Muscle relaxation exercises and techniques to relieve back and headaches

The almost 30 days of home confinement may be taking its toll, not only at the level of stress or anxiety, but also physically. Not being able to go for a walk or stretch your legs beyond the meters of the hallway of your house is torture for many. Yes, there are no excuses for not exercising daily With the great offer of trainings that we find on social networks from the first day of quarantine, but let's be honest … there are days that we are so tired that the only thing we want is to relax, stretch our backs after being even more than 8 hours sitting teleworking and in most cases, missing our physical therapist.

If you are one of those who urgently needs some expert techniques or tricks to alleviate and calm your contractures, back pain, headaches or legs …. These movements and muscle relaxation techniques will make you see the light again.

What to do to relieve the feeling of heavy legs?

Beyond doing an exercise table and practicing yoga or pilates, there are some mobility exercises recommended by experts that can help us: "The most suitable exercises are gentle mobility exercises with motor control. For example, for the legs the more basic is the flexion and extension of the ankles. It is about making a contraction of the calf and moving the foot from top to bottom. With this we already have a pumping action with venous return, which will help us to reduce the swelling of the legs or that feeling of heaviness ", he tells us Pablo Herrera, vice-dean of the Professional College of Physiotherapists of the Community of Madrid.

"We can accompany these movements with small massages withfoam roller", some rollers to do self-massages that are used for muscle recovery. With these, the massage is more profound since it is carried out with the weight of the body itself. But it must be taken into account that from the College of Physiotherapists they influence that massages in themselves are not a form of treatment for this type of discomfort but they become a tool of physical therapy, or a complement to the techniques and movements of muscle relaxation, which do show greater effectiveness in the treatment.

What movements to do to alleviate the discomfort of the lumbar and cervical area?

We spend many more hours sitting than we would like and both the back and cervical muscles suffer. Postural hygiene is crucial to avoid back discomfort but there are a number of movements that we can do recommended by the expert: "For the lumbar we recommend do expansion exercises such as cat exercise, a posture also known in yoga. Moving the pelvis back and forth … is an exercise that can be done sitting or standing. Breathing control and abdominal control help relax the lower back and gradually you can go up towards the spine until you reach the shoulder girdle, the cervical area … Shoulder circles and gentle head movements to one side and another are also recommended to relax the cervical area. ", Pablo Herreras recommends.

Say goodbye to headaches

To reduce tension in the head due to headaches or a feeling of heaviness from spending many hours in front of a computer screen, there is a relaxation technique that experts use to "press hard for about 4 or 5 seconds and then release and relax. To do by zones, for example we can start with the jaw, then close the eyes tightly and then relax, frown hard and then relax … The intention of the action is to tighten the muscle and then relax it. "

Another of the most technical movements that physiotherapists use for relaxation of stress points is the trigger point technique. "It is a relaxation technique that is performed by pressing the point where the pain is. While you press the point it bothers you, but you have to be very careful and do not overstep the pressure to avoid causing an injury. It is about locating points where there is pain and pressing until the pain decreases. A stimulus is generated and this causes a relaxation effect through controlled pressure, "explains the professional.

Emergency physiotherapy

Due to the alarm situation in the country, physiotherapy clinics also remain closed but the physiotherapists are attending through video consultations, phone calls…. "emergencies such as those who need to continue or carry out treatments for patients with recent stroke, a post-surgical, acute respiratory … are being attended." In order to contact a physical therapist, if these are urgently needed during these quarantine days, they can be accessed through the website of the Professional College of Physiotherapists of Madrid or through their social networks on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.