Simple Pilates Exercises while you are driving

Keeping a healthy spine through regular exercise and stretching and maintaining good driving posture is a large part of warding off pain while driving. However, no posture is good posture if maintained for too long (greater than 10-30 minutes, depending on the individual). Therefore, it is important to move often while you are driving, but in a way that is not distracting. Here are some suggestions for how to move while sitting and driving:

Pelvic Tilt
Roll your pelvis forward to increase the arch in your lower back (you will feel like you are sticking your upper chest outward) and then roll back to neutral. This exercise helps move and loosen the lower back, and allow the discs in your lower back to be nourished with fluid. For Pilates practitioners, this is like printing & imprinting exerise on the mat.

Side Pelvic Tilt
Shift all of your weight over to the R hip and pick up the L buttock slightly off the seat. You will feel your L shoulder and L hip come closer to together. Switch and repeat with shifting the weight over to the L hip. This exercise also helps feed the discs in your lower back.

Gluteal Squeezes
Pinch and squeeze the buttock muscles together. Hold for 10 seconds and then relax. This exercise will help use the stronger gluteals as a postural muscle, allowing your lower back muscles to rest.

Shoulder Pinches
Squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold for 2-3 seconds. This will help keep your neck muscles from tensing up and work for the neck in the way gluteal squeezes work for the lower back.

Head Nod and Neck Rotations
Head nod as if you are saying "yes madam." Neck rotations would be like saying "no madam." Do this for 20 seconds. This will help warm-up the muscles at the base of the skull where headaches often begin.

Whichever movement or exercise you choose to perform or make up, what is most important is that you shift in some way, often enough to keep your spine from getting stiff.

"The biggest thing I do while driving is moving my head from side to side on the headrest - as if I were scratching my head. Obviously, I keep my eyes on the road the whole time. It's been a Godsend for my neck pain," suggested by a driver friend of mine who suffered from neckache.

This is a great example of how a little movement can go a long way to keeping blood flow to the muscles of the spine and allow for a prolonged drive. Do share with me if you have your very own little movements that give your spine some grooves in the car.