Anyone that has ever experienced back pain knows the agony of it that often has a tendency to linger. They also know that it doesn’t just go away easily and can reappear at anytime once you develop it. Hopefully you will never suffer from back pain, but sometimes it happens when you least expect it from a simple movement or action. This is why it helps to take better care of your back now by adopting a few different movements for the prevention of back pain later.
Sitting for hours at a time in the same position can be devastating to the health of your back. The reason it is so bad is because of all the stress exerted on the tissues that can limit blood flow. Instead, it is good idea to remember the importance of changing your position. You don’t have to go drastic, but alter sitting straight with leaning back in your chair slightly can help and getting up at least every hour to stretch and move around. Otherwise, muscles and tissues tense up.
Likewise, the type of chair that you spend a lot of time sitting in also can benefit your back. An ergonomic chair for work can keep your spinal alignment in the best shape with how much more that their design can support the back. Read my review of the ErgoChair Pro+ from Autonomous, which I can’t recommend more highly.
Being kind to your body for the deterrence of back pain also involves how you stand. Maintaining good straight posture is critical because without doing so your bones and joints don’t align properly. For the best prevention of back pain in the future, your goal should be keeping the head up and shoulders straight as well as facing forward while standing. What this helpful change means to you is less wear on joints and stress on ligaments that carry you around. In addition, you need to change positions just like do when sitting to keep circulation and future pain from targeting you.
You may not have given much thought to how you usually bend and lift things. However, this is an area that you may take for granted until that horrible back pain hits such as sciatica that can take you out of commission for a while. Rather than bending from the waist to pick something up, switch to bending only at the knees and hips while keeping what you are holding close to the body for the prevention of back pain. You also want to forgo twisting as you bend. The reason this departure from your normal way of lifting matters is because your weight is more evenly distributed, instead of putting too much pressure on the spine, muscles and nerves.
Smart phones, cell phones and tablets are wonderful devices, but they can also be problematic due to your position cradling the phone or tablet. In lieu of keeping your head bent for long periods talking or texting, you want to hold that device at eye level as you do. The wisdom of this move for the avoidance of back pain could save you from developing “text neck” neck pain that also includes more pain in the upper back and shoulders.
If you never had back pain, you should consider yourself fortunate. With luck and the information that I provided regarding the prevention of back pain will safeguard the health of your back a bit more.
