Busy Daddy and Physical Therapist chronicles his efforts to stay fit and competitive and offers pearls of wisdom from his life in athletics and career in therapy and athletic training

Thursday, May 6, 2010

My wife's back

From the title of today's post, one might think that it is time to clean up the house because she has been out of town.  No, she has not been out of town and my clothes and shoes are not all over the house with empty potato chip bags everywhere.  Not to mention, probably my worst habit, I have not left wet gym clothes on the furniture or floor.  However, my wife has a chronic low back condition.  She recently asked me (which is a really big step for her) for a 10 minute program that she could perform anywhere.  By anywhere, she meant in her office, outside, or on the floor at home.  The pressure was on me.  I had to pick 3-4 exercises that would address her weaknesses/ problem, not use any fancy equipment, and be able to be completed in 10 minutes.
A little history on my wife...a MRI confirmed two bulging discs in her lumbar spine shortly after the birth of our second child.  To complicate matters, the bulges were at separate levels of the spine and bulged in opposite directions.  She was able to avoid surgery, but she has to stay "in tune" with her body in regards to her back health.  Here is what I came up with for her:
1.  Prone "superman" (start with diagnol pattern 3 sets of 15-20 reps each side)

2.  Side plank (10 reps x a slow 5 second hold (in touch with breathe) on each side)

3.  Bridge progression (begin with doulbe leg and work on slow decent in touch with each spinal articulation)
Do 20 reps and hold 5 seconds

4.  Yoga cobra flow (flow smoothly, slowly, pay careful attention to spine/ hand/ foot changes--do this for 3 minutes)

3 comments:

  1. I know a ton of people who will benefit from this type of workout. Thanks for that

    ReplyDelete
  2. After learning about backs all day at work, I tried these, and I like them. And, I wanted to comment so you knew I not only caught up on my reading but tried what you said!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is your wife....nice job! I can do these in 10 minutes and I don't need fancy equipment. Now I just have to keep going....Love you.

    ReplyDelete