Whether you’re an active person or not, your back is always hard at work. You're using your back muscles every day while performing common tasks such as emptying the dish washer, tying your shoe, or picking up a piece of paper you dropped. Maintaining a healthy back is vital to maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle. Physical Therapist, Michael O’Hearn shares some helpful tips and advice on how to keep your back healthy, safe, and pain free:
1. Maintain or improve your cardiovascular fitness. Individuals who maintain good cardiovascular fitness still have back pain — but they recover much more quickly and it has less impact on their lives. If you have any heart or lung problems discuss it with your physician first before beginning an exercise routine.
2. Keep your hips flexible. If your hips aren’t flexible, the movement load will be shifted to the smaller joints in the back, causing pain. Stretching decreases pain, keeps your muscles flexible, and lowers your risk of injury.
3. Keep your hips strong. A strong back starts with strong hips. Many scientific studies have shown that individuals with chronic low back pain have weakness in the hips. Though a strong “core” is thought to be important to prevent low back pain, having strength in your hips is important as well.
4. Avoid sustained positions for long periods of time. Your back – or for that matter – any of your joints, don’t like being kept in the same position for long periods of time. Tissue can stretch and that can set you up for pain when you attempt to resume the original position. So, get up and walk around every hour. Stop and get out the car regularly if driving. Sure – you’ll lose a few minutes but you’ll arrive much more refreshed.
5. Decrease abdominal fat. Not only does increased abdominal fat makes your back muscles work harder, but fat, particularly visceral fat, throws off a chemical called a cytokine that stimulates nerve endings. Therefore, people who are carrying too much adipose tissue, will actually feel more pain than those that don’t.
“Many people attach negative thoughts to back pain and make a slow recovery because of it,” said Michael. “However, the overwhelming majority of low back pain is temporary if you are proactive about fixing the problems.”
Don’t let back pain get in the way of living your life. Reach out to your primary care provider or a physical therapist if you have tried numerous core strengthening and hip exercises but your pain has not improved, your back pain is involved with unexplained weight loss, your low back pain involves loss of sensation or weakness in the legs, or it is not like any back pain you have felt before.
To learn more watch the video below: