My Back is Killing Me
If you have a desk job, this healthy conversation is for you!
Hey there friend, welcome to A Healthy Conversation. Okay now this is going to be an unusual episode. First of all, the love of my life is sitting across my office from me, he’s not in this particular video. Next week you’re going to have a video with him without me because we both have something very specific to share with you about back pain. But not just about back pain. Remember what we learned last week about the Selye response – the general adaptation formula. And that’s that if your body is going through inflammation or if you have digestive issues or if you have headaches, if you have aches and pain, if you can’t sleep at night, all of these things together may be an indication that your body is in the Exhaustion phase. If your body’s in the exhaustion phase it’s going to affect hormones, it’s going to affect your ability to lose weight.
So today we’re going to be talking about if you sit at a desk for a good amount of time during the day or if you find that you stand without the best posture this can lead to headaches, this can lead to curvature of the spine. Some folks say it could lead to degenerative disc disorder. So, I’m going to show you how to start repairing that in a way that’s so, so simple. This can be done when you’re hanging out with people you love, it can actually be done at work. I could see myself doing something like this because when I work on my laptop, I can sit like this. This can be done when you’re watching television at home at night. It takes five minutes.
What I want you to do is push yourself your hind end clear up against the wall. Let your shoulder blades rest on the wall and make sure your head is against the wall. Your palms should be palm up with your legs straight out and your feet flexed. Now you’re probably going to feel a pull through the calves and the hamstrings that’s normal. What I really want you to pay attention to is that your shoulder blades are against the wall and your head is against the wall. This is where good posture lives. Now again, you may find, “It feels a little bit uncomfortable at first Donna.” True because we tend to sit like this (see video), and we tend to stand like this. If we’re doing this we’re creating the wrong alignment, lack of alignment.
So, if you’re like this for five minutes each day you retrain your body to be in the right position and that starts to reverse that Exhaustion. And if you’re in Adaptation even better because it takes you backwards to baseline where you’re going to be healthy, you’re going to be able to lose the weight, you’re going to feel fantastic. That’s five minute a day. Here’s another one. Still with your hind end up against the wall, legs are along the wall, hind end up against the wall, hands out to your side, shoulder blades back and head obviously on the floor. Pay attention to where the shoulder blades are and how the neck is in alignment and the head is flat against the floor. Pay attention to how the back feels. You will feel a difference five minutes a day. Again, you can do this watching television. You might be able to do it at the office, I don’t know, or you can do it when you’re just hanging out.
Now the last exercise is fifteen minutes and this one really makes a difference because it basically mirrors what it looks like when you’re sitting in a chair. I don’t have a chair right here with me but if I had a chair right here, I would put my legs onto the chair. Again, hands out to my side paying attention to the fact that my shoulder blades are flat against the floor and then of course my head is lying is on the floor. Now with that one you want to stay in that position for fifteen minutes. If you will take this fifteen, five and five minute segment series and you can do all of these together, that would be great. But if you can’t and you need to break them up, that’s okay too. The bottom line is you’re going to go into a place of good posture. Doing so headaches should begin to reverse their intensity and can be completely eliminated.
Remember the Selye response; Alarm – Adaptation – Exhaustion. If you’re in Adaptation we’re going to move you backwards. If you’re in Exhaustion we definitely want to pull you backwards to get your health and your body back to baseline so you’re feeling fantastic. One symptom leads to another symptom leads to another symptom and if you just listen to your body you’ll start to feel fantastic.
I promise you do these exercises each day and I think within just a few days you’re going to notice a difference. Not only in how you hold yourself but how you feel with regard to headaches and aches and pains, etc. And if you would, let us know. Reach out to us and say, “Hey I did some of those exercises and I noticed they make a difference.” Now next week you’re going to be seeing the love of my life, John Krech, as he shows you how to really get rid of some of this middle back pain. Middle and lower back pain is where a lot of us carry that Adaptation or Exhaustion pain. He’s going to show you how pretty much for his entire life he’s been getting rid of that.
He’ll see you next week and I’ll see you the week after that. Thanks for watching.
