Hey guys, it’s Stephen from CORE Therapy and Pilates… It’s Saturday and I’m up here at the studio catching up on some paperwork, doing some e-mails, making some phone calls and as I was sitting there, I found this little piece of paper on my desk about a blog idea that I’d written a few weeks back. So I want to go ahead and go through with this blog.
This message is for the folks that sit in the car with their shoulders up and forward while they hold the wheel, in whatever position they’re holding the wheel. This also has a bit of a message for the folks that will arch their back or sway their low back while sitting in the car.
I’m not a fan of the typical lumbar support that most physical therapists provide where you get a lumbar support going in the horizontal direction right at your your lower back. I’m not a fan of that at all because what I find today is that most of my patients are already way too forward in an arch or their spine is already too swayed as it is. So anything pushing the low back forward is really not a good idea, in my opinion, from the clients that I see. So what I like to do is actually take a pool noodle, a simple pool noodle that’s been cut, now this one’s a tiny bit too short… I’ve ran out of pool noodles, it’s January here in Austin so finding pool noodles are a little bit of a challenge. It’s a tiny bit short because what I really wanted to do is to run from the low back all the way up to the neck, so it’s a couple inches short. The idea is with this little simple pool noodle in your car between your shoulder blades is going to give you an ability to open your chest a little bit instead of being slouched. As soon as you move away from that noodle you feel it, so the idea is to bring your spine back to stay in contact with the pool noodle. The pool noodle is between the car seat and your spine…
So that’s a little tip for you. I find it’s very helpful and I’ve been giving this tip out for years to clients. And they all tell me that it’s a positive for them.
The other positive is with the low back… you can actually flatten your lumbar spine into the pool noodle just a slight bit instead of staying in that sway, in that arch. Which again, I find so common with my clients. So a simple pool noodle… It’s a couple bucks at the store, you cut it with a pair of scissors. Put it between your shoulder blades and run it up and down the spine. If you’ve ever laid on a foam roller, that’s where I got the idea from. It’s just taking a simple foam roller concept and putting it into your car…
Now you can also use it to sit in a regular chair as well but I find the car is a very effective place to try it.
So that’s it for today… I hope that helps! The next time you’re sitting and you’re catching yourself with your shoulders up in your ears and forward, go ahead and make a change and put this little pool noodle there and see how that goes to help things out…
Alright buddies. Have a great day. Happy 2018 to everyone… take care!
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