Hey there! So I have noticed that I can no longer sit cross-legged for a short period of time due to pain and discomfort with my back :(. I don't believe I have a bad posture, especially when I am treating patient's, although my shoulders might crawl up to my ears (Orang-utan posture as one of the dentists calls it) without me realising. I feel like I ask the patient to turn their head where possible and sometimes do standing dentistry, which I prefer out of ease.
During this weird year, I have been exploring yoga, reintroduced to me by one of my friends during lockdown video calls. Dentistry is sometimes an 8 hour workout, 5 days a week. Muscles shorten with use and if they dont get a chance to elongate back to resting state, tension builds and knots can form. If they over-shorten, painful cramps occur.
I've been exploring yin yoga as a method to stretch out these overworked muscles (although there are many types of yoga to explore). It's not just simply touching your toes. Sessions can last from 5-45 minutes for myself. It enables my muscles to fully relax, using gravity and breathing to get deeper into the pose. It also works my flexibility, which to be honest, I've not been working on since I stopped kickboxing.
Anyway, Youtube has so many tutorials. My favourite for yin yoga is Yoga with Adriene. Yoga with Kassandra is also quite good for specific poses such as thread the needle.
After starting yoga, I am starting to feel an improvement so I definitely recommend and will continue with it. Other options I am trying to explore are getting an orthopedic pillow! If you've had any experiences with back pain or any tips for improvement, please comment below.
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