Who's Got Your Back?

In the middle of your back is an incredible conduit of information and direction known as your spinal column. Your spine is a fine, fine piece of technology. Aside from its straightforward job of keeping your head attached to your body, your back bone houses a communications network that rivals the awesomeness of any sci-fi creation.

If you do nothing else for your torso, ever, in your life, please do yourself this one favor: take care of your spine. Protect it from harm by avoiding unhealthy levels of impact which can lead to fracture and disability, as well as unhealthy levels of strain, which can lead to pain, stress, surgery and limited mobility.

Your spine is so darn important, no wonder it so often tries to get your attention. Here's a way to say hello to it and make sure it's doing okay. You can be near your screen, but make a bit of room to stand and reach:

1. Stand up now and bend over slowly to reach down to your toes. Hold those abs while you straighten up again from bottom to top. Make sure your breathing in and out, deeply. Do that five times.

2. Now split your legs to be shoulder-width apart, reach your hands back around you to support your low back and bottom, then arch your chest and face gently up to the sky. Return to standing with squared shoulders and hands hanging at your side, then slowly roll your head from one side to the other as if you are listening to the ceiling with left and right ear. Do that sequence five times.

3. Finally, while standing with your feet a little wider still, reach your arms out straight to your sides and exhale. Then inhale deeply while you bend sideways, lowering one arm down the side of your leg, the other arm reaching over your head. Support your bended body with your lower arm on your leg, but don't press hard into the knee, and don't shrug your shoulders. Exhale and inhale, sinking into the side bend. Then slowly rise up, returning to the starting stance, and ready to go the other way. Do this three times on each side.

I'm not assigning you with a fourth twisting motion, because who knows what shape your back is in. We'd need to meet in person to decide on that. But you should have a little bit better idea about your back now that you've done this simple stretching sequence. It's just basic standing therapy for the spine, and it can tell you a lot about your tight spots and crooked parts.

Did you get stuck halfway down when you reached for your toes? That's a tight low back and hamstrings--very common condition and a very common cause of lower back pain, and worse. If you leave your low back (lumbar spine) unattended for too long, stuff starts to bulge and slip and wedge. Especially if you do things that compress it, like walk, jump, run, lift heavy weights over your head, or even just sit a lot. If your lumbar spine is messed up, it often stops you from performing your normal activities. Why not keep that low back loose and the muscles that support it strong? You can avoid what is the most common complaint brought to orthopedic doctors--low back pain.

Did you get stuck trying to look up at the ceiling or rolling your head side to side? That could be trouble with the cervical spine--your neck--or maybe the upper thoracic spine which is related to movements in the shoulder carriage and chest. Pretty much everyone knows what happens if you break your neck, right? Paralysis of some sort is likely to ensue. That should give us a clue to the value of keeping our upper spines top of mind. Those motor signals coming right down frin command central in your brain need a clear connected pathway in your neck to reach the lower extremities. If you fell off your bike, were in a car accident, or had a skiing mishap, you'd want your neck and upper back to escape serious injury. You can help that protective factor along by keeping your upper back and neck aligned and tending to them when they get rigid. Stiff necks are a painful reminder of how much you really do depend on that part of your body!

Did you get stuck moving sideways? The muscles of your torso are more than just the glamour muscles featured on the covers of body building magazines. There are deep stabilizers in there, which connect your top to your bottom and your front to your back. The largest geographic areas of muscles expanse are located in your back and up to your neck. Your abs are there to help your spine move, and thus should be honored as they can protect your back from damage. In Pilates, we call all this, plus the gluteus muscles, the "Powerhouse." I like that term. It makes sense. All your power is located right here. And it's your spine that provides the mode of transportation for every movement in most of your body.

Pick One Thing: Your Spine
Keep your spine fluid and your spinal fluid moving and uncompromised. Have some back bone. No one can take care of your back better than you, and no one feels it more when you don't!

There are so many great yet simple things you can do in the care and keeping of your spine, we need a second installment to get into more detail. So let's meet again to give all 33 of your vertebra a voice.