Posts Tagged ‘posture’

Here’s how to tame the pain

By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT

Got an aching back? You’re not alone. It’s estimated that 80 percent of people will experience low back pain at some point in their lives, and why wouldn’t dancers be included? They endure long hours standing in classes and even longer hours delegating, directing rehearsals, and doing grunt work during performance crunch times. Most teachers have reveled in their back flexibility, perfect pull-up, and posture, but how long can those nobly acquired attributes hold up? Here are some tips to help tame those aches and pains.

Relievers
One of my favorite dance books—it has gone in and out of publication since 1937—is Mabel Todd’s The Thinking Body. Todd invented something called “constructive rest” for dancers. Clinically, I find this is a great exercise for the back in general. Todd claimed that dancers overuse the hip flexors and jump around all day in asymmetrical positions, which can torque the pelvis and back.

Try this for an end-of-day reliever. Lie on the floor with your legs elevated at a 90-degree angle at both the hips and the knees. Then tie the knees together with a bathrobe belt or yoga/stretch strap. Just getting into this position for 10 minutes lets gravity release the muscles and straightens out the pelvis and spine.

Heat, or what we call “neutral warmth,” can be a yummy treat for the back at the end of the day. Just a bit of warmth, not too hot, is enough. For an at-home spa experience, try heating your jammies in the dryer before putting them on at night. For a special treat, try lying in constructive rest with a heated hand towel folded flat beneath your waist. If your back is seriously tweaked or inflamed, then treat it with the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) formula instead.

Motion relievers include sacral circles and knee rocks. Lie on your back and lift your knees up over your hips. Hold onto your knees and make a circular motion, as if you were tracing the rim of a saucer with the back of your pelvis. If you have soreness on only one side of the back, try rocking the folded knees gently toward the side opposite the discomfort.

Doing daily duty
It’s important to nip back discomfort in the bud whenever possible. The rationale is that the back has deep structures that have a high threshold for discomfort because the spine is a big structure like a tree trunk that can endure lots of stress and strain. The downside is that when the pain threshold is achieved, it can take hours for the ache to subside. That’s why preventive steps are so important. You’ll have to summon up a little discipline to turn this exercise drill into an automatic routine, but you’ll become addicted before you know it. Try this series of three maneuvers when taking a bathroom break or getting up from your desk.

First, roll your shoulders up and back 10 times. (Don’t repeat in the other direction because most of us already round our shoulders into a slump really well.) Be sure to feel like you’re moving the collarbone up and off the rib cage, the primary purpose of the roll. Next, make a fist with each hand and press them into your low back while you also roll the fists upward, making a rolling, arching motion. Imagine you’re trying to knead bread dough upward toward your head. Do this about five times, starting from the lowest point at your pelvis and ending up around where you feel your ribs. This motion literally moves the soft disc material back into proper position. Then, reach one hand up straight toward the ceiling and the other down by the side of your thigh. Find your form. Lift the groin muscles toward the head and squeeze your ribs together in front, while also squeezing the shoulder blades together. Really pull the hands away from each other, one up, one down. Breathe three times and repeat to the other side.

One great daily barre exercise is the daily double (squat and arch). Face the barre, placing your toes to meet the wall. Lean back and straighten your arms. Then tuck your chin to your chest and round your back as you squat, bringing your hips toward your heels. Exhale and press your feet down (toe, ball, heel) and tuck your pelvis under to start rolling up the spine, and end with an arch while you’re leaning away from the barre. Tense your abdominals, then gently lift your head and tuck your chin into your chest to start reversing the arch. Look at the wall in front of you and repeat two more times.

If your back is regularly sore by the end of a long teaching day, consider wearing split-sole, padded jazz shoes.

Another great daily exercise is done while seated. Sit forward toward the edge of your chair, with feet about hip width apart, or a small second in parallel. Turn to the left and hold the back or seat of the chair with your left hand. Take your right hand, place it on the outer side of your left thigh, and pull with the left hand to intensify the back rotation. Go easy. Turn your nose to the left. Now, turn your eyes to the right (yes, the right) and breathe three times. Then, without moving your head, look toward the left and breathe three times. Untwist back to the forward facing position and repeat to the other side. This twist is actually more effective if you first rotate toward the easier direction of rotation and then do your harder side. One set of rotations will do.

Good vibrations
Another method for relieving pain is vibration. Physical therapists use a technique called TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Neuromuscular Stimulation), in which electrodes are used to send pulsing stimulations into bodily tissue. TENS diverts the brain away from unpleasant sensations.

In lieu of TENS, you can do your own vibrations. One of my favorite exercises is meant to imitate a happy dog—the one whose leg moves when you rub his tummy. I do this one every morning. Lie on your back and press your back into the floor. Bend one knee and place the sole of the foot on the floor, and then lift the other leg with the foot sole flat toward the ceiling. Tightly vibrate the lifted leg by pushing the heel repeatedly toward the ceiling. (This takes practice.) Then do the other leg. Follow this exercise with the flops: Reach both feet and hands upward and loosely shake them in an easy motion for eight counts. Next, relax your limbs and let the hands and feet flop downward for two counts (this involves bending of the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and optimally the hips, knees, and ankles as well) and then reach to the ceiling for two counts (flop, flop, and stretch; flop, flop, and stretch). Repeat this once more. Feels good!

Bracing power
Another useful technique is bracing. Any joint—and your back has many—loves bracing when it’s feeling tired and cranky. If your back is regularly sore by the end of a long teaching day, consider wearing split-sole, padded jazz shoes. You’ll be surprised how extra padding in the shoes can help an aching back. Also, check whether your legs are getting enough support. Wearing Supplex tights, or even double tights, or a Spandex unitard can brace you in from the waist down. Sometimes outerwear such as bike shorts can help under a skirt if the very low part of your back (where the pelvis starts) tends to get sore.

End-of-the-day attention also can pay off. Try wearing a generic back brace, available at most drug stores, during the ride home—or when you get there. Even elastic ankle braces, the generic kind that you slip on like a sock with the toes and heel exposed, can provide back relief. It’s surprising how bracing the ankles—bolstering the foundation—can give stability to the sacroiliac joints at the back of the pelvis. If your back is really cranky, consider the intermittent use of Kinesio tape in an X pattern on the low back.

Take control of your back. By applying relievers, giving daily attention, making use of simple techniques, and lessening back stress through bracing, you, too, can enjoy a long-lasting, functional back. And when the inevitable strain does happen, you can have confidence that you have tools to transition out of it.

I have faith in you.