I am 2m tall (6.6? in imperial measurement) Therefore the World is not designed for one as tall as me. I have had back problems all of my life because I simply grew too fast and then found that every chair or seat provided for me by my school or my workplace, the bus , the train and then of course the dreaded aero plane was too small or had no legroom. I have a particular problem with trying to sit sideways to allow my knees the opportunity to bend normally. How many flights have I endured walking around and standing in the cabin suffering from an aching lower or upper back, observing the little guys swinging their legs in the air in long leg seats! How do they get those chairs? I have been at the head of the check in queue on many occasions just to reserve a good seat on an exit or front row, to no avail. ?Oh I?m sorry Sir, those seats are reserved already?. How do they do that? Then I find either a short guy or cabin crew has them!

Well if you are as tall as I am, you?re probably saying to yourself, ?Yep been there?

So what has all this to do with solving the back problems that many of us endure? Nothing really, I was just giving you an insight into how life affects me and taking the opportunity to have a moan at an airline or two. Back problems can affect all of us the long, the short and the wide. Obviously if you complain to your Doc about a pain in the back your Doctor will tell you to lose weight if you are a little heavy, and yes it will give you back pain if you ask your spine to carry extra weight for which it is probably not designed for. However as I said I have had trouble for the last 30 years so I am probably an expert on back pain!

Let me share a simple trick with you which you can practice whether you are infirm or a growing teenager on a daily basis for 4 minutes of your morning!

Five years ago I went to see a chiropractor in Stamford England called Soren and he was a wonderful Dane. (Please notice I did not say Great as it doesn?t quite have the same ring!) He cured me of the particular problem I had that month and then surprisingly let me into a secret. Maybe he didn?t realize what he was giving away as I have not been back to him or any other professional since!

I have passed this ?Secret? on to many people over the years, but most find it so simple that they don?t believe it can work for them. It does. The young especially are a fickle lot. I have to disagree with the song by Coldplay, ?When I was a young boy I tried to listen? because most of them don?t. Neither do the most of the older generation as they believe they are too old to take advantage of it or they know it all anyway. They do not. So I thought I would save it for my Grandchildren as they will have an aptitude to listen for a while.

Then yesterday I watched some sport on TV. It was a Rugby match in France. The kicker was about to take a shot at converting a goal kick. Well they can take a long time to concentrate on their work and the opposition players were just leaning on each other and generally waiting for what was an easy kick. One player however caught my eye as he was practicing my exercise! So someone else listened! Obviously he felt a twinge somewhere and he performed the one exercise that could unlock his temporary problem. There it was, he was leaning against the very post the kicker was aiming at and performing the ?Secret?. Please don?t get this wrong, you don?t need to be fit to do this exercise and you wont break into a sweat either, so this can be done anywhere at anytime by anyone.

So I thought why not post an article on the internet and tell the World. Well the trick is we are not naturally built to sit on chairs of any design. We stiffen up, at any point during the day we all stretch to try and straighten those back muscles and pop a few vertebrae back in line. That?s all fine but the problem wherever you have it, whether in the neck the shoulders the middle or the lower back all comes from the lower lumbar region and the hips.

You all have seen pictures of our Chinese friends, in their suits and ties, exercising before work in the morning in the squares of Hong Kong without causing a sweat. After this article gets published I expect to witness a new phenomenon especially in the squares of London and New York! Perhaps it?s just as well that white collar workers don?t wear hats any longer. So here we go. Stand still supporting yourself on a wall or another person, or something. Swing your other leg gently to and fro in a straight line as if kicking a ball but with a straight leg. There should be no effort it is supposed to be done gently. Just remember a straight line and as far as you can stretch without any pain for say 2 minutes. The leg should swing like a pendulum on a clock. Then change legs and do another 2 minutes on the other one. That?s it, that?s what the rugby player was doing and that is exactly what Soren taught me. I do this every morning and I have to admit I also do it in the swimming pool which is even better but you can do this whilst standing on the subway, on a train or waiting for a bus.

So come on let?s see the World exercising to Soren?s secret everyday and attempt to stop the majority of back pain forever.

Woops! I have just realized that if we do this all over the World many Chiropractors and Osteo practitioners may lose a lot of business, but save the rest of the World a lot more time in which to enjoy themselves.

Hugo Raymond http:www.mypropertypal.com

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