Submitted by Domesticated Ho... on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 9:30pm
what to do? Exercise my abs? I was looking forward to not being preggo as to have a pain free back, well its still fucked up, I am at a loss and I don't have medical insurance.
Just so you know.....
I injured my back giving birth to my son...Have a herniated disk now. So my advise would be yes any core strengthening exercises can help but if your not sure whats wrong theres a small chance you could make it worse. Not having insurance does make it rough but it might be a good idea to get checked out.
depends on where your pain
depends on where your pain is, how accurate you are with the poses, etc.
yoga made my back injury worse.
pilates made it better.
Yes, absolutely yoga, and some Pilates too.
I get some pretty good Post-natal Pilates dvd from the library...the main thing there is strengthening core abdominal muscles (transverse abdominus, then obliques, then rectus abdominus). Doing some simple stretches every day will make a big difference. The thing is though is that back pain can come from a lot of different sources, but we can guess that it's a structural imbalance from pregancy, which is going to chiefly affect your hip structure, pelvic alignment (carrying baby around), abs, psoas, and the quadratus lumborum. So, yes, stretch, lengthen and strengthen, baby! Feldenkrais, continuum movement and dance are all worth checking out for movement instruction, too.
SQ: Yes, AND, by this reasoning, if the psoas is already tight or hypertoned, then why do we want to similairly restrict the superficial tissues? My thought is that the psoas needs to lengthen. Most people have no felt sense of their psoas at all. Lunge type stretches, front line stretches and everyday efficient movement patterns are gonna help with that, like undulating the spine in walking. Strengthening the abs is also important, but tightening a structure on top of a tight structure is going to cause a further restriction in movement. For the abs to really strengthen there needs to be room in the fascial bags for expansion. This equals the necessity of stretching, so this is why I say Yes on yoga. Thoughts?
I think all the stuff you're saying is totally accurate
but here's what happened to me, and my chiro's explanation...
So, I was doing yoga 4 or 5 times a week, and my back was not getting worse, but it wasn't getting better either. I would wake up every morning in pain, and the only way I could sleep to avoid the pain was to curl up in the fetal position (which I didn't know, but found out later, actually disengaged the psoas).
The thing is, I didn't have ANY strength left in my abs from the pregnancy. I can blame this on a lot of things, what I should've done...etc, but the doctor said that it happens to the majority of women. So, if there is absolutely no strength left in the muscle, and you go to do an exercise in which another muscle has the ability to compensate, that muscle will always compensate. The only way to force the weakened muscle to work is to isolate it until it becomes strong enough to do the work on it's own. So I was doing regular yoga (which does not isolate muscles, it does the healthy thing and makes them all work together) and for every exercise that was supposed to strengthen my abs, my psoas muscles picked up the slack.
Since the psoas were picking up the slack for things that they aren't supposed to be working for, they got overstressed (from being pulled at weird angles) and swollen (from just plain being used too much). The doctor pressed on the middle of my stomach, below my ribcage and I literally yelped in pain from it. However, I had been walking around for months, without realizing that it hurt there. Duh.
Anyway, I spent a couple of weeks doing the simple isolation exercise he gave me, and then went back to yoga, and viola! it was much better. I noticed a big difference in my headstands and crow pose. It was as if I were lifting from the top instead of the back...if you get what I mean.
So while all this was happening, I went to get a massage. The therapist asked me if I wanted her to stretch my psoas muscles to help a bit. I thought that would be great. After she did that, I literally couldn't get off the table, and my back was the worst it had ever been. I don't know why. I didn't talk to my doc about that, but just thinking about it right now hurts.
I think yoga is a good idea, as soon as the abs have a little strength, that's all.
"I am not dead yet! I can still call forth a piece of soul and set it down in color, fixed forever." Keri Hulme
"Fundamentally the markswoman aims at herself" DT Suzuki
Hmm. that sounds messed up, and terrible.
I can agree with the isolation exercise as you describe, what's tricky though is isolating the right muscle, kwim? Psoas shares a central tendon with the diaphragm, I wonder if that was part of your pain association. And to get totally geeky and hijacky, the psoas is primarily a hip flexor, and while it can flex the trunk at the hip, it cannot compensate for the trunk and lateral flexion actions of the abs. I fully agree you could be compensating in other ways, but I think if your psoas was that horribly tight it has more to do with the QL then the abs. While you're thinking about that--pm me if you have any good links/info re: thyroid disorders for an article I'm contributing to. thanks!
This is pasted and copied from a different post I wrote
cause I'm a lazy bastard:
The chiropractor told me that after our pregnancies, our abs are super weak, because they moved out of the way for the big belly. So these other muscles, called psoas muscles start to compensate for them. Those psoas muscles attach from your quadriceps, up through the middle of your organs and then hook onto the middle of your spine. When they are overcompensating, they pull on your vertebrae causing tons of middle back and lower back pain.
The exercise that I have to do to strengthen my abs is so super easy. You lay on your back and pull your legs up until they are perpendicular to your back, with your knees bent (so like you're sitting in a chair but with your back on the ground, if that makes any sense). This forces your psoas muscles to disengage. You'll notice a little space between the small of your back and the floor. The idea is to arch your back into the ground and hold it for 2-3 seconds, and then do this about 10-15 times. It will start to strenghten your abdominal muscles and take the stress off your lower back. I did this about 2 or 3 times a day and noticed a big difference after a week. I figured it was worth sharing.
If you try to do yoga before you strengthen your abs a little bit, you can acutally worsen the effect, because your psoas muscles will compensate for your abs during yoga, resulting in more swelling, resulting in more back pain. You want to do some simple exercises to get your abs in shape first.
"I am not dead yet! I can still call forth a piece of soul and set it down in color, fixed forever." Keri Hulme
"Fundamentally the markswoman aims at herself" DT Suzuki