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For the last 10 months I've been practicing a lot of guitar. I have a day job where I sit most of the time and I add another 3 to 4 hours of practice where again I am sitting. So I am sitting down most of the day!!! Scary.
I go to the gym every day and bike to work but in the last month I'm starting to feel aches Ive never had, of course it might be related to aging but I think it's related to all the sitting I do. I'm thinking that I can't go on like this. I realized that my spine does not get much action and just doing yoga stretches is not good enough because I need to get deep tissue stretches, and so I began doing some Yin Yoga poses.
The difference with Yin is that you hold the poses for a while, 3 to 5 minutes, and it's painful, I've never seen time stand still like that.
I'm sure that I'm not the only one who needs to do some back and hip exercises so if you are interested here are a few links, and there are many many more, choose the poses that do the best for you.
Time is always an issue so I just do 15 minutes a day, so I get 3 or 4 stretches (poses) a day, 21 per week! so just 15 minutes every day will go a long way. It's actually a great thing to do to take a break between playing, instead of checking out the foro while.... sitting again!
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rogeliocan)
man !! tell me about it, I'm still 20 and have lots of back-aches and I'm concerned about it, sometimes it also affect my neck as well and yea I'm too lazy to go to docs. anyway thank you ... I will do these exercises. I like the Shavasana[dead posture.] one most
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rogeliocan)
thanks for the reminder rogelion,,great post
two herniated discs can function well most of the time just once a year i cant walk for a week sure most of it is from 40 years of guitar playing...bad posture..i lean slightly forward with most of my weight on my left side... crossing leg ala paco position does'nt help...sometimes need the footstoll under the right foot to ease the pain
Posts: 1589
Joined: Dec. 24 2007
From: Siegburg, Alemania
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rogeliocan)
quote:
sometimes need the footstoll under the right foot to ease the pain
Paco himself needs one every once in a while (saw that in a concert recently)
On a more serious note everybody: It's not so much a question of "stretches", it's all about strengthening the deeper muscles and about being aware of your posture etc. Swimming is good (especially back-stroke). When sitting change position as often as possible.
My favorite pose, the ones that I feel help me the most (my lower back pain) is this one.
You have to do it twice, once with left leg in first and once with right leg in first.
1. Sit and bend you left leg (like sitting cross legged) so your foot comes resting flat against the inside of your right leg, your bent leg is flat on the floor, or close to. 2. bend your right leg so it comes in front of and against you left folded leg. So you are now kind of sitting cross legged but the legs are not crossed over each other, one is in front of the other. 3. bend forward and stay there a couple of minutes. Eventually you will be able to have your forehead rest on your hands in front of you. 4. While you are bent forward, move to the left (the easy side) so that you torso follows your thigh, eventually, your chin will be ahead of your knee and your body will be flat against you thigh with your face close to the floor. 5. Take your right arm out to reach far over you head, along the floor. You will feel an amazing stretch in your lower back side... IT FEELS SO GOOD. Hold that 3 to 5 minutes. 6. Then move to the right side without lifting and take you left arm out, this is the tough one and you will feel an additional stretch in the inside of your left leg.
Then repeat the same thing but this time bending your right leg first.
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to edguerin)
quote:
It's not so much a question of "stretches"
It is definitely about stretches, and deep stretches. The physical workout is just part of the equation. The weight lifting will stiffen you up, you are building muscle and it creates tension on your body, the stretches release that tension. Plus the majority of people don't do any spinal movements in their day to day lives. You bend forward a bit to the side... eventually people can't even do a shoulder check while driving because they are so stiff. So it's good to have strength but you also need flexibility and reach deep into ligaments. It's like the big and small tree story, the big one broke because it was so strong (and stiff).
Swimming is of course really good, it's flow and reach movements make it better than lifting weights, but of course they have different results.
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rogeliocan)
So I went out the other day, after reading this thread, and bought me a nice exercise mat so I can start doing these Yin Yoga poses.
Well, I just had my first go at the poses from the video. I failed miserably and was unable to actually do any of them well enough to get my lower back to stretch. I was only able to get my hamstrings to stretch, probably because I am SO inflexible that I couldn't even bend forward enough to get my lower back working.
The fun bit was that after trying for about 15 to 20 minutes, I decided I'd had enough for the current session, and went into the Shavasana (which I would say I pulled off quite well). Amusingly, I fell asleep and woke up about 30 minutes later with both upper extremities numb. I guess I got TOO relaxed for my own good.
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rombsix)
quote:
Well, I just had my first go at the poses from the video. I failed miserably and was unable to actually do any of them well enough to get my lower back to stretch. I was only able to get my hamstrings to stretch, probably because I am SO inflexible that I couldn't even bend forward enough to get my lower back working.
The fun bit was that after trying for about 15 to 20 minutes, I decided I'd had enough for the current session, and went into the Shavasana (which I would say I pulled off quite well). Amusingly, I fell asleep and woke up about 30 minutes later with both upper extremities numb. I guess I got TOO relaxed for my own good.
Hey, that's funny! That is why they all also call it the relaxation period. I feel asleep too during this pose when I used to go to yoga.
For the poses, take your time it will come at first I was stiff as a board too. What is coo about Yin is that eventually, you should relax and 'melt' into the pose,with all of your muscles relaxed, that takes forever and I'm not there. But in the meantime you get to a point where you bent forward enough so that gravity pulls you and as you are in the pose you realize that there is always a muscle somewhere that is holding you up, because it hurts so much to let go. And so you relax the muscle a bit ant think, ok I'm relaxed and then you realize... oh no, that muscle is still on... anyways, when you get there it's cool to see how hard it is to relax (outside of dead pose) all your muscles.
Don't forget to try the pose I described, for me anyways, it is such a good lower back stretch.
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rogeliocan)
quote:
Don't forget to try the pose I described, for me anyways, it is such a good lower back stretch.
I actually sort of "invented" the pose you discussed months ago, and realized it was helping me. It was the only one I could do without getting my hamstrings into the stretch, but rather my actual lower back. I tried it again today, and it was the best one. Good to know someone else is doing the same pose, meaning that it hopefully works.
RE: Taking care of your back (in reply to rombsix)
Great, the way I see it, if a pose works for you it's a good pose. Me, I can't do any of the backward bending poses, they hurt me, so not all are good for everyone, some can cause you damage.
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and I'm concerned about it, sometimes it also affect my neck as well and yea I'm too lazy to go to docs. 
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