Lifestyle Choices

Most women become aware of the poor condition of neglected muscles when a strain occurs, but there are various tests you can run on specific muscles to find out how strong and resilient yours are. One in particular probably gives more indication than any other of how susceptible you are to back pain. It is used by one of Europe’s top back experts, who taught it to me. And it is particularly useful for women after childbirth.

Lie flat on your back on the floor. With one hand stretched out and fingers together, press the tips of the fingers against the center line of the abdomen at the navel. Now raise your head off the floor. If the rectus abdominis muscle (the long, flat muscle on the front of the abdomen) parts, allowing your fingers to press easily into the abdominal cavity, then your abdominal wall is definitely not strong enough.

You can also use another test: lie flat on the floor, fingers intertwined behind your head and knees bent with your heels on the floor, as close as possible to your buttocks (you can ask someone to hold your ankles so your heels stay flat on the floor). Now try to roll yourself up to a sitting position. If, like most people, you can’t, you can also be sure your stomach muscles are not strong enough to protect you from back troubles no matter how strong the rest of the muscles in your body may be.

The answer is exercise, but specific exercises—jogging and tennis, though they are great for the rest of you, won’t do the trick. Swimming, however, particularly backstroke, is terrific for the prevention of back troubles because it brings into use just the muscles necessary to give good support to the spine.

If you exercise regularly, doing both an aerobic activity and also some yoga or stretching exercises, you will probably not have to worry much about your back. But in order to be sure, here are a series of movements you can do on the bathroom floor in five or ten minutes before a bath. They will strengthen and tone all the muscles of the back and abdomen, so you never need suffer the ravages of back ailments. Used regularly three or four times a week they will also help realign your posture and find your center so you will move more freely and easily and feel lighter. Finish them off with a rubdown all over, using a loofah, and then get into a lukewarm bath and relax.

Upper Back Strengthener

This exercise is great for relaxing neck and shoulder strain too. Sit in a straight-backed chair with your arms in your lap. Allow your head to drop forward gently, raise it again, let it drop backward, then raise it once more to the normal position. Then, without moving your body,turn your head as far as it will go to your right. Gently and slowly return to the center and turn it as far as possible to the left. Return to the center. Now, letting your head drop forward, roll it around slowly first to the left all the way around and back and then to the right all the way around and back, returning after each movement to the original upright position. Go through this whole series six times.

Bend-overs

Standing erect with your feet apart and legs straight, clasp your hands behind your back and bend forward as far as is comfortably possible. Then return to the starting position. Repeat five times.

Windmills

Standing erect, feet apart, legs straight and arms at your sides, tip sideways as far as you can go comfortably then return to normal, keeping the spine on the same plane (neither bending forward nor bending backward). Then go as far as you can the other way. Return to starting position. Now, with your arms outstretched at shoulder level, twist your torso around to the left keeping arms out. Go back to starting position, then twist to the right. Go through the whole series of movements sixtimes.

Pelvic Tilt

Lie on the floor on your back with arms at your sides, completely relaxed. Tighten the muscles of the buttocks, pulling stomach muscles in hard at the same time, and flatten your back against the floor. Hold it for five seconds and then let go; relax for five seconds and repeat. Don’t worry if your tummy muscles quiver—this is normal when they areweak.

Walking in Place

This exercise is especially useful for menstrual pains and stiffness. Lying flat on the floor, arms at your sides, relax completely and then tighten your muscles as in the pelvic tilt exercise and hold. Flex your toes up and elongate first one leg and then the other, alternating them by pushing one hip down and letting the other come up. (The movement itself is slight— the heel will only travel through a couple of inches—but the exercise puts the neglected muscles in the sacrum to good work.).

Head Lifts

In the same position on your back on the floor, but this time with knees bent, tighten the buttocks and pull in the stomach muscles as in the pelvic tilt, at the same time raising your head toward your knees as far as possible without straining.

Knee Touch

Lying flat on your back with arms at your sides, once again tighten the muscles of the buttocks, pulling in tummy muscles and flattening your back against the floor. Raise your head and one knee off the floor, at the same time trying to touch your knee with your forehead (or at least bring them as close as possible). Return to the starting position and do the same with the other knee.

Advanced Knee Touch

When you have mastered this, try the advanced exercise in which you lift both knees off the floor, at the same time pulling them toward your forehead with the help of your hands on your calves. Hold for a count of five, then release.

Sit-ups

Lie on the floor on your back, arms at your sides, legs straight, and feet tucked under a bed or sofa. Curl yourself gradually up to a sitting position, raising first your head, then your shoulders, then your chest off the floor and going only as far as you find comfortable. Hold for three seconds, then gradually return to the floor (the movement must be smooth with no jerks). Tummy muscles have to be strengthened progressively by making this exercise increasingly more difficult. When you can do it easily with arms at your sides, try it with your arms bent at the elbow and each elbow held with the opposite hand. Then try putting your hands on your hips. Finally, clasp them behind your head and bring your elbows as far back at each side as you can.

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