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Life&Style

 

Save your spine, part one:

regulate and redefine back pain during semester

  

By Stephanie Trembath

he University of New South
[vee developed a checklist

to assist individuals in
reducing the chance of back pain,
protecting the spine, and increasing
the body’s longevity through
movement and stretching. Carrying
heavy objects, wearing high heels,
having poor posture, and sitting
for long periods, all contribute to
back pain and spinal problems,
and for me, are nearly impossible
to avoid during the semester. With
textbooks, lunch, and laptop in
hand, and four-hour seminars
with infrequent breaks, I figure a
pair of cute boots can’t do much
more damage. Sorry spine; I’m not
sacrificing my outfit to knock one
point off the List of Things to Avoid
when I am already doomed to an
ill-fated destiny as the Hunchback
of Notre Dame.

Your spine has three major
anatomical parts: the cervical
spine, which is the upper section
between the shoulder blades; the
thoracic spine, which is the middle
region; and the lumbar, which
is the lower spine and typically
subject to the most pain and issues.
Your spine has the most delicate
and important bones in the body,
and houses part of the spinal cord,
which receives nerve impulses,
delivers information between the
brain and body, and controls all
bodily functions. Soft fluid-filled
discs between the vertebrae prevent
injury, cushion, and protect the
spinal column, but get compressed
over time from bearing weight.
Furthermore, poor posture and
extended sitting contribute to both
damaged nerve endings and disc
compression.

For many students, the time
spent commuting to school with
heavy book bags, in addition
to the long hours required for

studying, is more than enough to
cause back and shoulder pain. And
I’ve tried remedying it; I brought
asmall pillow to school to sit
on—copycatted from a friend of
mine who stuffed a small yellow
cushion into her book bag for
years—but it proved too much

to tote around all day long. I also
attempted standing intermittently
during seminars last semester,
which drew curious looks from
classmates and was unacceptable
as I blocked everyone's view that
sat behind me. My recent attempt
to lighten my purse load whittled
down to ditching a bag of chopped
cucumber and bringing only the
essentials: books, computer, cash,
U-Pass, pen, highlighter, cell phone,
lipstick, comb, agenda, keys, and
umbrella. In other words, this plan
was an epic fail.

Rather than offer ways to avoid
back pain, I’ll share a few simple
exercises to save your spine. These
strengthen and stretch the whole
spinal column between long hours
of sitting or carrying book bags.
Regardless of your activity level or
schedule, disc-compression between
vertebrae and decreased flexibility
around the joints are inevitable, but
by spending a few minutes each
day doing exercises like these, you
can decrease your chance of injury
and back pain, and increase the
motion and muscular abilities of
your body.

Here are some quick stretches to try
this semester, which will only add
10 minutes to your day:

Child’s Pose: traditionally this is
practised in yoga as a relaxation
pose. For this posture, keep your
knees shoulder-width apart to
allow your stomach and chest to
fall between your thighs. Toes can
be tucked or flat on the ground,
but make sure to keep your neck

 

aligned with your spinal column,
meaning, look flat at the ground

so that your forehead touches the
floor. The most important parts

of this posture are your shoulders
and arms; reach your fingertips

as far away from your body as
possible, and flatten your hands on
the ground, shoulder width apart.
Your arms should be fully extended
so that the shoulders and hands

are the only portion touching the
ground—your elbows should be
elevated. To get the best stretch
through the shoulders and spinal
column make sure to align the neck
and spine, but also to keep the arms
extended and elbows elevated.

Downward Dog: from Child’s
Pose, slowly stand up so that
only your feet are pressed into
the ground (heels may be raised)
and the palms of your hands are
on the floor. Pressing through the
fingertips, let your head hang
loosely so you gaze at your knees.
This position elongates the spine
and releases the shoulders, and is
best practised alternating back and
forth to Child’s Pose.

Camel Pose: to perform the
beginner version of the posture (I
will introduce the more advanced
strengthening exercises next week),
kneel with knees shoulder width
apart, place your feet a little bit
closer together behind you with
toes tucked or pressed flat into

the ground. Keeping your neck
and spine aligned, face forward
and tuck your pelvis under to
align your tailbone, and tuck your
buttocks in. Making your hands
into fists, tuck the flattened portion
of the thumb and index finger onto
either side of the tailbone; this
provides support to the sides of
the spine to prevent injury. From
here, keeping the chest high and
dropping the head back, slowly
lean back to get a nice long, even
stretch from the tailbone to the base
of the neck.

Each of these postures are
best held for 30 to 60 seconds at a
time; however, if you feel pain or
discomfort, slowly—the key word
here being slowly—get out of the
pose.

 

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