Sunday 21 July 2013

My high heels and back pain

If I'm not satisfied with my nose, I can get a nose job; If I'm not satisfied with my height? Yup! High heels are short girl's best friend. High heels really can transform me from a little cute cygnet to become a tall elegant swan. ;)

With high heels, do my legs have a more slender appearance, look thinner and more shapely?

Obviously, I need to pay the price - back pain. Especially since I had an underlying sciatica problem before.


Here's how our body compensates when we wear high heels.


  • Left pic: This is our normal way to stand. 
  • Middle pic: With high heels, the elevated heels make us fall forward. 
  • Right pic: In order to stabilise ourselves, we curve our back and use our lower back muscles to support the upper weight. This exaggerated curve is called sway back or lordosis. This will place more stress on our facet joints (in the spine) and increases the risk of misalignment thus hastening joint degeneration. The higher the heels, the higher the pressure on the front of our knee and we may feel knee pain after a whole day walking in high heels. 
Here, I would like to share with you how I take care of my back but still wearing high heels.


1.     I choose only the wedges or platform shoes that feel comfortable on my feet. The brand that I love most is Polo Santa Barbara wedges. 





2.     Use the 'kua' instead of back muscle to stand and walk. You can strengthen the kua through Tai Chi. http://www.davidbao.com/
Left, standing with stress on back muscle; Right, standing using kua


3.     I do the psoas muscle exercise every morning. Psoas contribute to the natural curve in our spine and control our pelvic tilt. If you want to see what the psoas exercise looks like, please check PSY's new song, Gentleman. ;p


4.   I stand on the stretch board 5 minutes everyday after wearing high heels as a reverse stretch.
 


5.     I immediately look for my back pain therapist, Dorn Therapy, if I do feel some pain. 

I hope my sharing will help you. If you have another alternative to share with me how to overcome back pain without saying Bye to high heels, I would be glad to hear from you. 

Stay naturally beautiful by staying naturally healthy!


Love,
Lai

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