“You are only as young as your spine is flexible.” – Joseph Pilates. He also said, “If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old. IF it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.”

How true are these statements. If you have ever had back pain you will know how old you feel, hunched over, every movement hurts. When the spine hurts, your whole body is affected. And when your spine feels great, you feel taller, lighter, young.

How do you get a young, flexible spine? Is it just by working the back? Stretching? Core work?

You cannot really separate your spine work from the rest of your body. Your whole body all works together, a balance of core, back, hamstring, hips, quads, neck, arms, shoulders… If you go to the Chiropractor, they will work on cracking your back, getting your spine back in alignment, but if you do not have proper balance of strength with the rest of your body, if you do not fix what caused your body to go out of alignment. You will quickly find yourself at the Chiropractor again.

So how do you get a young and flexible spine? Start by finding an all body workout that realigns your body and strengthens it. Barre, Yoga, Pilates, Essentrics all work the muscles that protect and strengthen your body and back as a whole. If you like to run and do cardio, add in some of these all body workouts too. You cannot just run or dance and not expect your body to go out of alignment. If you are a weight lifter, you also need to add these classes. Weight lifting will also cause your back to go out of alignment.

So how do you get a young and flexible spine? Barre, Yoga, Pilates and Essentrics at least once a week.