to the wall). Lean arm, armpit, and body against the wall
3. Breathe. Relax. Smile. Switch sides.

Do not arch the lower back or tighten any part, or it will hurt and not be right or healthy. That would be silly.

Labels: arm, fast fitness, lower back, neutral spine, shoulder, stretch, upper back

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Fast Fitness - Stronger, Straighter Upper Back

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Quickly strengthen and straighten the upper back, improve balance, and learn better shoulder position for reaching.

Last Fast Fitness Friday started this one for a strong base. Now that you have practiced, add the upper body:

1. Stand on one foot. Lift the other leg in back and bend at the hip until your body is perpendicular to your leg as in the photo, like the top bar in letter T. See how the body is straight in line with the brown field in the photo?
2. Hold both arms in front of you, parallel to the floor, hands level with, or above your head. Lift from your chest, not neck. Keep your shoulders down and back. Don't hunch or round your shoulder or it will impede raising the arms.
3. Hold straight as long as you can. Switch legs. Hold straight as long as you can.

Work with a mirror or friend until you can tell straight positioning on your own.
Want less? Raise only arm.
Breathe. Enjoy.

Labels: arm, balance, fast fitness, hamstring, hip, leg stretch, lower back, posture, shoulder, upper back

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Back to School - Healthy Sitting

The mind can only absorb what the tushy can endure. Better sitting can make better work along with better health. If your back or neck hurt from sitting, here is how to change it.

You don't need special or ergonomic chairs, keyboards, or desks.
You can sit well on a bucket. You can sit poorly and have pain
from an expensive posture chair. Many people do.

Myths of how to sit "right" involve strange rules - to keep thighs parallel to the floor, for example,
or feet at certain angles, or hips at 90 degree angles to the body.
None of these are necessary.

The photo of sitting, at right, shows sitting poorly. No mystery. The spine is rounding forward. Body weight presses on the lower back discs. The upper back is overstretched. The head is held at an angle that pulls on the muscles at the top of the shoulder. The post Don't Fall for "Don't Sit Up Straight" explained about a research study that found there is less pressure while leaning back against a seat, than when sitting vertically. That does not mean not to "sit straight" as the headlines said. With or without a seat back, sitting straight is still healthier than rounding.




The HealthLine team sent the photo (left) of one example of healthy straight sitting,

and a parody of exaggerated, strained, rigidly straight sitting, (right).

Anyone trying it would soon find that sitting straight like that is not worth the strain, with good reason.












To try better sitting now:

1. Move your backside right against the chair back.
2. Move your chair in closer to the desk.
3. Lean your upper back against the seat back, not your lower back. Do not press or round against the lower back.
4. Chin in loosely, not jutting or tilting forward over the desk.

What is a good way to remember to sit without rounding forward? Watch other people sitting, driving, at the desk, and when exercising and stretching. Their bad positioning will remind you not to do that to your own spine.

Many chairs, even expensive ergonomic "back posture" chairs advertised to have built in lumbar support, are built in a way that makes you round forward when you sit against the seat back. The next post on sitting will cover fixing a bad chair.

The body needs movement for health. Get up from the chair often to straighten and move. The post Exercise and Stretch for Long Travel Sitting will get you started. When sitting, use your brain and your muscles to get free, natural, upper back use by not slumping. Make the idea of good sitting about understanding healthy body use and positioning instead of memorization without comprehension. Make healthy body use enjoyable and interesting. This is the kind of learning that is in the best spirit of "Back to School."

Good sitting should not cause pain.

Posts with more healthy Back-to-School:

• Carrying Schoolbooks Is Not the Cause of Back Pain
• Prevent Neck Pain and Get Upper Back Exercise Carrying Backpacks
  
• Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain

Labels: children, fix pain, lower back, posture, sitting, upper back

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Inspirational Ivy

Ivy from New Zealand e-mailed me last week with a funny update of persevering to improve mobility and health from a new stretch. I started writing this post just to tell of Ivy's stretch and how readers can have the same success.

I looked over my file of Ivy's caring comments on Fitness Fixer and her e-mails to me over the last two years - each story weaving to the next - of improving health, mobility, and joy of life for herself and people in her community. Reading them again was like sitting by a stream that quietly sparkled over rocks on its way by, inspiring and lovely. Some are private, some I have her permission to tell.

Last October, Ivy posted on Fitness Fixer how she first found me while looking for relief from severe sciatica with foot drop. For 11 months, she had tried treatment and an exercise regimen from a chiropractor.

Ivy wrote, "I knew I should be feeling better than I was. During those months I was continually surfing the net looking for answers, then in November 2005, I discovered Dr Jolie Bookspan's "How to fix your own pain without drugs or surgery." Everything she described was ME, 69 years of bad habits had finally caught up with me.

"So began my journey to good health and freedom from pain. I began with the pec stretch, trapezius stretch, wall stand, sitting correctly at the computer without sticking out my chin, hamstring stretch, isometric abs (no more crunches), squats and lunges instead of bad bending.

You can imagine my joy when after 2 days I was free of pain. I was so excited that I contacted Dr Jolie, who in turn, took time out from her busy schedule to e-mail me giving me further advice and exercises which I might add, I follow religiously along with a daily 30 minute walk (weather permitting).

"Some months ago, I decided to follow a vegetarian diet. I feel so well and happy, in fact, I have loads of energy. I turn 70 at the end of this month (Oct 2006) and am looking forward to the next stage of my life feeling healthy and free of pain."

This year Ivy followed up when we were corresponding on making sure of healthy nutrition:

"This is the second winter that I have not had either a cold or 'flu. For someone who was always getting the 'flu, that is really something. I put it down to my healthy vegetarian diet."

Ivy used my free web site summary sheets on fixing pain, my books, and Fitness Fixer posts. Here are links to posts Ivy used:

• Pec (pectoral) stretch - Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain.
• Trapezius stretch - Nice Neck Stretch.
• Wall stand - this is a quick check of functional muscle tightness to see if you can use healthful positioning for normal activity. It is described in the first paragraph of the post Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain, above.
• Sitting correctly at the computer - When Did Health Become Thinking Out Of The Box?
  and Get Better Exercise From Your Chair
  and Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
• Hamstring stretch - Healthier Hamstring Stretching
  and Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch
  and Doorway Hamstring Stretch.
• Isometric abs (no more crunches) - this one isn't up on Fitness Fixer yet. It is in my book The Ab Revolution and Fix Your Own Pain, and on my web site summary on functional use of abs to stop overarching the lower spine. Ivy sent a photo of doing this exercise. I will post it when I post about this fun, different, functional abdominal exercise.
• Squats - Bending Right is Fitness as a Lifestyle
  Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending
  and How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending.
• Lunges - Strengthen and Retrain Function With The Lunge.

The posts on lunges, Doorway Hamstring Stretch, and Functional Achilles Stretch, feature photos that Ivy sent me. Earlier this year I wrote her asking if she could send me photos demonstrating what she is doing. She invited a neighbor who came and took photos, and mailed a pack of them to me from New Zealand. Ivy writes:

"My dear 86 year old friend took them and we certainly had a lot of fun doing what I will call a "photo shoot." Bear in mind her age when I tell you that while I was trying to hold the pose, she would press the incorrect button and would have to start all over again. I would lose what I would call the correct form and so it would go on... I can now sympathize with models who have to hold poses for what seems an eternity."

In February 2007 Ivy sent an update, signing it:

"I shudder to think where I would be if I had not found your web site over 15 months ago. I mean it when I say "Thank you for helping me get my life back." I am fit, I am healthy, what more can one want in this life. I have passion about what I do something that I haven't had in a very long time."

What about her e-mail and the new stretch? We're out of room. Click for the next post- Inspirational Ivy II - Beating Foot Drop and Sciatica, and Getting Healthier.

Labels: aging, chest, fix pain, hamstring, lunge, nutrition, posture, readers inspiring story, sciatica, sitting, squat, upper back

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Inspirational Update from Bill

In May, blog reader Bill (Lieutenant William Slabonik) sent an inspiring story - Freed From Pain, He Rides Again. Bill had been told by several sources that surgery and disability retirement were his only options. He used Fitness Fixer information to change a future as damaged as x-rays of his spine, to the active life he loves, without pain. He used information from the upper back and shoulder posts, among others, to learn how neck discs, upper back muscles, and other structures are damaged with mal-positioning, and how to employ healthy muscle use so the discs can heal and arm numbness stops, even riding long bike trips, lifting heavy gear, and in his demanding work as a pilot. He fixed low back chronic pain with the simple neutral spine repositioning away from a hyperlordotic (over-arched lower spine) when standing, shown in Prevent Back Surgery and all the posts on neutral spine.

In the May update, Bill told how he fixed the injuries and rode the Pennsylvania State Police Memorial century ride. Last week Bill reported in:

"My goal of riding the 200 km night ride down the Jersey shore was a success. I rode from 10pm 'til 9am with no problems covering the distance of 125 miles. I actually felt like I could go on a lot further. I have also completed a 2-day 200-mile ride to visit my brother-in-law in Maryland. I now can get on my bike on any day and reasonably crank out a hundred mile ride. No serious pain or discomfort noted. Only the usual slight soreness in the rear end and hands and elbows that seems to come with any long ride. The neck, shoulders and back did incredibly well, - I constantly checked my position while on the bike and did some "Healthy Stretching" whenever I was off the bike. Mission accomplished."

Note to readers - I will cover hand and arm soreness with biking in posts to come. I already worked with Bill to prevent local hand numbness from compressive leaning on the wrists, which Bill put to immediate use. I asked Bill to take photos for you of his simple changes in biking positioning to change damaging neck, shoulder, arm, and hand use to healthy ones.

Bill says,

"My son has promised to help me with the photos. I must ride herd on this project and get back to you soon.

"My confidence and health have skyrocketed. My daughters are leaving for college and I am looking forward to an empty house soon. They have thanked me for being there when they needed me and asked me why I just don't go and do something I would love to do. I am applying for retirement this morning and have completed an interview for a job flying in mainland China. I have two other airlines trying to get me to interview. Wish me luck on my next amazing adventure. And thanks for your help and encouragement."

Bill - Free Man

Bill, all hats off to you. Keep flying high. More good things are still to come. Keep us posted.

More inspiring stories coming next from readers Jill and Ivy.

Labels: biking, hand, neck, neutral spine, readers inspiring story, shoulder, spirit, upper back, wrist

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Fast Fitness - Strengthen Many Places at Once

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quick strengthener for arms, shoulders, body, legs, hands, feet. Healthier than bending over for rows (hard on discs) and more functional strengthening than lying on a bench:

1. Hold a tucked pushup position - tuck shown in Prevent Back Surgery
2. Lift a weight or other object 10 times.
   
3. Lift with the other arm 10 times. Try various lifts - front, back, sides.
   

Want more? Add a pushup, lifting the weight on the way up. More? Lift one foot. More? Use an unwieldy barbell for balance challenge or pinch grip to strengthen hands.

Tuck your hip to straighten your lower spine to strengthen abdominal and back muscles too. Hold your head up with neck straight to strengthen neck and upper back muscles the way they need for healthy straight standing.

Breathe. Smile.

Labels: arm, fast fitness, leg strength, lower back, posture, shoulder, strength, upper back

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Prevent Back Surgery

I received an invitation to take a course to learn a new back surgery for damage to the facets. Facets are the joints at the back of each vertebrae (spine bone). The surgery was advertised as a good revenue producer.

In the surgery, the facet joint is cut off and replaced by "lumbar position preservation hardware" rigidly attached so that the area can no longer bend or arch backward. At right is an X-ray of the lower spine with surgically implanted hardware. The person is standing sideways facing to the right. Surgical facet rigid fixation surgery is considered innovative because it replaces the more drastic spine fusion. It also replaces repeated injections into the painful area. The seminar would teach me the surgery with a cocktail reception following.

Why does the surgery want to prevent arching the lower spine? The facets are in the back of the vertebrae. Chronically letting your spine arch (too much inward curve) squashes the facets in back. According to work I've done over years in the lab, the overarching, called hyperlordosis (or slouching backward), is a chief factor in damage and pain to the facets and surrounding soft tissue. That means that you can stop this yourself without the surgery.

Notice if you allow overarching when carrying things in back (left) and in front (right). It is not the normal curve of the spine. It is too much:
The left photo above is from the post Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain. You do not need to allow the pack to pull your upper body backward. Right photo is from Healthier Carrying - Get Free Ab Exercise and Stop Pain. You do not need to lean back to offset weight carried. In both examples, the hip tilts forward in front, instead of holding vertically.
Two examples above show allowing the spine to arch too much when reaching overhead. Left photo is from Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain. The drawing at right is from Back Pain in Pregnancy - and Why Men Can Get It. Imagine lifting your baby overhead (or any weight) and allowing your spine to pinch backward on the facet joints instead of standing upright and holding neutral spine.
Two examples above are from Aren't You Supposed To Stick Your Behind Out to Sit Down or Do Squats? (left) and Overlooked Ab Muscles in Overhead Lifts (right).

You can stop overarching, thereby preventing crushing force on the facets, and distribute the weight through the core muscles instead. It is a simple positional adjustment that takes seconds (shown below). An alternative is to have surgery.

Following rigid fixation surgery, you will no longer be able to stretch your lower spine as far backward, even when you want to stretch for range of motion and better disc health. You will still be able to slouch your body weight backward - onto the implants. They may eventually wear, along with adjacent bone, from the chronic crushing. Because the surgically fixed area can no longer overarch, increased forces occur on the joints above and below which have to bend more. If you thought the spine in the x-ray above still looked overly arched, not neutral, you are right. The areas above and below the implanted devices are over-arching backward, and the backside is tilting out in back (hip axis is tilted anteriorly). After years, those facets may be next to break down. It is no surprise "when the pain comes back." The cause of the pain was never removed.

Instead of allowing your spine to be pulled into damaging position, use your muscles to hold neutral spine. Here is one easy way to learn to feel it:

1. Stand with your back against a wall. Touch heels, backside, shoulders, and head. Do you feel a large arch in the lower back making a large space?
2. Put your hands on your hips. Thumbs in back. Fingers in front.
3. Roll your hip so that thumbs roll down in back.

The large space between lower back and wall becomes a smaller space. Do not flatten against the wall or round your back. Just feel the strain come off the lower back. Use the new neutral for daily positioning. Simple. Check the photo at right (spine positioning is shown standing sideways, not with back to wall). Left is arching. Right is neutral. A small inward curve remains with neutral spine (right). Neutral spine does not mean rounding the back (which pressures the discs). Make the belt line level, not tilting down in front. The photo is from the post Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine. Click for additional ideas.

The muscles used to maintain neutral spine are your abdominal and core muscles. It is not strengthening ab muscles that stops pain or teaches you neutral spine. It is using them to prevent damaging spine position. You get free, built-in core muscle exercise just by avoiding back surgery.

Labels: abdominal muscles, facet joints, fix pain, injury, lordosis, lower back, neutral spine, surgery, upper back

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Gaze Perseid Meteors Without Neck Pain

This weekend in the Northern Hemisphere, the moon will be new, and the night dark, and the skies filled with the shooting stars of the Perseid Meteor shower.

Every 130 years or so, the Swift-Tuttle comet circles the Sun, streaming icy, dusty debris the size of sand and peas. Every mid-August, the Earth passes the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, raining fiery remains very fast through the sky. Igniting against the air's intense friction, they "shoot" across the sky. Books by people who study these things say they fly about 37 miles per second (60 kps), most burning away far above the ground.

The Perseid showers are seen in the sky around the constellation of Perseus the Hero, giving the name. Early Greeks explained that the god Zeus, father of Perseus, visited Perseus' mortal mother Danae in a shower of brightness. Later the event was renamed (or reborn) as "The Tears of St. Lawrence" for their appearance during the August festival of Saint Laurentius. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean writings of Perseid showers date from the 8th century. I grew up on Russian childhood social-utopian folk bedtime stories of comets, mixed with my Grandmother's whispers of fiery conflagration, later determined from an unknown comet or part bursting over Tunguska Krasnoyarsk Siberia around 1908, devastating the forest (later politically reinvented as a nuclear event, and editorially as UFOs for Russian science fiction writing and American television).

What about your neck?
When watching meteor showers standing or sitting, don't martyr your neck. If you crane your neck and push the chin forward when looking upward, you put destructive force on the neck, shown in three examples that follow:

• Three images above show craning the neck and jutting the chin. Injurious compres