Take care of your back from a young age

If you have a bad back, you should see a chiropractor.

I work as an accountant, and my back gets very tired at the end of the day. Friends say: I need a massage. But I don’t even know which specialist to contact. Maybe there are some exercises that I can do right at my desk?

Evgenia Vladimirovna, 45 years old, Krasnodar

If you have a sore back, you should see a chiropractor. This specialist not only restores the elasticity of the ligaments and relaxes the hardened muscles with the help of massage, but also realigns the vertebrae, retracts the hernia, fights protrusions (protrusion of vertebral disc tissue into the intervertebral canal), that is, eliminates the consequences of our incorrect lifestyle.

This is what chiropractor Mikhail Galkin from Kaliningrad advises.

1. Protect your back from injuries, distortions and incorrect posture. Remember that the spine is a support, the condition of which determines the proper functioning of the internal organs.
2. Don't carry your bag on your shoulder. Avoid bags with long handles. Otherwise, you doom your body to become distorted. Watch others if you don’t see yourself from the outside: a person carrying a load on his shoulder involuntarily lifts this shoulder up, and lowers the other one accordingly. The result is a diagonal that leads to curvature of your entire skeleton. This will not happen if you carry the bag in your hands and change them as often as possible to distribute the load evenly, or choose a backpack.
3. When walking, kick your butt out, sticking your chest forward. This applies to women. I advise them to wiggle their hips more actively. Remember what Liya Akhedzhakova’s character taught her boss, played by Alisa Freindlich: the gait should start from the hip. Fashion models walk the catwalk correctly: there is a lot to learn from them. It’s just that the lower back is the most immobile part of the back, and it would also be good for it to work so as not to stagnate, unless, of course, you do Latin American dancing. Vegetable gardens don’t count; this is not gymnastics for the back, but an even greater burden.
4. Michael Jackson’s movements, which may have looked indecent, but you don’t have to perform them in public, are very useful for strengthening the lower back: first move the entire buttock area forward and then back. Not sharply, but clearly.
5. The most important thing for those who lead a sedentary lifestyle at work or at home is to sit in the right chair. In no case in a chair, but on a chair. With a hard seat and a backrest located at a right angle to it. The back of the chair should have firm support in the lumbar region. Better yet, sew yourself a bolster and secure it to a chair in the lumbar region. This way your back will get tired much less.
6. You need to sit straight, periodically moving your shoulders back, trying to reach the other with one shoulder blade. Make circular movements with your shoulders forward and backward with maximum amplitude. You can straighten each arm in turn and make a circle with it in the air forward and then back. Slowly, heartfelt.
7. Every half hour you need to get up from your seat, stretch your arms up, as if you wanted to reach the sky, at least the ceiling, it would be good to even rise on your toes. Place your hands behind your back - one on top, the other below, clasping them there. Since you probably keep them extended forward during the workday, when sitting at the computer, reading or rearranging papers, moving your arms behind your back will compensate for the load that is familiar to them and to the chest.

Main exercise

Bend your head forward twice a day. This is done like this: sitting on a chair with a straight back, clasp your hands at the back of your head, forcefully press your head on your hands, as if you wanted to throw it back, but you are preventing yourself from doing this. At the same time, you will feel your neck tense. Then sharply relax the muscles of your neck and, with your hands clasped together, press on the back of your head, pushing your head forward and down - as if you are forcing it to bow, and deeply. It is advisable to touch your chin to your chest. But aim for the belly. You should feel how your neck is connected to the spine, how it literally stretches after it right from the lower back.