Let's back up here... Fit spine, feeling fine!

When I read in Lifespan how anti-aging scientists stuck needles in the vertebral discs of rats to make them degenerate in the interests of learning about older people’s back pain, I recalled advice I’d received from a back specialist about 40 years ago.

I’d neglected my back exercises and I was struggling to do normal things for a couple of weeks. His advice was to follow a few simple, three times-daily strengthening exercises until the back was stronger and then get myself to the gym. I dutifully followed his advice and ten weeks later I ran a sub-three hour marathon after not being able to run at all.

So I owe that man a lot. Incidentally, he also told me how to stand properly at cocktail parties and here’s his tip. Put one foot forward and spread the load. It works, and I’ve done it ever since on the (very) rare occasions that I’m invited to a cocktail party.

However he gave me other advice which I completely ignored. That was to give up running because the jarring would eventually wreck my back. I was told I was suffering from “early spondylosis”, which turned out to be degeneration of the spine, and he suggested that any more than 20-minute jogs a week could be too much. “Get this marathon out of your system and look after your back,” he advised.

Now I know there’s a lot of back pain around. “Globally, low back pain is responsible for the most time that people spend living with some form of disability, reducing quality of life and losing billions of dollars a year due to its economic and health care costs”, reports Lifespan in another article about how scientists are studying low back pain in mice.

The language is somewhat impenetrable but the gist of the research is that the scientists are working on senescent cells that can be reversed. If in rats and mice, so in humans.

But 40 years ago, instead of hanging up my running shoes, I did something else. After cracking three hours for the marathon, I couldn’t see myself getting much faster and I took up the emerging sport of triathlons. I got myself to the pool two or three times a week and within one week my back was perfect. Yes, one week.

The reason for this miracle, according to a clever physio, was that the torsion involved in the swim stroke is extremely good for the spine. You know what they say.... 'Fit spine, feeling fine' (well, that's what I'm saying anyway.)

Today, although I run up to 50 kilometres a week and bike several hours a week, I suffer no back pain whatsoever. As well as swimming, I work out with tension bands just about every day. This includes about 100 reps of specific back-strengthening exercises.

While the scientists do some amazing work, I’m convinced that a lot of time, money and pain could be saved if people spent a few dollars on light weights and/or tension bands and invested a few minutes a day using them.

My wife Margaret, who runs four times a week, is a devotee of yoga and Shred and has no back problems either.

My conclusion: strengthening delays senescence. By a lot.