You may recall from a previous post, we talked about the relationship between low back pain and balance, particularly our unfortunate increased tendency to fall as we \u201cmature.\u201d\u00a0 This month, we\u2019re going to look at ways to improve our balance by learning a low back exercise program that utilizes the parts of our nervous system that regulate balance or, proprioception.<\/p>\n
Particularly, our cerebellum (back of the brain that regulates coordination), the vestibular system (the inner ear where the semi-circular canals are located), the ascending tracts in our spinal cord (the \u201chighways\u201d that bring information to the brain from our feet and the rest of our body), and the small \u201cmechano-receptors\u201d located in our joints that pick up our movements as we walk and run and sends that information through our nerves, up the spinal cord tracts to the brain. \u00a0Here is a very practical low back exercise program to do, \u201c\u2026for the rest of our lives.\u201d Start with the easy ones!<\/p>\n
1. Easy (Level 1): Standing eyes open\/closed<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Start with the feet shoulder width apart, look straight ahead to get your balance and then close the eyes and try not to sway counting to 30 by, \u201c\u2026one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, etc.\u201d Repeat this with your feet closer together until they touch each other.\u00a0 You can make this harder by standing on a pillow or cushion \u2014 but don\u2019t start that way!<\/p>\n 2. Medium (Level 2): Lunges<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 from a similar starting position as #1, step forwards with one leg and squat slightly before returning back to the start position. Repeat this 5x with each foot\/leg.\u00a0 As you progress, you can take a longer stride and\/or squat down further with each repetition. You can even hold onto light dumbbells and\/or close your eyes to make it more challenging.<\/p>\n 3. Hard (Level 3): Rocker or wobble board exercises<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 use a platform that rocks back & forth or, wobbles in multiple directions.\u00a0 Rock back and forth, eyes open and then closed, once you get comfortable on the board.\u00a0 You can rotate your body on the board, standing straight ahead (12 o\u2019clock) followed by 45 degree angles as you work your way around in a circle at 45 degree increments (12, 1:30, 3, 4:30, 6, 7:30, 9, 10:30 and back to noon). Repeat these eyes open and closed.\u00a0 The Wii Balance board is a fun way to exercise \u2013 check that out as well.<\/p>\n You can \u201cimprovise\u201d and mix up different exercises and create your own low back exercise program.\u00a0 Just remember, stay safe, work slowly until you build up your confidence and keep challenging yourself.<\/p>\n Yours in Health,<\/p>\n Dr. Steve Smiley<\/p>\n sdsmiley@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may recall from a previous post, we talked about the relationship between low back pain and balance, particularly our unfortunate increased tendency to fall as we \u201cmature.\u201d\u00a0 This month, we\u2019re going to look at ways to improve our balance by learning a low back exercise program that utilizes the parts of our nervous system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,147,46],"tags":[505,506,507,508,85],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chiropractic","category-dr-steve-smiley","category-health","tag-low-back-exercise-program","tag-low-back-rehabilitation","tag-lower-back-balance-rehab","tag-lower-back-exercises","tag-lower-back-rehabilitation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/drstevesmiley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}