Great article in The Times today… Exercise is Powerful Medicine
The Times published an article today: “Pilates not painkillers the best cure for backache”. Hopefully this will fast become common practice advice given by anyone helping those with back pain. Because we agree, there is no substitute for movement – it has been our philosophy for a while. Here are some quotes from the article and my take on things…
“The NICE review concluded that exercise and psychological therapy appeared to be the only effective treatments for chronic back pain.”
This is absolutely true, how you think about your body, about pain, and what makes it better or worse is really important. Sometimes getting help with this aspect is essential – after all if you knew how to change the way you think, to sort out your back pain, you would already have made the changes yourself! But realising that working on your perspective and understanding of what’s wrong can be a major part of alleviating both the fear factor and the pain itself. We are made to move, if we don’t move our body becomes de-conditioned. And that’s when the chronic issues can set it. Prolonged sitting can be a major factor here. The good news is that anyone can improve the condition of their body – at any age. Even if you’ve had problems for years, you can always make progress with consistent and regular movement.
“Try physiotherapy, with an exercise programme to mobilise and strengthen your back and core.”
The emphasis here, perhaps, should be on WHOLE BODY movement, ensuring you use your arms and legs in movement in order to help the pelvis support the trunk: that’s when the core can become really effective in creating and improving WHOLE BODY STRENGTH. Isolating areas in exercise is less effective. Physiotherapy can be fantastic for finding great ways to mobilise and strengthen the body – especially if you’re a little unsure about launching into a new exercise regime my yourself if you’ve had pain for a while. Osteopathy can also be valuable for mobilising the back/body with hands on treatment. Any great practitioners (physiotherapist, osteopath, etc…) will work on BOTH.
“Being overweight and physical inactivity are two causes of back pain that we can all do something about.”
YES! Again, get help if you’ve struggled with weight and inactivity. There is an abundance of support options available to you if you want it. Most importantly, educate yourself so that you can make good decisions and create effective health habits that stick! If you’re not sure how to do it yourself and would like support, a really good nutritional therapist can make the world of difference in trying to lose weight. Health Coaches and personal trainers can also be really valuable. Having the support of someone you trust who is focused on finding the best approach that works for you can have a huge impact. Don’t underestimate what you can achieve, and the help is there if you need it.
Read the full article in The Times.
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