Here is a little gift for your back, the “Magic Pose” for soothing back pain.
Who has not suffered from back pain at least once in their life? Rare are those who never suffer from it. So we take painkillers, we consult a doctor, change mattresses or pillows, but pay much less attention to our vertical standing posture and especially to the sitting position. As bipedal, we have many advantages and great mobility but experiences here quite a few dangers.
Animals do not have this problem. They walk mostly on all fours, their limbs of course have the same length and they have no dominant side: "left" or "right", their internal organs rest on the abdominal muscle hammock and the pelvic floor hammock remain free from loads. Their breathing is abdominal. Their spine posture remains natural and they like to stretch themselves several times a day.
"Being a bipedal is a constant challenge. It is a structure that is constantly threatened by gravity." Dr. Bernadette de Gasquet, “Pour en finir avec le mal de dos”, Albin Michel, 2016.
So we really need to pay attention to our standing posture, pay attention to carrying weights, leaning on asymmetrically or adopting an asymmetrical behavior, such as crossing legs while sitting on a chair or always carrying a bag on the same shoulder.
Sitting on a chair can be devastating. The chairs are not adapted to our personal morphology (body structure). They are often too high, too inclined backwards. We collapse into them or alternatively sit over-arching, we cross our legs in an attempt to find some comfort and instinctively a way to length our spine (generally on the same side and especially women, since the chair is too high). We collapse in front of the TV, leaning forward inadvertently to eat or play on our game console, we squeeze the neck vertebrae with a prolonged look up at the computer screen. And we spend extra hours in traffic jams, collapsing into the car seat without being able to move ourselves a bit.
In short, we constantly put our backs to the load test, so should we add more harmful loads on our backs during sports activities or a yoga class?
On the contrary! This is where we need to take the time, with awareness, to find balance, stretch, flex, strengthen, relieve pain and balance the asymmetry that exists within us. We are here to get rid of back pain and not to aggravate it!
For this, we need to be aware of certain principles that will allow us to respect our body and benefit from our training, without harming ourselves as often happens, during training that gives us pleasure; We choose to ignore the signals our body sends us, perhaps out of a desire to challenge the limits of our body or age. These signals will one day become damages that we can no longer ignore. Some will stay with us forever and we will have to work hard to get rid of others. There are those who choose a moderate and gentle activity out of the desire to respect the needs of their body, to allow it to adapt to efforts. This is a wise choice of course, but even there, they can experience seemingly innocent but harmful movements and even not be aware of that.
*I highly recommend you watch this video (english subtitles) from the de Gasquet Institute, to get a brief overview of the basic principles of this method. I hope this will contribute to you making effective and healthy movement choices during your workout or yoga class.
*Do you want to practice Yoga without fear of back pain? Want to strengthen your abdominal muscles and protect your pelvic floor? So I invite you to join my YouTube classes
In the meantime here is a little gift for your back, the “Magic Pose” for soothing back pain.
Bibliography: “Pour en finir avec le mal de dos”, Dr. Bernadette de Gasquet, Albin Michel, 2016
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