I used to be plagued with back ache.
Then I discovered a couple of secrets for myself.
Back pain is an absolute epidemic these days.
And the medical establishment seems to be powerless to do anything about it.
But this is the key word - power.
Instead of placing yourself in the power of therapists, imagine you can take control yourself.
Build up the strength in your own body yourself.
I said to myself, "Jim, you want to take back control yourself.
" Now I've said it before, but it bears repeating.
If you want a strong and powerful back, you need to strengthen your stomach.
A I've said in another article, I found for myself that instead of strengthening the back muscles with exercises, it's the stomach muscles which are vital.
There is a girdle of stomach muscle.
It goes from side to side in the lower stomach area.
In a strong person, it carries the weight of the upper body.
It takes the strain off the lower back.
It provides a solid base for the body.
But in a lot of people these days, the stomach muscle is weak and sags under the weight of the body organs.
It sags outward and the weight of the body drags on the lower back.
The body has all the firmness of a sack of potatoes.
The discs in the spine are literally being squished between the vertebra.
The sciatic nerve is being squeezed.
And boy can that sciatic nerve complain when that happens! I'm going to describe an exercise I do regularly.
It's a very powerful exercise.
It targets just those stomach muscles we need to be strong.
Get yourself a chair with a straight back.
Stand behind the chair.
Move away from the chair a little.
A couple of feet will do.
Then put your hands on the chair back and lean against it so that the upper body is roughly parallel to the floor.
You're going to breath out completely and then holding your breath draw in your tummy.
Hold for a count of five and let go.
Breath normally again.
Did you feel how the lower tummy muscle was squeezing the tummy a little? This exercise is a starter.
Once you begin to feel stronger, you can increase the intensity and the length of time you hold.
But at the beginning go easy.
You want to build up the power in your body.
You do not want to annoy your sciatic nerve.
Don't do sit ups! I never do sit ups.
They're almost guaranteed to give you a pain in your back.
And they target the wrong stomach muscle - the vertical one which pulls down on the upper body and increases the strain for the lower back muscles.
Don't do sit ups.
It really is not a good exercise for the lower back.
Try the exercise I've just described.
Do it often and think about what it's doing when you're practising it.
Become conscious of the muscles in your tummy.
You'll feel an improvement in a very short time.
You'll feel more powerful.
Your back will feel eased as it's not working so hard.
And the pain will go away.