Dr. Stefano Sinicropi, M.D.

If you have noticed that your back is starting to feel a little uncomfortable at times, or you just want to help your spine be as healthy as possible, you may be wondering if there are ways you can strengthen your spine without heading to the gym to lift weights. We understand that a standard weight routine isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine, especially because there are countless ways that you can make your spine healthier and stronger without lifting weights. In today’s blog, we share some ways for strengthening your spine without weights.

Spine Strengthening Without Weights

If a weightlifting routine is inconvenient or intimidating, have no fear. There are plenty of simple ways and small changes you can make to your daily routine to help improve the strength and function of your back. Here’s a number of our favorites.

1. Improve Your Posture – You’d be amazed at how much some simple tweaks to your posture can help to improve the strength and stability of your spine. If you are regularly hunched forward or slumping on the couch, the cervical and lumbar portions of your spine will be under chronic stress. Even though the act of sitting or looking down at your phone doesn’t seem all that stressful on your spine, over time all that microtrauma will add up and can accelerate disc degeneration. Strive to make some posture checks and corrections throughout the day, and your spine will be under less stress.
2. Low-Impact Exercise – Low-impact exercise is another great way to make your spine stronger without stepping in the gym. Going for a swim or doing an ab workout in your living room will strengthen a number of key spinal muscles that help to support your spine and ensure proper function. Even just going for a walk can improve blood flow to key structures in your spine.
3. Lose Weight – By taking stress off of your spine in the form of weight loss, we allow our spine to handle more stress that we may throw at it throughout the day during physical tasks. If our spines are already tasked with helping to handle the stress of our body weight, and then we try to perform other strenuous tasks, we can overload our spine. Losing one pound takes four pounds of pressure off your spine, so a little weight loss goes a long way.
4. Healthy Diet – Not only can a healthy diet ensure you lose some weight and help with the above strengthening technique, but it also ensures that your spine and whole body are getting the nutrients it needs to function optimally. Increasing your Vitamin D and calcium intake can serve to make your bones stronger and ward off common problems like osteoporosis. Simple dietary adjustments can really help to make your spine stronger.
5. Floor Routines – Finally, you can do some simple exercises from the comfort of your home as long as you have some open space on the floor in front of you. Do some pushups, planks, crunches or medicine ball movements and target your core muscles, which support your spine and nearby structures. A 10-minute ab workout in front of the television every night will do wonders for your back health.

For more ways to strengthen your spine without heading to the gym to do a weightlifting routine, or to talk to a specialist about your options if back pain is causing you problems, reach out to Dr. Sinicropi’s office today.

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