The holiday back paradox

One of my clients who has persistant low back pain recently came back from her holiday. The day after going back to the office, she told me:

"I don't get it. When I was on holiday, I didn't give my back a break: I was carrying my kid around, I went on hikes, I was lugging around my suitcase... and my back stayed silent the whole time. The very first day I got back to the office, though, it started screaming again, even though I was just sitting. Isn't it odd?

And yeah, it's easy to think that if your back is hurt, it just wants to rest. That you really should just let it recover in peace instead of climbing mountains and carrying toddlers.

Buuuuut... your biology thinks otherwise.

See your spine is made of verterbrae, right? Little bones stacked on top of each other. Between each of them, there's a disc that you can picture like very strong and dense sponges.

These discs are what makes your spine flexible. Without them, the spine would be just a rigid stack of bones.

They don't get much bloodflow, these discs, so to stay healthy, they use a process called imbibation. I asked you to picture them as sponges, because just like sponges, fluid gets out from there when they're compressed, and they absorb fluid when the compress ends.

To make a long story short: they really, really like movement. That's how they get their food!

Muscles work in a similar way, in that they get more bloodflow (so more food) when we move.

Now picture yourself on holiday, walking around, swimming, riding a bike, carrying things... Your spine is changing position 100s of times per day, getting nourished in the process.

And then, back to work. Sitting in your car, sitting at your desk, sitting at lunch, sitting in front of Netflix... If you get to 30 position changes during the day, it's a lot.

Of course your back is going to scream for your attention.

Anyway, if you're in this situation or if you're still on holiday and dreading going back to the office, I would strrrrongly recommend that you add little "position change breaks" to your day.

As always, it doesn't need to take very long. A little lunch walk, stairs instead of escalators, 10 minutes of yoga... You've heard me recommending that before, but now you get to imagine your spinal discs sucking in the juice around them, and if that's not a beautiful gift, I don't know what is

Much love,

Clem

Yoga with Clem

La Madeleine, France

For more info, resources and ways to work with me, please have a look at my website.