PILATES: SUPPORT FOR THE UNSTABLE SPINE

For years I thought I had a stiff back.  I lived with low level back ache and referred aches and pains through my legs, occasionally seeing the physio if the symptoms became acute, usually after exertion of some kind: continuous bending and twisting to pick up leaves, lifting boxes and twisting when we moved house.  Generally, I’m [...]

BACK PROBLEMS: FACET JOINT BREAKDOWN

A long post, I know, but there is a lot of useful information here.  Our free video this week is an excerpt taken from our Back Care Series of 3 videos to help you through each stage of back pain and help you maintain a healthy spine.
The spine is hooked together by a series of [...]

HERNIATED DISC: OVERVIEW AND TREATMENT

Also known as slipped or bulging disc, this is actually much less common than we are led to believe: only about 5% of back problems are because of a prolapsed disc.  The term “slipped disc” is also misleading as this would lead us to believe that the whole disc slips out of place, whereas it [...]

ANATOMY OF THE SPINE & ITS FUNCTION

The human spine is an upright bendy column made up of 7 cervical vertebrae forming the neck, 12 thoracic vertebrae forming the middle back and 5 lumbar vertebrae forming the lower back. These 24 vertebrae sit on a triangular bone called the sacrum to which your pelvis is attached at the sacro-iliac joint. The coccyx [...]