4 Exercises To Relieve Your New-Mom Backache

Ontario Chiropractic Association (OCA)

Now that you’re a new mom, you may have more important things to worry about than your newfound back pain but ignoring it will not make your mommy duties any easier. The already demanding tasks of bending, carrying and feeding are even more challenging when your backache is holding you back.

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While carrying your bundle of joy for nine months, your abdominal muscles have stretched to make room for delivery. This is a common cause of back pain in new moms because your back muscles now have to work overtime to support your spine and keep you upright.

 

Here are 4 core exercises you can do with your little one to help decrease the ache.

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Pelvic Bridges

• Lie on your back, bend your knees and put your feet flat on the ground.
• Place your baby on your pelvis with their back against your thighs.
• While holding your baby in place, slowly push your hips up towards the ceiling.
• Hold this position for 3 to 5 seconds.
• Keep your abdominals tight to avoid sagging your lower back. Inhale as you slowly lower your body back to the starting position.
• Repeat 8 to 12 times.

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Plank

• Lay your baby on the ground, face up, while kneeling in front of them.
• Place your forearms on either side of your baby and lift your body off the ground.
• Keep your back in neutral spine position and engage your core by contracting your abdominal muscles. Avoid letting your hips fall or stick up in the air.
• Hold for 10 seconds, working your way up to 30 seconds.
• Repeat 3 to 5 times.

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Stabilizer

• Laying on your back, bend your knees at a 90 degree angle with your feet in the air.
• Stabilize your baby so they are resting on your shins and hold onto their hands.
• Engage your core and hold this position for 10 seconds, working your way up to 30 seconds.
• Repeat 8 to 12 times.

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Arm & Leg Extensions

• Get down on all fours with your baby lying on their back and parallel to your chest.
• Engage your core and slowly lift and extend your left arm and right leg at the same time while maintaining a neutral spine position.
• Hold this position for 3 seconds, then lower your limbs and give your baby’s belly a tickle as you return to starting position.
• Repeat on the opposite side, lifting right arm and left leg.
• Repeat 8 to 12 times.

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Before getting back to business, consult your postnatal practitioner and get cleared to return to exercise. You’ll also want to make sure that your newborn can hold their head up on their own if you’re going to include them in these exercises. If your back pain prevents you from performing these exercises or persists after trying them, visit your chiropractor to develop a treatment plan for your recovery.

 

Tennis Elbow...Minus the Tennis!

By Dr. Greg Lusk, DC

"Tennis Elbow" is the common term for lateral epicondylitis, which refers to an overuse muscle strain injury of the tendons that attach to the outside of the elbow.  This is in contrast to "golfer's elbow" where pain is experienced on the inside of the elbow.  Despite its name, most cases of tennis elbow are not related to tennis but to other causes of stress and strain to the elbow.  Repetitive gripping or leveraging activities are common culprits as muscles involved in these activities attach to the bony bump on the outer elbow.  Occupations or activities with repetitive hand use, such as carpentry, weight training, and even constant computer mouse use can contribute to development of this condition.

The symptoms of tennis elbow may include pain at the bony bump on the outside of the elbow and possibly down the back of the forearm to the wrist.  Pain is often experienced with gripping activities and even things as simple as holding a cup of water can become quite painful, requiring the assistance of the other hand to support the load.

 

Early on (i.e. within the first few weeks), self care efforts such as icing, avoiding aggravating activities, and the use of pain medications may be sufficient to ease the pain.  However, if the pain persists, which is quite common, it would be appropriate to seek treatment to help get things under control.  In fact, the longer this condition lasts the less likely the pain is due to inflammation in the soft tissues but rather to degenerative changes in the tendon.  This is true for all tendon injuries and at least in part explains why long term ice and anti-inflammatory medication use may not be effective beyond their "pain killing" benefits.

Management of a degenerated tendon is different than that of an inflamed tendon as the tendon structure has become disorganized and scar tissue is present, in the absence of inflammatory markers.  Healing and regeneration of the tendon must be facilitated and conservative treatment to assist this may involve the following techniques and strategies. 

·        Manual or tool-assisted soft tissue therapies are effective at breaking up scar tissue, improving blood and lymph movement in the tissues, decreasing tissue tension, and improving relative movement of one tissue across another.  Also, the micro trauma caused by the soft tissue treatment itself helps to restart the healing process with the end goal being a healthier, more properly organized tendon structure.

·        Eccentric exercises.  This refers to the part of an exercise movement where the muscle is lengthening while maintaining control of the weight.  Research shows this increases protein production in the tendon which is important for healing.

·        Other treatments, such as acupuncture or electrotherapies, may help at promoting healing and managing the associated pain.

·        Adequate rest is important to let the structural damage to the tendon heal.

·        Looking at the aggravating activities and modifying things to decrease the load imposed on the tendon.  In the case of tennis, there may be swing or footwork improvements that can be made which will decrease strain at the elbow.

 On a final note, if the above ideas or other treatments directed at the elbow are not yielding positive results after a fair trial period, it would be worth having your shoulder and neck assessed as anatomy located here can cause pain at the elbow and may be the ultimate source of stubborn elbow pain.

This article is for general information purposes only and is not to be taken as professional medical advice.