Spines are important!

Sutherland mountains

I have had wandering pains in my chest for nearly six weeks now, and finally made appointment at surgery expecting to be told I had a chest infection. Seems I needed an osteopath instead, so I made an appointment with the recommended person and duly trotted into his consulting rooms that same afternoon.

 Believe it or not, I had three ribs out of place, and probably all due to poor posture ie slouching on the sofa with my feet up all evening. With the ribs duly clicked back into place and lots of advice I now feel back to normal. It seems walking, cycling etc do nothing for the spine, not even power walking where the arms seems as active as the legs. For my age (ah! Those dreaded words) my spinal movement is pretty good, but I need to exercise it properly to keep it supple and I should not, repeat not, slouch on a sofa with my feet up for four hours every evening! I must sit properly, and get up several times through the evening, and do the prescribed exercises.

I have done them all through today – and if the spine is really out of shape and needs to be kept flexible, some unlucky persons need to do the exercises every four hours through the night. But this morning I woke up and there wasn’t a twinge to be felt, so I am following the advice very carefully indeed from now on.

 The exercises are really simple, too.  Raise a straight  arm until it touches the ears, slide the hand down the thigh until it reaches the knee, slide the hands down the shins to the feet if you can, clasp the fingers at chest level in front of you and  turn the arms sideways as far as you can; and finally, rotate the pelvic girdle. Now do on the opposite side. Voila. You should have a nice supple spine.