By ARMANDO BASULTO
When pursuing healthy living habits people often find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Many of the prescriptions and suggested cures come with lengthy laundry lists of warnings and possible contradictions. Every pharmaceutical TV advertisement ends with a rushed litany of reported side effects. Sometimes the possible cures or prescriptives seem worse than the ailments!
For sufferers of chronic lower back pain, the choices are often between therapies, painkillers or surgeries. To get through day-to-day tasks at work, home or play, it is not uncommon to continually alternate between various positions in search of temporary relief. Standing up straight feels great for a while, until you find yourself leaning on a chair or table to relieve some tension on your lower back. Sitting provides comfort but when you go to stand up after sitting for a while, you find you feel tighter and more painful than before.
If you have this type of nagging lower back pain so common in today’s world, you find yourself constantly deciding which is worse; sitting for some temporary comfort, or standing for long periods to avoid the tightening of the back and leg muscles. It is the old conundrum of being stuck “between a rock and a hard place”
As a side note, that saying originates from a section of Homer’s Odyssey in which Odysseus’s ship must pass through a narrow straight guarded by the six-headed monster Scylla and the monstrous whirlpool Charybdis. The sailors are forced to choose between two devastating dangers. They decide to go up against the monster, losing 6 men in the process, rather than risk the entire crew to Charybdis’s whirlpool. While modern day sufferers of chronic back pain are hopefully not also faced with battling monsters or navigating whirlpools, finding a comfortable position when experiencing pain can definitely feel like a choice between two unpleasant options.
If you are a newcomer to back-pain or an “old hand” at dealing with this chronic nuisance, you may find that after a slow start, gentle walking sometimes loosens up tight lower back muscles and provide some temporary relief. However, walking or standing for long periods of time can cause your back to feel aggravated and prompt you to look for a quick break to sit down.
Sitting for long periods will put stress on those same back muscles and spine, potentially causing compression on spinal discs and continued chronic pain.
Prolonged seated positions can cause the hip flexor muscles to shorten and tighten, causing stiffness when you go to stand up. This tightness can affect your walking gait and balance after you stand back up and contribute to chronic back pain.
Choosing to do nothing at all could sometimes be the worst choice. Weakened muscles from inactivity, especially your body’s largest muscles, such as those in the legs and glutes, can lead to instability and chronic pain. Balance issues may cause falls which could lead to a whole new list of injuries and new choices to make.
These two very simple movements or exercises will help in transitioning from long periods of sitting to standing. As in all things related to self-care, you should always check with your medical professional for your limitations and “can do’s” related to your specific back issues. A quality physical therapist can guide you to more choices for treatment.
Bowing Leg Cross
Cross one leg over the other, placing your crossed-leg ankle on your opposite knee. Gently push down on the crossed-leg knee, then straighten your back. Keeping your head up and back in a straight line, bow forward to feel a stretch along your glutes or “sitting muscles”. Don’t let your back hunch over. Resist the urge to look down but rather keep your eyes forward and your head aligned with your spine as you bow forward. Hold for 30 seconds then repeat on the other side.
Single Leg Kneel
Make sure your chair is supported against a wall or your desk. Place one knee on the chair and keep your other foot firmly planted on the ground. Gently straighten your back and push your pelvis forward to feel a stretch in the front part of your thigh and groin area, roughly in front of your pants pockets. Hold for 30 seconds then repeat on the other side. After a long period of sitting at your work desk or a long car drive, the tightening of this whole area is what will have you hunched over when you initially stand up. Stretching it out first will save you a little time from having to walk hunched over as you take your first steps rising from sitting.
Each one of these movements take you less than a minute to do. There are myriad choices for back stretching and warm-ups, many which you can learn from a licensed physical therapist.. But these two very simple movements can be done when transitioning from sitting to standing or vice versa. Next time you’ve finished a long task at your desk and are dreading getting out of the chair, consider incorporating these two quick movements to save yourself the conflict over choosing between the chair and a hard place.
