LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Dr. Robert Klapper, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is delivering a shocking advice for patients suffering from back issues: “Stop exercising, you’re taking your life.”
Klapper who has carried out operations on professional athletes and Hollywood stars and the common weekend warrior, stated that in order to keep the back in good shape it is important not to just do a lot of exercise, but practice the kind of exercises that enhance your back health instead of causing further.
For instance, professional golfers frequently suffer back injuries due to the action of swinging the club can be damaging on the spine.
“It’s not as if you could say, ‘Well, should I have better shot, then I would not be suffering from these back issues,” said Klapper. “No it’s the game itself.”
Back is like a stack of Oreo cookies. back can be compared to a pile filled with Oreo cookie, Klapper said, because the spine must be balanced. Paraspinal muscles help keep the spine healthy, but as people age or become less flexible and fatigued the spine’s support system starts to weaken, causing discs within the spine and the filling of Oreo cookies – to become loose. Oreo oreo cookie to become loose and cause damage to the nerve.
If someone has an injury, such as an injured disc that can cause back pain as well as weakening of the leg, this is due to the fact that the injury began within the spine but then spread out to the entire whole body. Klapper said.
“The disc as well as the Oreo filling, which is irritating to the nerve can cause the patient to complain that their toe isnumb,'” Klapper said.
For proper strength of your back Klapper stated that his most preferred form of exercise is the water. Not only swimming, but walking on the water can be beneficial.
“The feeling of weightlessness when you are in the water. The resistance to walk on the water. The muscles are being strained to a degree that does not hurt the joint,” said Klapper.
Alongside swimming, Klapper said he tells those with back issues to cycle and use the elliptical machine and cross-train as a means of strengthening the strength of their spinal muscles. Back sufferers should not lift weights, squats and treadmills and stairlifts.
At the end of the day Klapper declared that back health isn’t about exercise, but rather “agercise.” An older person isn’t likely to be able to perform the same type of exercise that a 25 year old can.
“You need to be aware of medical art” said Klapper. “For me as a surgeon who has been practicing for 33 years is (the issue is) who’s my target potential audience?”
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