This is the the final installment of a 4 part Spinal Hygiene Series. 

We wrap up the Spinal Hygiene series today in part 4 by helping you set some expectations and begin looking forward at how to maintain spinal health once you’ve kicked this current pain to the curb.

If you’ve been going through these videos and and posts and implementing the exercises into your daily routine, you should hopefully be experiencing some degree of relief and making conscious efforts to avoid rounding your back. You’re utilizing your hips to do their fair share of the work to relieve the pain in the discs.

It’s important to note, this series is not intending to create a rule to “never round your back”. It’s just for this period in time to give your back the space it needs to heal. You can think of it in the same way you would if you sprained your ankle. With a sprained ankle, you would wear a brace for a while to give it some support as you’re rehabbing. This gives it time to regain strength as you move about your day with as little pain as possible.

Setting Expectations

Most people that do a good job of avoiding back rounding can expect to have a significant improvement within about a week. It’s not uncommon for many our clients with this type of pain to pick up weight on the first day before leaving the office. And a huge percentage of these clients to report after the first week of implementing these exercises into their daily routine that they are able to…

• get out of bed without pain
• brush teeth
• get in and out of the car
• go the bathroom

Prior to becoming mindful of the things we’ve been talking about in this series, these same activities had been had been irritating the disc and causing extreme pain. It’s important for you to know that your back will heal… just keep putting it in the environment so that it can.

A lot of times, the disc pain you’ve been experiencing originated from other places in the body not bearing their share of the load. At Next Level, we don’t just chase the pain, but we work to identify the source problem and give you the tools you need to strengthen your core and build good patterns that prevent future injuries. 

Looking Ahead

In some upcoming videos, we will address thoracic spine (mid-back) mobility and hip mobility. These are two common areas of the body that, given the right tools, you can avoid many potential future injuries.

Watch the full video below…