Noted pundit Charles Barkley once divided the world into two camps: people who have bad backs and people who don’t. If you would like the relatively blissful existence of the latter, then you should take the advice of doctors, and spinal surgeons in NJ, about simple way to prevent back pain.
Here are five habits that put your back at risk and some simple strategies to stop them before the damage is done.
Weekend Warrior
Apparently, you can’t sit at a desk for 40 hours a week and then attempt to play a really demanding sport like hoops or long distance running on the weekend and not pay a price. Also, demanding around the house jobs, like mowing a large lawn or certain upkeep tasks, can be just as damaging to your back as intense exercise.
Prevention tip: Orthopedic surgeons suggest that the only solution to back pain is exercise, mainly making sure that you do a number of stretches for your back before doing any kind of strenuous exercises like spine stretches, low back rotation stretches, and squat stretches, and seated spinal stretch.
Bad Lifting Technique
This is especially a concern if you’re working a job where you have to do a lot of lifting of heavy objects. UPS confirms that improper lifting and bending is the number one cause of back injury.
Prevention tips: Make sure that you’re always using proper lifting technique, such as using your knees to lift and keep your back straight. Two: Also, keep the object as close to you as possible because the further away you hold it from your body the more it stresses your back.
Never move something that weighs more than 20 percent of your body weight.
Awkward lifting
Sometimes you can hurt your back just by making an awkward lifting motion that your body isn’t prepared. UPS states that a lot of back injuries occur at the end of a shift after fatigue has set in.
Prevention Tips: Since you can’t prepare for unexpected movements, you should strengthen your body’s core muscles so that injury becomes less likely no matter how you move. Common core strengthening exercises include: Bridging, pilates crunch, the dart, and airplaning.
Sitting and Computing
One of the reasons that the stand up desk has become popular is that medical science has discovered just how unhealthy sitting in front of a computer for long hours at a time can actually be.
Your back doesn’t like it because your spinal discs have poor blood supply. Blood only moves when you move so if you’re sitting for hours at a time the fluid is wring out so you’re depriving discs of their nutrition. Sitting actually causes more pressure on your back and neck than sitting or lying down. Whatever you do try to avoid sitting and leaning forward as this makes you lock your pelvis and flex your spine, according to one expert. It puts your disks at a high risk for rupture.
Prevention Tips: Here are tips to keep your back healthy if you spend a lot of time sitting in front of a hot monitor.
One: Try to get up and move at least once every 20 minutes. Make a habit of getting up to get a drink of water or some other healthy habit.
Two: Hold your reading material at eye level when sitting rather than bending over. Never lean over a desk or table at work. Keep your spine as straight as possible
Three: Choose a chair that supports your back. Adjust the chair to ensure that your feet remain flat on the floor. Remove anything from your back pockets. If you don’t do these things you’ll put your back out of alignment.
Four: Consider doing exercises to help lengthen your spine. There are a number of yoga poses that do just and they’re called: Cow Pose, Crescent Moon, and Half Lord of the Fishes.
Other Remedies for Back Pain
So you’ve tried the stretching, the core exercises and the yoga pose Crescent Moon but your back still hurts. Doctors say that the pain should stop in 48 hours by using a nonprescription pain reliever. You should seek out immediate attention if you suffer any loss of bladder or bowel control with your back pain. Or if the pain keeps coming back, then you seek the guidance of a certified medical specialist.
