Let’s Get Something Straight This Year!

Yes, you got it, your spine.

Each year we make a commitment to better ourselves and our lives in our New Year resolution, and often a big one on that list is our health.

So this week I wanted to focus our attention back on the spine and the foundation of our health.

Hippocrates said, “to find the true cause of dis-ease one must first look to the spine and human frame”.

What did he mean? The spine is the centre of the body, it protects our spinal cord, the most important thing in us! Nothing would work under our skin, in the depths of our body, if it were not for the control of the brain and the messages it sends through our nervous system; your brain and spinal cord.

Try this for example. Move your toes…

Simple wasn’t it? But how did it happen? How did your body register the thought to do that, where did your body send the command to move the toes, how did the message get from the top (brain) to the bottom (toes)?

You see this beautifully simple example, highlights a wonderfully complex system in our spine, our central nervous system. This is made up of our brain and spinal cord. Without it nothing would function.

So, let’s do it justice and help it perform at its best. And how do we do that?

Simple, with just 3 steps!

1. Movement

2. Flexibility

3. Stability

Here are my TOP 3 tips to improved Spinal Health:

Movement

Moving is essential, vibration is life. Everything in you and in this universe works due to movement and at the very smallest level vibration. The same is true for your spine and nervous system. Movement is essential to keep it alive and functioning at it’s best. So, remember this simple saying: “as the body moves, the brain grooves”.

Move today and every day, even if it is just a 10-minute walk around the block. Do something to stimulate your spine and brain.

Flexibility

With movement comes overall flexibility. It is important that the whole spine moves evenly and freely. Otherwise, some areas will move too much (this can wear them out) and others not enough, and in line with the above, we know that is not good!

So, super easy, try this.

Split your body up into 3 parts:
1. Your neck, 2. Your mid back (where the ribs are) and 3. Your lower back.
For each area, do these 6 simple movements, slowly 3 times.

1. Look up (bend backwards)

3. Look left (twist left)

4. Look right (twist right)

5. Take your left ear to left shoulder / run your left hand down your left leg

6. Take your right ear to right shoulder / run your right hand down your right leg

Stability

Core strength is key; however, it is often done wrong and actually it is quite hard to do right…
So here is the easy way that can not fail.

Force and hold your wee. Yep, I said that, when you go the loo, play a little game. The muscles that help us wee also hold our core. So, force the wee out as hard as you can for a few seconds, then hold it for a few seconds and repeat, until all is gone!

Spine health doesn’t have to be hard work but it has to be done.

Give these three things a go and let me know how you get on.

With love

Tom