I am not an exercise professional. I am sharing these exercises with
you because they have done good things for me and may do good things
for you. But you do them at your own risk. Ease into them, so you don't
do something silly and hurt yourself. Any
exercise can aggravate an existing injury, or possibly even cause an
injury if you do it wrong.
The safest approach is to be evaluated by a trained exercise specialist
(physical therapist, personal trainer, TPI, something like that) before
you start a back exercise program. I have been doing these exercises
for over 20 years, I was a lot younger and stronger when I started, and
I am used to them. They may not be right for you, but an exercise
professional can prescribe exercises that are for you.
Update - 2018
When I turned 75 in 2016, sciatica began to get the upper hand on
me. Now, two years later, it is keeping me off the golf course.
Injections and pills do not help, or at least not enough for me to play
golf. It is also interfering with my exercise program.
Yes, I
still want to stay in shape; that's a fundamental health goal, in
addition to enhancing my golf game. And no, sciatica has not put an end
to my exercising, but it has changed the way I exercise certain muscle
groups. In fact, the only ones that have changed in the past two years
because of my disk are some of the core exercises.
Here are the changes I have had to implement.
Pecs
Even before age 75, I was having back problems with dumbbell flyes for my
pectorals. It wasn't so much doing
the flyes as getting into and out of position to do them. So I changed
over to pushups, which fit well into my core
exercises.
Standard pushups exercise both the pecs and the triceps. We already
have a triceps exercise
in the weights program, so we want the pushups to isolate the pecs. We
know they can't be isolated completely. But the further out to the side
your hands are, the more work the pectorals are doing and the less the
triceps are doing. So I set my hands with the fingers pointing out
instead of forward, and I spread my hands as widely as I can and still
do pushups.
We could completely isolate the pecs if we
could do a pushup with the elbows locked in one position. That would
take something that allowed your hands to slide along the floor. They
do exist; see here, and here.
For many people the only way to be sure the elbows are locked is for
them to be fully extended. If you do it this way, it is equivalent to
doing flyes with each dumbbell equal to about a third of your body
weight. That's a demanding workout.
Hip stretch
While
struggling with my sciatica in November 2016, I had a dozen physical
therapy sessions. In the process, I learned a new stretch that I
incorporated into my core
exercises. It stretches the hip joints close to the lower
back.
Lying
on your back with the left knee bent and well raised, pick up the right
leg and rest its ankle high on the left leg's thigh close to the knee.
Grab your right knee with your left hand, and pull the right knee
across your body. Pull it far enough and you will feel a stretch in
your right buttock at the outside of the hip joint. Hold and feel the
stretch.
When you have stretched that enough, use the left hand
to push the right knee away from your body. This time, you should feel
the stretch in your groin, at the inside of the hip joint. Again, hold
and feel the stretch. Do not be in a hurry to alternate between pull
and push; the animation only does that so you can compare the two
positions. It should be done as a "hold and feel" exercise.
Repeat for the other side, with the left ankle over the right knee.
Obliques
Sciatica has made side
planks too painful to keep in my core routine. But side leg
lifts do not bother my spine, so I do them instead as part of my core exercises.
Lie
on your left side with your head resting on your left arm,
which
is extended over your head. Use the right arm for balance. Now lift
your right leg, then return it almost to resting position. (In general,
it is a good idea not to return to a position of full extension or full
rest during a set of strength exercises.)
One rep of a leg
lift does not work the obliques as much as a rep of a side plank. So we
will have to do more of them to get as much of a workout. I do 20 of
them on each side as opposed to 12 of the side planks, but that is just
a guess. Figure out for yourself what is sufficiently fatiguing that
you feel you have exercised.
Repeat for the other side, lying on your right side and lifting your
left leg.
Update - 2022
That sciatica attack cost me all of 2018; I didn't play a single round
of golf that year. (There were other factors as well, mainly my wife's
health. But the sciatica alone would have kept me off the golf course.)
My New Year's resolution for 2019 was to do what was necessary to get
back to golf.
My doctor prescribed Lyrica, which helped a little, but not
enough to get me onto the golf course.
I signed up for physical therapy.
My physical therapist friend Meryl Freeman found the Shore Wellness Center
in Oakhurst NJ (which is now
part of the JAG-1 chain). It was well-qualified in the McKenzie method,
which Meryl thought was what I needed. Mike Santamaria and especially
Angela
Colletti (now a Doctor of Physical Therapy) had me working for three
one-hour sessions a week, starting in January.
After a little over two months, I was back on the golf course, nearly
pain-free, and put the therapy on hold. Angela suggested I save some of
the yearly Medicare benefits in case the problem returned. She sent me
home with a more extensive set of core exercises, and also made some
changes in my weights program. I'm not going to do a complete rundown,
because:
As
I have said before repeatedly, you should see an
exercise specialist if you have more than the "standard" problems. I
had reached that point, and these exercises are tailored to deal with
my problem. The program I have described previously is fine if you
don't have special problems. If you do have a special problem, then you
should be getting your exercise advice from the professional who is
treating you for the problem.
These exercises require some special equipment besides a
minimal bench and a few dumbbells. I don't want to be responsible for
your spending money on specialized exercise equipment that might not be
what you need.
The changes to my weights program involves eliminating or modifying
those exercises that were putting my back under a load that was
excessive or unnecessary. For instance, my exercises for pectorals and
rhomboids now involve an elastic band rather than dumbbells and a
weight bench.
The changes to my "wakeup" core program were much more extensive and
specialized. I now do them every morning, with a short (5-mintue)
collection of exercises M-W-F and a longer (12-minute) collection the
other four days. Most of those exercises were prescribed by Angela, and
are very good at strength and stretching for the spine.
Along the way, I found a minimum set of exercises I am willing to
recommend in general. (Angela approved adding them to my routine, and I
have.) They are Dr Stuart McGill's "Non-Negotiable Three" exercises.
The moral of the story
The experience of having to change the program as I pick up aches and
pains should reinforce my caveats to:
Start
slowly. Don't overdo it for your program initially. Build
up from easy to hard until you understand your limits.
When
in doubt see a professional. They can give you exercises
that fit what your body is capable of, and what it needs.
Last modified 9/4/2022
Copyright Dave Tutelman
2024 -- All rights reserved