Dancing and Increased Mobility:

I recently saw a brief interview with actress Jane Seymour, who is on Dancing with the Stars, the celebrity reality show. She mentioned her ballerina training while in her teens and spoke of a knee injury that ended any dance aspirations.

She also mentioned something very interesting about her increased mobility and it's positive effect on her back. She showed the scar from a previous low back injury and said that all the dance training loosened up the muscles of her hips and pelvis.

This resulted in her back feeling better and an improvement in her golf swing. The increased hip mobility decreases stress on her spine. When your hips and pelvis are too tight, more stress gets placed on the back, which tries to make up for this loss of motion.

The take home point? Most people need more mobility in their hips to reduce or prevent back pain. You also need a certain amount of core strength in your abs, low back, and hips.

Enough stability to help support your spine!

If you don't have hours to devote to dance training, joint mobility movements, tai chi, or Nia can help. For the busy person, 10-15 minutes should work, because you still need some strength training for optimal results.

What's Nia? Stay tuned and I will let you know shortly.