Almost everyone in there lives go through back pain. Sometimes it is a quickly passing nuisance and sometimes it’s a chronic everyday hindrance. The classics say, those that conform to softness and flexibility are disciples of life and health, those who are stiff and brittle are disciples of pain and disease. Most of us have experience back pain at one time or another. In fact, there were more than 20 million visits to the doctor for back pain each year. The goal of this Qi Gong program is to help you release chronic tension, explore new ways of moving and stretching your body, and to restore and energize your back.
If you look out into nature, things that are supple, fluid, and flowing are healthy, and things that are brittle, stagnant and constricted are unhealthy. Just like the river, when the water flows freely it is healthy and alive, when the water is blocked, it becomes stagnant and diseased. Qi Gong is designed to keep the flow open and unimpeded.
Back pain occurs for a variety of reasons; too much sitting, not enough stretching, poor posture, overweight, smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, aging and injuries. It’s no wonder that more than 80% of Americans will suffer from low back pain at one time or another.
Qi Gong for back pain fosters flexibility and suppleness as well as strength and structure. Like children, the back should have healthy range of motion and proper structure. Qi Gong exercises develop balance and resiliency, that dynamic harmony between strength and flexibility.
The goal is simple: To facilitate the flexibility in the back, to bring more circulation and blood flow, and to create strength and support. Through various postures, deep breathing, and relaxed stretching, Qi Gong increases the range of motion in the spine.
The purposes of Qi Gong regime for back pain is two fold; one is to release and relieve back pain right now, the other is to prevent back pain in the future. Qi Gong is a great form of exercise for both clearing tension and tightness, and a phenomenal way to prevent that pain from returning.
10-20 years ago, you were put in bed if your back hurt. That’s changed. Now we know that we want to move the back almost immediately.
The first thing to get rid and prevent low back pain is to set aside 10 – 20 minutes everyday to stretch, strengthen and energize the low back. The second factor is to eliminate or limit those things that cause low back pain in the first place. So, you are going to want to lift things with the knees bent, eat a healthy diet, find proper balance in your weight, if you sit take a break to stretch for five minutes. These things are fairly intuitive, but surprisingly many of us forget or think, “I’ll just do it this one time, I’m in a hurry.” It’s those times that we get in trouble and are hobbling around wondering, “where’s my cane when I need it?” Let’s not get to that point.
Some experts say that back pain is an epidemic. There were 20 million trips to the doctor in 2004 for back pain. A lot of us carry tension in the body. A lot of it is unconscious. Qi Gong is a way of waking the body up and clearing the tension.
Try a simple stretch to help relieve back tension. This one exercise will help alleviate tightness from the tip of your tailbone to the top of your neck.
Lie on your back and hug your knees into your chest. This posture eases the back into opening and clearing stiffness. Try rocking a little bit from the right to the left. Notice how it massages the low back into the floor.
Next, take both knees over to one side all the way to the floor and twist. Let’s start by going to the right side. Hold the knees down with the right hand and turn the upper body to the left. Again, this is a classic stretch to open the back, stretch the rib cage, and bring the breath deeper into the lungs. Deep breathing is the secret to getting more out of this stretch. See if you can bring your breath down through the ribs, and feel the expansion in your low back and abdomen. Twisting is a great way to create suppleness in your spine. After our teenage years, the only way to increase the flow of spinal fluid in the joints is to do the appropriate stretching. This is one of the best. Sometimes you can literally feel the disks between the joints filling up with that nutritive spinal fluid.
By Lee Holden