How to stay mobile and pain-free on holiday

First off, congratulations on taking some time off for some much needed relation. It’s amazing how many patients report how much better their backs feel when they are relaxed on holiday. I’ll repeat that, it’s amazing how many patients feel better when they are relaxed!

To help stay mobile, I always recommend movement - find something that you enjoy and you will be far more likely to keep it up while on holiday. Even simple things like daily walks can really help keep the spine feeling more free, and swimming is definitely one of my favourites!

Since you’re on holiday you may have a bit more time to do some stretches, you can perform these at the beach or by the pool easy enough and they really do help especially when combined with some regular exercise. The cat/cow stretch is great to add in during the day to stretch your entire spine and get each individual vertebrae moving. The psoas or hip flexor stretch is one of my musts and it helps take pressure off of the lumbar spine. The hip flexors are very prone to tightening up if you spend a lot of time sitting, or long-distance running. You can stretch your hamstrings all day long but they will not relax until the hip flexors/psoas are stretched.

The next stretch is the classic hamstring stretch and piriformis stretch. There are many variations of these stretches, I recommend searching on the internet to see the different variations and finding the ones that stretch the areas best for you. Each stretching position can be altered to best suit your body as everyone is different.

Lastly and most importantly, relaxing and reducing those London stress levels will do tremendous good for your nervous system, which directly affects your mobility and how you interpret pain. What controls all those tight muscles? Your nervous system! I find reducing screen time (phones, laptops, TVs) and getting enough sleep are great ways to relax. I have a no-screen time after 9:30pm to help with this.

- By Dave Bushell DC