When you have no pain or stiffness
Many people with lower back problems have long spells in which they experience little or no pain. If, in the past or recently, you have had one or more episodes of lower back pain, start or continue the exercise program even though you may be pain-free at the moment. In this situation it is not necessary to do all the exercises, nor is it necessary to exercise every two hours.
To prevent recurrence of lower back problems:
1. Perform Exercise 3—Extension in Lying—on a regular basis, preferably in the morning
2. Perform Exercise 4—Extension in Standing— at regular intervals whenever you must sit or bend forward for long periods. Also do Exer¬cise 4 before and after heavy lifting and dur¬ing repeated lifting, as well as whenever you feel minor strain developing in your lower back.
3. Practice the slouch-overcorrect procedure (see Chapter 4) whenever you are becoming careless about the correct sitting posture.
4. Perform Exercise 7 once or twice a week to remain fully flexible.
5. Always use a lumbar roll in chairs that do not provide adequate support.
Continue these exercises and adopt them as a regular part of your life. It is essential, however, that you do them before the onset of pain. Even more important than exercising, you must watch your posture at all times and never again let postural stresses become the cause of lower back prob¬lems. The best exercises will have little or no effect if you constantly fall back into poor posture.
Therefore, you should exercise in the manner described above for the rest of your life, but you must develop and maintain good postural habits. Remember, if you lose the lordosis for long peri¬ods at a time, you risk the recurrence of lower back pain.
Because it takes only one minute to perform one session of Exercise 3 and two minutes to complete one session of the slouch-overcorrect procedure, lack of time should never be used as an excuse for not being able to do these exercises.
