Therapeutic and rhythmic gymnastics for the back is like heaven and earth: the first is directed inward, healing a person and giving liberation, and the second, on the contrary, leads to disastrous results over time, because it is aimed at external beauty, ignoring the internal state. This article will help you choose the right direction for influencing your back muscles, making it clear that not the number of exercises is important for physiotherapy exercises, but the quality and correctness of the selection.
The specifics of back exercises: what is important to know?
Before you begin to affect your body, it is important to decide what will be an indicator of progress in gymnastics:
- strengthening the back muscles to maintain proper posture;
- development of back muscle strength;
- posture correction (kyphosis, scoliosis);
- removal of pain in the muscles caused by their hypertonicity;
- elimination of pain caused by problems with the spine: hernia, protrusion, osteochondrosis;
- development of flexibility of the spine.
Having set a benchmark, you should choose a suitable training program, a set of exercises that are necessary to achieve a given goal, and be sure to consult an experienced teacher so as not to break firewood during home practice.
Basic exercises for correct posture
Simple gymnastics to strengthen the back boils down to several exercises, often performed in the supine position .
- Lying with the pelvis and hips firmly pressed to the floor, inhale the extensors of the spine and lift the chest above the floor. With an exhale - return to the starting position, lying on your stomach. It is important in this case not to strain the abdominal muscles, not to use the strength of the hands as an additional lever to help the torso.
- I. p. The same: by inhalation, raise the chest above the floor, pressing the arch of the foot down, with exhalation, extend your arms to the sides, the next breath, direct your arms forward, and exhale to return to the starting position.
- Arrange the hands down along the body, but try not to lean on them. By inhale, raise straight legs above the floor, trying not to bend your knees. On the next breath, keeping position, raise the chest above the floor, and with the exhale, drop to the floor.
Each exercise is repeated at least 12-18 times, while the quality of execution is important, and not the height of the body or the speed of movement. On the contrary, over time, you should try to increase the "hang" above the floor, breathing freely and easily, then the back muscles will be worked out even deeper.
How to develop spinal flexibility?
If gymnastics for the back and spine is aimed at improving flexibility, then among the exercises, all three exposure options should be present:
- Power elements. Before acting on the deep back muscles, developing their flexibility, it is necessary to make them strong so that the spine maintains its stable structure. This does not mean that you need to pump the entire back with tubercles of muscles, on the contrary, the main strength of the muscles is in their elasticity, that is, the ability to quickly switch from one state to the opposite, that is, from compressed to stretched and vice versa.
- Twisting the spine. This effect affects the smallest segments that are rarely worked out in simple exercises.
- Stretching exercises of the deep muscles of the torso. Very often, not enslaved back muscles are allowed to deeply bend a person, but on the contrary, the longitudinal muscle of the press or the iliopsoas. To study them, you can use the “bridge” or “half-bridge” position, the camel pose from yogic practice, and other similar options.
Stretching exercises
Exercise stretching exercises for the back are very important for those who feel chronic stiffness as a result of a long stay in one position (at work, in the car) or are too fond of power sports, weightlifting and working with heavy weight in the gym. If you do not stretch the muscles, then their chronic cramps and strains can lead to many problems: from elementary circulatory disorders to global diseases of the spine, which is fraught with disability. In order to stretch your back muscles well, you can use several exercises from the practice of yoga, which works perfectly with relaxation of tight places:
- In order to stretch the lower back, Janu Sirshasana is used. Important: do not round your back, but rather, try to stretch your chest forward behind your hands. If the extension in the straight leg is too strong, then it can be slightly bent at the knee. In the position should remain at least two to three minutes, and then change to the opposite side.
- For stretching the middle section of the back, a cat pose is great . Get on all fours so that the palms are under the shoulder joints and the knees are shoulder-width apart. To inhale, bend in the spine, raising the sciatic tubercles to the ceiling, the chest should be pulled forward, and the crown of the head up, thereby qualitatively affecting the small muscles along the spinal column. With an exhale, round the spine, turning the tailbone and head to the stomach and slightly pushing yourself with your hands up. In total, about ten repetitions are performed with slow, measured breathing.
- To stretch the upper back and cervical spine, you can use the dynamic version of Shashankasana - rabbit posture.
- On exhalation, enter the position indicated in the photo, linger on a comfortable pause and, with an inhalation, return to the starting position, sitting on your heels.
Can I do exercises for the back, if there is a hernia of the spine?
Many incompetent doctors claim that back gymnastics with a hernia is strictly forbidden, thereby condemning the patient to the inevitability of the progression of the problem, since impaired blood circulation due to muscle spasm (which is most often the root cause of back pain) cannot fully nourish muscle cells, cartilage and ligaments. The problem worsens, and nothing remains for a person, how to be attached either to anesthetics or to manual therapists who provide only temporary and short-term relief. Physiotherapy exercises for the back with a hernia of the spine should be only specialized and very correct, with total self-control and understanding of what is happening.
What exercises are better to use?
Well-known gymnastics for the back called "Crocodile", a video of which is presented in the article.
According to the reviews of people who practiced it, back pain goes away, mobility of the entire spine improves, and the hernia gradually ceases to bother.
For pain in the lower back and sacral region
Those who spend a lot of time in the sitting position at the computer, driving or walking too much due to the specifics of the work, note that the sacral spine by the end of the day aches from fatigue, and the lower back shoots from any careless movement. This suggests that it is time to do gymnastics for the back, in which there are only two exercises, but they should be repeated in the morning and evening at least three to four times a week.
- Supta Parivritta Garudasana relieves pain in the ileo-sacral joints and stretches the piriformis muscle well. It is necessary to stay in position for at least three minutes, breathing freely and, as necessary, stretching deeper in a pose.
- Another variant of the extension of the sacral zone, thanks to which not only the pain goes away, but also the hip joint zone is well developed. The position should be about two minutes on each side, making sure that the lower back and back of the head are firmly pressed to the floor.
How to relieve fatigue from the upper back?
Simple gymnastics for the back, consisting of several positions, can be performed even at the workplace during a five-minute rest. This requires only support in the form of a table or the back of a chair, you can also use the wall, although it will be less convenient. Standing facing the table, put your palms on the countertop and move away so that when you tilt your arms and back to form a straight line. If the tension in the back surfaces of the legs makes it difficult to do this, you can bend your knees a little. It is important at the same time to try to sag down the chest, also tilting the head and slightly lifting the buttocks up. It is important that the arms in the elbow joints are not bent, and the shoulders are not below the line of the pelvis.
After that, while sitting on a chair (or standing), grab the hands behind the back so that one arm is directed with the elbow up and the other down. Remain in position for at least a minute, squeezing the grip harder, and then repeat to the other side.
Exercise without getting out of bed
Light gymnastics for the back can be done in the morning in bed, giving the body the first impulses for a cheerful day. With an exhale, pull the knees to the chest with your hands, trying not to tear your head and lower back from the bed, and breathe deeply with your stomach for one minute, trying to inflate it as much as possible, and when you exhale, draw it in. This position not only stretches the lower back and gluteal muscles well, but also perfectly massages the internal organs, stimulating their work.
Turn over on your stomach and place your right right hand at the level of the clavicle, pulling it to the left of the torso with the palm up. The left arm is lowered down along the body, and the shoulder tends to touch the right arm. This position perfectly affects the entire upper body, stretching the interscapular zone, tendons of the shoulder joint. If at the same time the knee of the right leg is bent and directed to the side, then in this way it is possible to extend the entire line of small muscles of the back along the spinal column.
Recommendations from experienced teachers
Physiotherapy exercises for the back must necessarily include twisting of the spine in order to work out the fine muscles and tendons. To do this, you need to choose for yourself two or three exercises that are suitable for your capabilities (preferably in different exposure planes) and include them in your training complex in the middle or at the end of the session, when the body is sufficiently warmed up.
For example, a position accessible to a wide circle of people is a variation of Matsyendrasana, which tones not only the muscles of the back, but also the buttocks, stretching them and removing blocks.
You can also do the rotation of the torso while standing, doing Parivritta Parshvakonasana.
In this position, it is necessary to monitor not only the correct twisting, but also the extension of the entire spinal column forward beyond the crown. If these positions seem too complicated, then you can use the exercises from the Crocodile complex from the video.
Work with pathologies of the spine
If there is scoliosis, kyphosis of the thoracic region or other problems with the spine, then physiotherapy exercises for the back at home should be carried out only under the steadfast gaze of a specialist: a rehabilitologist, yoga therapist or kinesiologist, because self-medication without the proper knowledge can lead to the completely opposite effect and exacerbate a problem. Of course, for this it is not necessary to be monitored daily, but the specialist must draw up the correct training program, select the necessary exercises based on the diagnosis, and also check the results at a personal consultation or an individual lesson at least once every two weeks.