MORNING BACK STIFFNESS?

Do you wake with back stiffness, feeling rather like an old lady; starting the day with contorting stretches just to feel normal? Do you find that you struggle to get comfortable in bed at night?

The natural instinct is to try morning stretches to loosen and get going.  If this is working for you please don’t stop – but if it seems rather laborious and more like patching the problem each day rather than solving it – try for the week ahead doing some Pilates spine curls and streches before you go to bed.

WHY DO EXERCISES BEFORE GOING TO BED?

This has been a successful tactic for lots of my patients in clinic with niggly morning back stiffness. 

My theory is that by the end of a normal day of lifting, carrying, sitting, driving, and walking, the majority of people have lost pelvic alignment and their spines have resorted to stiffening the back muscles to keep us upright.  If you go to bed with a rigid lower back and asymmetrical pelvis then you are going to find a soft mattress uncomfortable as it distorts your shape further.  Furthermore,  you will eventually fall asleep but on a poorly arranged spine.  It won’t hurt when you are sleeping but it will complain as you start to move again next day.    

Mini-experiment:  You can feel this effect right now.  Try leaning your hand on the table or chair beside you so that your palm is flat with your wrist at 90 degrees.  It won’t hurt while you lean on it.  If you were distracted chatting to someone you could lean like this for a couple of minutes and not even think about it.  But when you release the pressure off your hand it will ache across the wrist joint and feel uncomfortable for a good minute or two before it wears off.  A night’s sleep on a stiff or crooked spinal column is a magnified version of this.

VIDEO: 10 minutes stretch and relax.

Use my licence code SUPPORTED-MUMS-WITH-BEAM to access all the videos on BEAM free for a month.

Even if you don’t do the video try 6 Pilates spine curls, on the floor (the mattress will be too soft), before you go to bed this week and let me know how you get on?  And if you have any other tips for  waking with the suppleness of a young gazelle please do share below.