Your Back Can Feel Healthy!
How great would it feel to move freely, easily and without pain throughout your life? Having a healthy back is one of the keys to realizing this dream.
By Earl Salzman
Everyone has or will experience back pain in their lifetime. What we need to realize is, there are measures we can take to ensure our spinal health and minimize the risk of injury. In this article, I’ve outlined a back exercise program that has been extremely successful with my personal training clients. Please remember, however, if you are currently suffering from back discomfort or injury, get clearance from a medical professional before implementing these exercises.
Much back pain occurs because the muscles in the back, hips, abdomen, buttocks and hamstrings are weak and inflexible. These are the body’s core muscles and they support the spine. To counteract this, we need to perform exercises to increase these muscles’ flexibility and strength.
Core Flexibility
First, some general rules: Always warm up before doing flexibility training, by light jogging, walking or cycling. This gets the muscles ready to be stretched. Each stretch should be performed for 20- 30 seconds. Repeat each stretch 2-4 times.
Neck Flexion
Grab behind your head with both hands
and gently pull the neck forward so that
the chin approaches the chest.
Side Neck Flexion
With one hand, pull the side of the head sideways and forward, so that the ear approaches the shoulder, and you feel a pull on the side of the neck. Repeat on the other side.
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