Planes, trains, and…a sore back?

Rose is off to Washington DC!

This is exciting!  Our very own Rose is, this minute, flying to Washington D.C., where she will tour the White House vegetable garden and meet with the movers and shakers in the front-line of national food policy.  Go Rose!  I am super-excited for her as well as super-excited that I am not the one traveling via car, plane, shuttle, plane, taxi, limo, repeat.  Not that I don’t adore traveling.  I would gladly take the next free trip to rural Africa, thank you very much!  It is the sitting for hours upon hours I detest.

I have worked hard to make the “movement” component of my life reflect that of yesteryear, minimizing car, gas, and gear-powered travel, opting to use my fabulous hips instead.  Hips are, by definition, the greatest joint you have.  Greatest joint in size, greatest joint in terms of engineering (check out all those muscles that attach there!), and the GREATEST joint, by far, in your pants.  Really…if you don’t have those muscles in your hips innervating, you probably have a fantastic belt collection!

So for Rose (or whomever sits as a desk or spent this weekend driving) I recommend this great stretch for your piriformis muscle.  This hip muscle often aggravates sciatic pain in the sacral (low back) area and can limit the health of the hip joint.  I call it the Number 4 stretch, because when you get into it, you kind of resemble the number “4”.   The most simple version is, while perched on the front of a chair, cross your ankle over your opposite knee.  Try to reach forward to the floor…yikes, that’s tight!  P.S.  If you have a hip or knee replacement, please avoid this stretch.  If you want to avoid a knee or hip replacement, do the Number 4 stretch often!

Thank you, Shelah W. for making me a cartoon!

I do this one a lot when flying – both in the airport and in the back of the plane.  You can do it in a chair, against a wall, or if you have very good balance, you can do it without any support.  While filming our DVD line, the camera operator was having sciatica pain, so I showed him this stretch and the entire crew did it in their chairs, standing, and using the set walls.

Take "5" - Five minutes to stretch, that is!

I’m also fairly positive you can do it while reading a blog…hint hint.