foomee
Senior Don Juan
My lower back tends to hurt if I sit straight up for a long time. I've always been kind of a sloucher when it comes to sitting down. What could I do to improve this and lessen the pain? More lower back exercises?
Hurts Sitting Straight Up for Long Periods of Time
- Thread starter foomee
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dablueeyes
New Member
the problem may not be your back
I work with postural reeducation and you problem sounds typical of someone who has very tight hamstring muscles (the muscles on the back of your leg - bicepts femoris, semimembranosis, and semitendonosis). This set of muscles attaches at the base of your pelvis and below your knee. They are responsible for the push off in running or walking. If they are tight they will tuck the back of the pelvis downward. This positioning of the pelvis, because the pelvis is attached to the base of you spine, will prevent you spine from having its naturally balanced set of curves.
What does all this mean? Normally, when we sit or stand we let our bones support our weight. Our muscles do a small amount of work to keep us balanced over the axis of our bones. But if muscular imbalances prevent or restrain the bones from aligning then the muscles have to do the work of holding us upright. One will quickly get tired, and develop chronic tensions.
Tight hamstrings will do just this by not allowing the spine to balance in three natural curves over the pelvis.
So. Do this simple test. Can you touch your toes, bending from your hips, while keeping your back more or less straight? If not, chances are I am right.
The solution. Forward bends. Before and after exercising legs and before bed for about 5 minutes. In the case of severely tight hamstrings I recommend two exercises:
1. laying on your back, extend one leg up, and alternate lifting it actively and holding it passively (holding it with your hand or by extending your reach with a towel or strap of some kind) in the direction of your face. Keep your head, shoulders, hips, and other leg on the ground.
2. standing up with legs apart and facing over one leg so that the hips are square and pointed the the same direction as the forward foot, bend forward from the hips, keeping your back as straight as possible without straining, put you hands on a wall, chair or other surface to support the line of the spine. Reach out along the length of your spine through your head and tail.
Keep the effort level to about a 7-8 on a scale from 1-10. Excessive effort or mental tension will inhibit the process. Keep in mind that tight hamstrings can be related to psychophysical patterns of fear. It is the flight part of the fight or flight response becoming habitually trained into the muscle without appropriate expression or release. Of course you may just be exercising your legs too much without stretching or working the opposing muscle sets to create balance.
Try this out. Let me know if you have any questions and let me know how it goes.
Good luck.
I work with postural reeducation and you problem sounds typical of someone who has very tight hamstring muscles (the muscles on the back of your leg - bicepts femoris, semimembranosis, and semitendonosis). This set of muscles attaches at the base of your pelvis and below your knee. They are responsible for the push off in running or walking. If they are tight they will tuck the back of the pelvis downward. This positioning of the pelvis, because the pelvis is attached to the base of you spine, will prevent you spine from having its naturally balanced set of curves.
What does all this mean? Normally, when we sit or stand we let our bones support our weight. Our muscles do a small amount of work to keep us balanced over the axis of our bones. But if muscular imbalances prevent or restrain the bones from aligning then the muscles have to do the work of holding us upright. One will quickly get tired, and develop chronic tensions.
Tight hamstrings will do just this by not allowing the spine to balance in three natural curves over the pelvis.
So. Do this simple test. Can you touch your toes, bending from your hips, while keeping your back more or less straight? If not, chances are I am right.
The solution. Forward bends. Before and after exercising legs and before bed for about 5 minutes. In the case of severely tight hamstrings I recommend two exercises:
1. laying on your back, extend one leg up, and alternate lifting it actively and holding it passively (holding it with your hand or by extending your reach with a towel or strap of some kind) in the direction of your face. Keep your head, shoulders, hips, and other leg on the ground.
2. standing up with legs apart and facing over one leg so that the hips are square and pointed the the same direction as the forward foot, bend forward from the hips, keeping your back as straight as possible without straining, put you hands on a wall, chair or other surface to support the line of the spine. Reach out along the length of your spine through your head and tail.
Keep the effort level to about a 7-8 on a scale from 1-10. Excessive effort or mental tension will inhibit the process. Keep in mind that tight hamstrings can be related to psychophysical patterns of fear. It is the flight part of the fight or flight response becoming habitually trained into the muscle without appropriate expression or release. Of course you may just be exercising your legs too much without stretching or working the opposing muscle sets to create balance.
Try this out. Let me know if you have any questions and let me know how it goes.
Good luck.
stronglifts
Master Don Juan
stretching the hamstrings as adviced by dablueeyes.foomee said:My lower back tends to hurt if I sit straight up for a long time. I've always been kind of a sloucher when it comes to sitting down. What could I do to improve this and lessen the pain? More lower back exercises?
Stop sitting that much btw, sitting compresses your spinal disks. If you have a pull-up bar available, spinal decompressions are very good to decompress your spine.
From the ruckus files:
Mark Rippetoe said:Hamstring flexibility is not a complicated thing. Squat down, put your fingertips under your feet to hold them, flatten your back as much as you can, and then shove your ass up in the air as high as you can. Hold it there and count to 30 slowly. Do this 3 times a week for the rest of your life. It takes about 3 weeks for flexibility to improve dramatically.