TheFitDog on spine health

*This is a blog post from Frankie the office dog*

Whaddup guys! I hope you’re all well. Nic’s not. She’s done her back in, something to do with her sacrum or something, I’m not too sure.

Anyway since my spine is great and I am well bendy and I do tons of wiggling and stretching, I thought it was about time I helped you guys out on the important topic of spine health.

First of all, what is your spine? Your spine is your neck, your back and your tail. Unless you’ve had your tail docked in which case, sad times man and I’m truly sorry for you.

What is your sacrum? I had to look this bit up on the internet I admit. Turns out your sacrum is the bit at the bottom of your back, just before your tail. It’s a triangle shaped bone (bone!) which sits between your ilium (which are your hips). It’s meant to just be nice and straight, and sit there between your SI joints but sometimes (like what happened to Nic) it moves a bit (or a lot) and this hurts and then the muscles in your back and hips and bum and even your legs go into spasm and the whole thing is a right nightmare! You silly humans walk on your back legs which means the sacrum is under a lot more strain than mine is!

What should you do? If you have a bad back or if your sacrum moves and the joints lock up, you should go to your vet. Or go to a special kind of a vet called an osteopath who is a vet who has concentrated all their studies on the muscles, joints and skeleton (bones!)

Nic went to an osteopath and is going back again soon. Turns out this particular osteopath also does osteopathy on horses and DOGS! They offer a free spinal health check for dogs so Nic is going to take me along. I’m pretty sure my spine is completely fine, especially my tail, but it will be fun to have the lady pat me and squeeze me all over. Shall I let you know about it? Would you be interested to hear about my spine check?

Frankie’s best advice for avoiding back pain

Of course, the best thing is to avoid back pain in the first place rather than having to treat it. So here is what I do to maintain a healthy spine.

Regular stretching!
I don’t mean foam rolling or static stretching. Just… stretch! Do it whenever you feel like it. Do it loads. Do it with your whole body. Nic says she does something in yoga called “down dog” and also “up dog”. Well I’ve seen her version and let me tell you, that’s nothing. I do amazing down and up dogs (as you’d expect). Nic did try to take a pic but I was too fast.

Keep moving
Don’t sit in one place for too long. Lie in your bed, go for a wander, look out the window, go for a walk, have a run, go in the garden, sit by the door, walk around the house. Don’t just sit there for hours and hours. This is why I do not have Facebook.

Eat your fish oils
Fish oils are important for spine health in my humble opinion. Tonight for tea I had sardine heads and rice. I said to Nic take a pic for this blog post but she said no, my tea was “too gross for the blog” (?) Anyway, eat your oily fish and consider taking omega 3 supplements if you think you don’t get enough from your diet.

Drink plenty of water
I like to drink from an old bucket in the garden but maybe you’d prefer filtered water or tap water or even water from a bottle. It doesn’t matter, just drink the stuff. Drink loads. It will help all your cells and ligaments and stuff be nice and limber and if you do get a bad back it will help the inflammation go down.

Well, that’s all from me. I hope you’ve found this useful. I will update you on my spine when I’ve been for my osteopathy check up!

Frankie.

TheFitDog on spine health is a post from the Fit Writer blog.

Nicola Joyce – the Fit Writer – is a freelance copywriter and journalist who writes for the sport and fitness industry. Her main website is here.