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Help for Your Low Back

There are many reasons for low back pain from a dangerous disease to "energy" issues. If you have persistent low back pain and these exercises don't help, please schedule an appointment so together we can figure out your best course of action to resolve the issue.

One of the best exercises to help strengthen your low back has to do with paying attention to your "private parts". Between your legs from pubic bone to coccyx and from sit bone to sit bone is a set of muscles called the pubococcygeal muscles. We'll call them the PC muscles for short. These are the muscles that allow you to stop your stream of urine. Women are often familiar with these muscles and how to use them through childbirth classes or if they haven't had children from their girlfriends who have.

It's very easy to work these muscles but not so easy at first if you haven't done so before. That is to say you may ask, "What is she talking about? I can't feel any muscles contracting down there!" Persistence is the key. After only one or two days of engaging your PC muscles you will become a pro.

When you contract the PC muscles you are blessed by a neurologic quirk of nature -- the transverse abdominal muscles that ring your middle automatically contract! Isn't that wonderful, two muscles working for your attention to just one?

So here's the way to do this: anytime, anywhere, sitting, standing, laying down, driving in your car, watching television, sitting in a boring meeting, standing on line, etc., just gently squeeze those muscles between your legs -- no one needs to know you're doing it. Do this without moving your legs or your abdomen or your buttocks muscles. As I said, it might be difficult to do at first but your body knows how to do this if you're able to stop your urine stream. So wait a while and try again. Remember, persistence is the key.

The Taoists say if you contract these muscles 200 times a day (more or less depending on your age) it will help nourish your brain thereby enhancing memory and preventing dementia. Not a bad side effect for helping your low back! Medical experts say we need to do continuous contractions for 5 minutes minimum a day. The medical model recommends that you tighten the muscles as firmly as you can, hold the tight contraction for a maximum of 10 seconds, release completely, then repeat for a full 5 minutes. If it's too much at first, build up gradually as you would with any exercise program. One of my patients decided she would do 25 contractions 4 times a day to reach her total of 200. The important thing is to just do it.

If you have any questions, please write or call. And as always, thank you for making me a part of your health care team!