Dr. Stuart McGill is an internationally known biomechanist that has devoted much of his research to the study of low back pain and how to beat it. Through his research, 3 exercises emerged to be the best exercises for strengthening your core and low back. The important part about these exercises are that they keep your lumbar spine in a neutral position (which is where your lumbar spine wants to be) while also strengthening the surrounding muscles.

The FIRST of the Big 3 exercises is: Crunches!

Getting Ready for CRUNCHES!
-To do a proper McGill Crunch, lay flat on your back. 
-Keep one leg straight and bend your other leg at the knee and place that foot flat on the ground
-Place your hands underneath the arch of your low back with your palm facing down

HOW TO PROPERLY DO A MCGILL CRUNCH:
-Before doing anything, tighten your core just enough to prevent any movement in your lumbar spine (Remember, the goal of this exercises is to stiffen your core and build stability in your lumbar spine WHILE it's in a neutral position)
-Slightly lift your elbows off the ground while at the same time slightly lifting your head off the ground
-While lifting your head off the ground, keep it also in a neutral position (aka don't just flex your neck to raise your head off the ground)

If you're doing this exercise right, it really should look like you're not doing much at all! But remember, you're doing this exercise to rebuild your bad back. It happens with baby steps.

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks to find out what the other 2 best exercises are for fixing your low back pain!

If you or someone you know is experiencing low back pain, book today with Dr. Brenda Yee to begin your journey on beating back pain! Through guided strengthening rehabilitation and hands-on treatment for sore muscles and stiff joints, you'll be moving and grooving your way to being pain free. (And no, you won't be coming for treatments forever just to "get cracked".)

Have you ever experienced a deep achy (sometimes burning) pain in your midback region on the inside part of your shoulder blade beside your spine? Does it make you feel like you need to rub your midback on the corner of a wall to get relief? Does the persistent pain of it distract your from doing work at your desk? If you answered 'yes' to any of the above questions, you may be experiencing the symptoms of Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment. 

What is Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment?
Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment is the irritation or (literal) impingement of the dorsal scapular nerve in your midback. It is an under-recognized cause of neck, upper back and shoulder blade pain. The symptoms of it often overlap with other conditions and can be mistaken for cervical disc herniation, rib pain or shoulder pathology.

My side rant: Now, I don't like to use the word "impingement" or phrase "pinched nerve" lightly when talking about the body because I think it can too easily mislead the proper, thorough diagnosis of a person's pain. It's too easy to say "you have a pinched nerve and that's why you have pain". Most often, the pain a person experiences is NOT from a pinched nerve. But in the case of dorsal scapular nerve entrapment, it literally is "a pinched nerve" in severe cases.

Common Cause of Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment
In the diagram above, you can see the common "pinch points" of the dorsal scapular nerve as it travels from the neck down into the midback. The muscles that commonly get tight and then consequently decrease the dorsal scapular nerve's ability to move properly in your body are levator scapulae, rhomboid minor and rhomboid major.

How Do You Treat Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment?
Rehab, rehab, rehab! I cannot stress enough how important it is to strengthen your midback muscles, particularly your rhomboid muscles, to help in the recovery process of dorsal scapular nerve entrapment. Exercise combined with manual therapy (soft tissue therapy, spinal manipulation and mobilization) has also demonstrated itself to be an effective treatment combination in relieving the pain you're experiencing from it and also helping to prevent its reoccurrence. 

Does dorsal scapular nerve entrapment sound like something you're experiencing? Book today with Dr. Brenda Yee at Nurture Family Chiropractic in Guelph, Ontario to see how the combination of hands-on treatment and guided strengthening physical rehabilitation can make a drastic difference for you.