Sore hips or lower back?! Lets "Antifragile" a few things!

Written by ALL of your Resilient Osteopaths!

Okay, Antifragile hacks for your posture parts1 and 2 give you all the nitty grittys!

YOU've GOT THIS! 

.... except for sometimes when you dont...

Could you be doing some of these?

Don't worry! Sitting, standing, sleeping... we've got you covered!

SO, how do we keep ourselves in order?!

If you're sitting like this:

crossing your legs....sitting on foot or twisting your body (e.g. leaning into the side of the couch)

crossing your feet or simply just placing your foot under your chair (e.g. uneven loaded sitting) 

Or letting your knees knock together when sitting

AVOID them!

TRY instead:

"plugging both feet into the ground", sitting supported, using a stability disc or step, and activating your deep neck flexors!

Standing IS SOOO EASY, we often make it HARDER than it needs to be on our body!

We are looking at YOU when you lean on one leg, crossing your legs... slouch... AVOID these!

TRY instead:

standing like a "teepee" with even weight through each foot and lifting up through your spine

.... not only will you use your muscles, correctly, but your body language will positively tell those around you "I am here!" :P

Sleeping positions are a little more tricky!

Tummy sleeping... you know it's going to make your neck and junctional areas work extra hard.

Too much pessure on your side on your hip? We hear you!! 

Unsupported back sleeping? OKAY!

YOU can sleep with a knee up - ity is archetypal... but can sometimes be uncomfortable.

TRY pillow propping for support instead!!

That is placing a pillow between your knees knees when you're sleeping on your side:

If this doesn't work for you, try a pillow under knees when you lay on your back, or half lay on your front and side, with a pillow underneath you. LOSE the pillow if you're on your tummy, or place it under your chest obliquely, so that your not fully rotating your neck AND it will reduce the pressure in those junctions!

 If you’re just feeling stuck, a bit blergh… over focussed… over stimulated?

TRY OUR FAVOURITE:

Tx towel

1.    Over towel exercise

a.    Roll up a towel

b.    Make a T with your pillow and rolled up towel

c.    Lie with your rolled-up towel vertically down the centre of your mid back with your arms at 90º to your body

The over the towel exercise is a really nice exercise to calm down your sympathetic nervous system, your fight or flight response. If you have a sedentary job and/or increased daily stressors who experience upper to mid back and neck pain/discomfort will typically present with a heightened flight or fight response due to increased stimuli input during the day.

By taking 5 minutes out of your day to lie over your towel or foam roller (with your head supported!), you can calm down your fight or flight response, allowing the rest and digest response (parasympathetic nervous system) to take over.

This can help to decrease your back and/or neck pain because it slows down the pain signal going from your brain to your back.

See you in the clinic!

The Resilient Health Team

P.S. If you're not sure about your pillow-> check out our "Pillow Talk" blog by our Osteopath Dr Mel Pierlot! OR how to set up your WFH desk? Antifragile Office Hacks is for you! Or the next couple after this are along the lines of POSTURE Hacks thanks to our Osteopaths Dr Courtnay Wood and Dr Casey Beaumont!

Sketched images commissioned from @thejaquesstudio