BPL:10 Listen to Your Body with Suzanne Wylde
SHOW NOTES
Listen to your body. Experiment with different ways to exercise. When you find something that helps your back pain, do more of that.
So says the founder of Moving Stretch, Suzanne Wylde.
“Keep an open mind and try things. Whatever works for you has got to be good.”
Stress and back pain are inextricably linked. Many experts think that most chronic back pain stems from muscle spasms and inflammation caused by stress hormones.
In today’s episode, Suzanne talks about the importance of resilience in body and personality. We talk about the mind-body connection, and how mind-body exercise can help to build resilience to stress and chronic pain.
She tells us about clients who have been able to relieve back pain fast.
This is the 3rd and final episode with Suzanne. Please scroll to the bottom of the post to find previous episodes.
Today’s Guest
Designer of the Moving Stretch system and author of Moving Stretch: Work Your Fascia to Free Your Body Suzanne Wylde
Listen to Your Body
Suzanne says that you should listen to your body and trust your intuition. In this way, you can find the best exercise for back pain – the one that works for you.
- If you really take care of your body…listen to it…you can end up being very independent and resourceful
- If people are starting out, and they’re in chronic pain…they have to listen to their bodies and proceed slowly…a couple of stretches once a day and keep a diary..you can score your pain out of 10
- With my clients, I get them to score how bad their pain usually is and then how bad it is at worst
- If you re-check in 2 weeks, you might notice…it doesn’t hurt when I get up in the mornings anymore..bodies expect to be healthy; when the pain resolves completely, they don’t even know they had it
Stress and Back Pain
- I’ve noticed that stress levels have been rising
- If people are resilient in their bodies and personalities, they can deal with a lot of change…if you don’t have that, it can be a scary world
Mind-Body Exercise
Mind-body exercise is about training with awareness. Focus your mind to listen to your body.
- If you have a strong body you can rely on, it makes you feel that you can navigate almost anything
- We have to be resilient and adaptable
- If you’re more flexible and mobile, it helps you to be more spontaneous – in the moment
- The body can be a lovely support for the mind and the personality
- If you’re strong physically, and you’re mobile, you have more options open to you…mentally as well
- It empowers people – to be able to fix your own body
More on the Mind-Body Connection
- You can’t affect one without affecting the other
- I understand why, in science, they like to separate things; so you can understand them. But, unless you put them back together, there’s no context or meaning
- We don’t go on about this weird stuff in classes, we just stretch
How to Relieve Back Pain Fast
- The thing with…moving stretch is that..your body changes quite rapidly. And it’s long-term because we work on the fascia.
- (about a client who had been involved in a road accident)…two weeks to resolve terrible back pain…well, make it a lot better and to make him functional again…that’s pretty fast
- I remember this 75-year-old guy I met at a party! He still does the stretches and he still doesn’t get lower back pain. If (a client) can have one session, remember all the stretches and keep himself pain-free, that’s pretty good
Improving Mobility for Back Pain Sufferers
- You can get your phone out and make a little video of you trying to touch your toes and then you can do it again after a week, a couple weeks and a month
- I’m a big fan of measuring things
- Once you have a video or a measurement then you can look back and go “Oh wow, I’ve changed”.
- You can choose the stretches that you want to do, or you can do a routine; most people do avoid their tighter areas
Safe Stretches for Back Pain
It’s important to get the level of self-reliance right.
- People should see their doctor, to make sure it’s nothing bad…if your dr. says it’s fine to stretch…then I would ease into it
- I would try stretching 5 days a week for the first weeks
- Drink plenty of water
- If they try it and the pain gets worse (if they’ve consulted their doctor) maybe just try a little bit less but consistently. Chronic pain can be a tricky thing to work with; it’s about re-educating the mind to accept normal movement
Will Stretching Help My Back Pain
- I’ve designed it for chronic pain sufferers
- It gets you more upright and aligned and open
- Keep an open mind and try things and then, whatever works for you has to be good
- The reason I don’t make claims…I’m not really into the hard sell
- We have ways of measuring postural movements, I recommend you do that at the beginning
- You do need to stretch continuously for a certain period until you get results that stick…then you need to do some upkeep
- It’s very individual but I would say give it a good go for two or 3 months
Office Syndrome Back Pain
- If you have an office job, you’ll probably always need to stretch
- We don’t have enough time in the day to move enough to counter all the inactivity we have in the day
- You have to do enough stretching to counter whatever it is in your lifestyle that’s making you tight, weak or out of alignment
Natural Movement
- I love natural movement, but it’s a leap from your normal life…to going crawling around on the floor or climbing a tree
- (on stretching) I like to think of it as a bridge to natural movement
- I think that 20 minutes of resistance stretching is equivalent to an hour of natural movement
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Thanks for Listening!
Do you know a good way to train mindfully and listen to your body? To share your experience:
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Thanks to Suzanne for joining me this time.
Best,
Iain
Find more episodes of the Back Pain Liberation Podcast here