Good morning and a happy new year!

Welcome to the first edition of the “Train For Life” newsletter in 2025.

In today’s edition we are going to be diving into back and spine health, as it’s a subject that is close to my own heart having had debilitating back issues of my own.

As Joseph Pilates said, “if your spine is stiff at 30, you are old, and if it's flexible at 60, you are young”. When my back was it at its worst I felt like an 80 year old so I can testify to this 100%.

The good news is it doesn’t have to be a life sentence or your “achilles heel” forever. You can get past it, get out of pain AND get back to all the activities you love.

While we are all different often requiring individual approaches to overcoming back pain.

There are however, some solid general steps we can take when looking to reduce pain and build a stronger more resilient back.

Some of these key steps are the following:

• Developing good breathing mechanics.

• Improving foot function and mobility.

• Regular brisk walking.

• Building or maintaining good hip mobility.

Lets look at each one a little more closely…..

Breathing properly…

The primary breathing muscle is the diaphragm which plays an important role in spinal stability.

Often stress and pain causes shallow breathing reducing diaphragm function, whilst overworking the secondary breathing muscles.

This in itself can contribute to neck and upper trap issues due to the locations of these secondary breathing muscles.

To remedy this and get the diaphragm working properly, practice regular belly or “diaphragmatic breathing”.

This can be done sitting upright or lying on your back with knees bent. Either way have one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest.

Simply inhale and exhale SLOWLY through the nose aiming to ONLY feel the hand on the belly move up and down. Aim for minimal to no movement of the chest and upper hand.

It might be challenging at first but stick with it and be CONSISTENT, just 5-10 mins a day could work wonders.

Better foot function…

The soles of the feet are filled with receptors that connect to key muscles all the way up the back of legs, to the hips and back…

Keeping your feet confined all day in ill fitting (albeit fashionable) footwear is not healthy longterm, given your feet require proper connection with the ground.

Try to do some exercise or activity in barefoot or simply spend more time barefoot to allow the feet and toes to move properly.

Barefoot style footwear and trainers are also very popular these days so consider changing your regular footwear. Gradually transition to them however, as your body needs time to adjust.

For more information I dedicated a whole issue newsletter to the feet with mobility exercises attached which you can read here: https://daryls-newsletter-000430.beehiiv.com/p/healthy-feet-healthy-body.

Brisk walking…

Walking is a non intensive form of exercise and can help to alleviate back pain symptoms, as well as gently strengthen supporting muscles of the midsection and pelvis.

Back specialist Dr Stuart McGill is an advocate of brisk walking for lower back rehab, especially when you use good arm swing and walk with purpose.

This also helps to utilise key muscles such as the glutes and the lats that work together to help support your back and spine.

Remember movement is beneficial (as long as it’s pain free) and walking improves circulation and pushes oxygen around the body to help reduce inflammation.

Walk as regularly as you can but make sure it’s an amount you can tolerate and be mindful not to overdo if you are de-conditioned.

ALWAYS listen to your body….

Building or maintaining hip mobility…

This one might not seem so obvious but your hips are located very close to the lower back…

This means if we lack movement or mobility at the hips, it can potentially cause compensatory movements at the low back contributing to pain.

This becomes particularly problematic when we have movement and/or muscle imbalances between right and left hips.

In fact this was a major factor that caused my own low back issues and I focused a lot on the hips working on imbalances in my own rehab journey.

As with the feet, I dedicated a whole newsletter to the hips with exercises attached which you can read here: https://daryls-newsletter-000430.beehiiv.com/p/train-life.

What about resistance training?

Absolutely! I am ALL about resistance exercise as a trainer and coach as you know!

But this is where it becomes more individualised, and prefer not to generalise resistance training as I would always conduct a full assessment of any individual first.

The root causes of pain, muscle imbalances and movement issues varies from person to person and what works for one might not work for someone else.

The purpose of today’s newsletter is more about making beneficial lifestyle changes to improve back pain symptoms.

If you want to know more about how I can help, or if you are interested in getting a proper assessment then please reach out to me on LinkedIn, or email me on [email protected].

For now thanks for reading today, and stay tuned for the next edition of Train For Life next Saturday!

Daryl