As the season changes, it’s time to prioritize the health of your spine

Say goodbye to the winter slog- it’s time to freshen up your routine. Along with spring cleaning, you should always focus on the health of your spine. A great way to limit the impact of back pain on your life is by focusing on adding stability into your lower back. Your core and associated stabilizing muscles should be much more than a set of muscles developed for appearance’s sake; let’s look at the muscles which contribute to spinal stability and what they do for you:

 Muscles involved in lower back stability

• Multifidus: important for spinal stability; keeps spine stable during movement and prevents injury to the bones of the spine. 
• Transverse abdominis: performs the action of compressing the abdomen and interacting with other core muscles
  
• Internal and External Obliques: the twisting muscles, providing for trunk rotation without injury
• Erector spinae: important for trunk extension, for example when you stand or sit up straight 
• Retcus abdominis: perform trunk flexion- the bending forward action. 

A more stable lower back means more mobility and less pain 

The first step to developing these stabilizing muscles is to get in touch with them. In this sense we urge you to stand up and perform the actions that correspond with the movements above. 

• Compress your abdomen to feel the transverse abdominis in action
• Bend over to feel the rectus abdominis
• Stand upright and proud to feel the muscles erector spinae activate
• Turn your trunk from side to side to feel the obliques 

How we help manage back pain and increase lower back stability It is always a good idea to converse with a health professional before beginning any regime to strengthen muscles around the spine; we begin by helping you identify areas of muscle weakness that are letting you down when it comes to core stability. We can prescribe exercises and stretches that will help you strengthen the muscles that matter and add core stability in to your life. Chiropractic adjustments ensure that your spine is properly aligned and free of nerve compression so that you can get the most out of each workout.