Autumn Qi Chats | Week 8
4 steps you can take to alleviate low back pain!
This week’s Qi Chat leads us to discuss how you can treat low back pain via the breath & more!
There are ‘anti-threat’ pathways and they’re in your belly!
There’s a lot of understanding that the vagus nerve has an affect on our nervous system. The vagus nerve supports gut motility issues (ex. constipation) as it does your breathing and cardiovascular rhythm. But what’s not discuss (but should be) is the amazing pathway of ‘no pain’ that is correlated with vagal tone. This pathway via the vagus nerve is an anti-nociceptive pathway that can alleviate pain in the viscera which could affect the low back.
And as you’ve learned from me, strong breath work can increase vagal tone and adding abdominal exercises stacks up a great neurological stimulus your brain cannot ignore!
It’s as easy as 1 - 2- 3- 4…
Exercise 1: Kidney Breathing
Fold a bath towel so it’s 2 inches thick and about 4-5 inches wide. Lay your body across the towel on the floor. In today’s video I’m showing with a pillow. This relieves the tension in the low back. Breathe 3x with opposing abdominal holds. Tight tummy - inhale.
Loose tummy - exhale.
Exercise 2: Learn to soften
This could be as gentle as a pelvic ‘drop’ as we would do in our Qigong post. Don’t tuck and don’t force anything. In Qigong, when you’re feeling tight it’s a great cue to remember to soften into the position rather than force it. It is here that you can come into your breath as you post and soften for 1 minute and no more than 3 minutes when in acute pain. You can also sit for this softening exercise if more comfortable. Just create intention in your posture.
Exercise 3: Create gentle tension
Lying on your back (if possible) and practicing leg lifts while maintaining a neutral spine is a great play. I can be done as a micro-movement and ideally pain-free. Slow speeds are you friend when playing with muscular tension on the anterior side of the body to see if you can take the holding pattern away from the posterior side of the torso.
Exercise 4: Feet
Need I say more! Scrub, rub and stimulate the feet to more connected with the bio-mechanics of how you walk and how your feet connect to your SI (hip/pelvic/low back) area of the torso. Walking on rocks or a massage pad can really help while working through the low back issues.
Neuro-Qi Tip o’the day!
Breathe to release
We’re going to go over the 4 drills from above
*Video posts every Friday by 11:30am MDT
Resources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1058913906800070
