Article by Dr Amelia Caunt, Osteopath at The Neighbourhood Clinic
Dinner is my second favourite meal to go out for in Melbourne. Catching up with friends, family and getting to know new colleagues is always fun when there are gorgeous share plates dotted with ruby colour baby beetroots, horseradish coated root vegetables and fish, and slow cooked meat that falls apart under your fork with crispy fried potatoes on the side. Just to top if off add a surplus of great wines,chardonnay was my pick. If that’s sounding up your alley - Neighbourhood Wine - tucked away down a side street off Nicholson might be somewhere to explore.
Being raised by a foodie, a pet peeve of mine is low back pain interrupting dinner, people often come in and say they haven't been able to sit through a certain special event due to pain - sitting for hours savouring delicious food and wine in the best company you can find is, as far as I’m concerned, enjoying life. If back pain is meaning you can’t do that then it’s time to see if we can help out and keep long languorous dinners plausible!
A tip that might help you stay comfy at dinner for longer; don’t be worried about hopping up and moving regularly, a lot of discomfort is aggravated by staying in one position for too long. As long as that tip doesn’t make your pain worse, a great motivation for hopping up regularly is drinking lots of water with your dinner or hopping up and switching chairs with so you have a chance to chat to everyone.
Walking to the bathroom and back equals a change of position. This and having a quick move in pain free range plus or minus a quick stretch along that walk or at the dinner table if there is room might be enough to buy you another half an hour without any or at least less discomfort. That’s time for your desert and a cappuccino - yes I snuck coffee in here...
NB - The seat shoved in the corner that you have to move six people to get out of, might make this a bit hard. So fight your younger brother for the good seat if you need to. Whether he’s 14, 35 or 60, he knows there is a hierarchy.
If you decide to pop into The Neighbourhood Clinic to try and figure out the cause of your pesky dinner interrupting low back pain, we might ask you if you’ve been doing anything unusual lately. Think the 4 hour gardening session you did to get your vegie patch ready for your dinner party a few months ago? Standing for hours in poor footwear at the bottle shop debating the best wine to get to match your meal. Bending forward and lifting 12kg christmas ham out of the oven awkwardly trying to avoid burning yourself or dropping the precious cargo… ring any bells?
If you have any questions about some good dinner table stretches you might try or if you want some help prepping for comfortable sitting at your next marathon dinner party, pop in and have a chat and we’ll see what we can do to help out. As always… bring your favourite local dinner recommendations with you… or better yet inspiration for my all time favourite … brunch. Keep an eye out for that installment.
Article by Dr Amelia Caunt, Doctor of Osteopathy at The Neighbourhood Clinic. Click here to book an appointment with her.
