5 Overlooked Tips to Protect Your Lower Back
Exercise is one of the most significant ways we can increase our longevity, improve our health, and decrease our pain and suffering. Proper exercise can improve flexibility, increase strength, and even reduce back pain. Knowing the best exercises to improve your health or decrease your pain is essential to a workout plan or a pain management program.
1. Strengthen your core muscles daily
Strong and supportive muscles throughout the trunk of your body are essential to support your spine. Core-building exercises include:
• Low-impact cardiovascular exercise, such as normal or brisk walking, which helps increase blood flow to the spine and stretch your muscles. An adequate flow of blood supplies healing nutrients and hydration to the structures in your lower back.
• Water therapy, which provides a greater range of motion due to the buoyancy of water, particularly for exercises that require lifting the legs. Water also provides resistance by means of gentle friction, allowing the strengthening and conditioning of an injured muscle. Water therapy is optimal for people who have chronic back pain and find it too painful to exercise without the supportive effect of water.
• Exercise ball workouts, such as sitting on the ball intermittently for about 20 to 30 minutes and/or using the ball for stretches and exercises that engage your core muscles.
If exercise seems difficult or impossible to you, make small goals to slowly get yourself moving, such as going up and down your stairs 3 times in a row or walking in a park with a friend.
Consider engaging a physical therapist or other qualified health practitioners to help you get started and provide correct guidance on how to safely exercise.
2. Invest in an ergonomic office chair.
Slouching forward while working at a desk places excessive pressure on the discs in your lower back and can cause problems, such as disc degeneration to occur or further deteriorate. Support the natural curve in your lower spine by:
• Using an ergonomic chair that helps you align and support your back and thighs correctly.
• Placing a small rolled-up towel in the small of your back for additional support.
• Using a standup desk, if possible, for at least part of the day
It is helpful to set a timer for every 50 minutes to an hour on your phone to remind yourself to check your posture, walk for a few minutes, and stretch your lower back and leg muscles.
3. Safeguard your back while lifting.
Lifting is a common cause of lower back pain. Common everyday activities, such as unloading grocery bags from the car or lifting your young child, can lead to lower back problems.
Lifting with your back bent, or lifting while twisting, may cause a sudden injury to your lower back or repetitive injury over a period of time, leading to chronic tissue damage.
Follow these lifting-guidelines to prevent lower back injury:
• Bend at your knees, not at your lower back; a completely flexed (forward bent) back can be highly susceptible to a ligament and/or disc injury.
• Pivot your feet and hips, rather than twisting your lower back.
• Hold the object close to your chest while straightening your spine.
While lifting is a part of everyday activities, having a job that includes heavy lifting may increase your risk of developing lower back problems.
4. Dissipate stressors during everyday activities
Even small amounts of stressing on the intricate structures in your lower back can add up and lead to degeneration and pain over time. Here are recommendations on how to reduce everyday stresses to concentrate on your lower back:
• Opening a door. While opening a door, stand straight in front of the door's handle and pull it perpendicular to your body. Avoid standing on the side of the handle and twisting your trunk while opening the door, which may injure your spinal ligaments.
• Using a vacuum cleaner. While vacuuming, hold the vacuum cleaner in front of your body with both hands and use small arm movements while cleaning. Holding the vacuum to the side of your body with just one hand results in large arm movements and requires more twisting torque forces on your lower spine.
• Shoveling snow or while gardening. While shoveling, rest one arm on your thigh while slightly bending the knees. This technique helps prevent large arm movements and prolonged stooping, which significantly loads your lower back.
5. Rest your back after prolonged bending
When you bend forward for a long time, such as while weeding your garden, certain changes take place in your discs and ligaments. These changes last for a few minutes, during which time, the stability of your spine is reduced. The joints also become temporarily stiff during this period.
Your lower back is at risk for sustaining a sudden injury after these tissue changes if you exert stress on your back immediately afterward, such as lifting a bag of soil right after you've been bending and weeding for a long time.
It is advisable to stand upright for a few minutes and allow the spinal tissues to recover and re-shape after prolonged stooping or bending before attempting strenuous exertions.
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amplify chiropractic
Exercise
Lower Back Pain
Range of Motion
Back Pain
Posture