How To Prevent Back Pain
While it would appear some folks live out their entire life without ever experiencing any type of back pain, others are constantly backache prone. Backaches have been known to be severe enough to prevent the sufferer from going about their regular activities. Whatever the cause, prevention is always better than cure. Check out the seven ways below to prevent that backache ever arising in the first place.
1. Exercise
When that backache kicks in, your instinct might be to lay up on the sofa nursing yourself and insisting loved ones wait on you hand and foot, but you might actually be making things worse, especially if you’ve been lying around more than two days. Working out regularly loosens up your muscles reducing tension and inflammation so try doing exercises for back pain. Muscles experiencing a free flow of blood are less likely to get tensed up and stiff causing pain. So is your back killing you? Quit the self-coddling, get off the sofa, pull on some gym shorts and hit the road. A brisk walk around the block until you break a sweat is enough to ease up your backache.
2. Proper Posturing
Proper posturing does more than make you stand tall and look sharp; it can literally save your back. Now that you are all grown up and mommy is no longer around to smack you upside the head or push your feet together when you stand or sit poorly. Turns out the old ones were on to something after all. If you work a sedentary job, your office chair just might be the culprit in your backache. So try to pick out a chair with a straight back or one with support for the lower back. If you are on your feet a lot, stand straight with your head up and stomach sucked in. Do some stretching and do not slouch.
3. No Smoking
If you lack the motivation to quit smoking, preserving your back should be more than enough to make you quit. Smoking not only does a number on your health but can also worsen your backaches to an extent that can be debilitating. Smoking also has a way of narrowing the blood vessels resulting in reduced oxygen in your body. When you have narrowed vessels and a reduction in the oxygen and nutrients getting to your spine, your back is bound to experience pain. Smoking also weakens your bones heightening your risk of developing osteoporosis. Should your spine become compromised, you could end up needing spinal surgery for which smokers are much less likely to have a successful procedure than non-smokers.
4. Sleep Right
Proper posturing goes way beyond work hours. Even sleepy time matters if you hope to prevent a backache from rearing its painful head. You sprawled out on the bed flat on your back is not exactly a great idea. Your side is your best bet in this case. Lay on your side with a supportive pillow, and your knees pulled up. Sleeping on your stomach more your style? You can pull it off too. Just make sure to support your lower abdomen with a pillow which will ease some of the pressure on your back. Also, opt for supportive memory foam mattresses that are firm as soft and lumpy mattresses are real back wreckers.
5. Lift Right
Poor lifting posture has done in more backs than necessary. What should have been a simple lift of a small bucket has seen folks land in the emergency room bowled over in pain from slipped discs. Older folks or those who are backache prone have to be extra watchful of the posture adopted when doing either light or heavy lifting. When lifting, do not arch your back and avoid bending your waist. Rather, do a squat with your knees bent, then lift the object. In fact, if the object can be moved through pushing instead of pulling, save your back a lot of pain and just push.
6. Watch Your Shoes
Don’t be too quick to write off shoe problems as a woman thing. Even though you don’t wear high heels, men have been known to suffer backaches simply because they failed to get the right shoes. If you often do a lot of walking and even sitting, you need to pay closer attention to your footwear. Remember that old run over work boot you swear is your lucky shoe? Well, with all the wear going on with the inner part of the outer sole, your back is the one taking the fall for it with all the stress being put on it. Stay away from shoes with high soles. Rather, look out for those with soles an inch or less.
7. Watch What You Eat
The popular saying, “you are what you eat” has never made more sense than when it comes to backaches. Certain foods put a lot of pressure on your nervous system and in turn, your back. Spicy or greasy foods are not back friendly. The more you consume these kinds of foods, the more weight you gain and in turn, the more pressure you put on your spine. Bulking up, especially in the midsection area is a bad idea. Your gravity center ends up shifting and straining your lower back. So drop the idea of getting some pretty, young thing to rub that paunch you’re lugging around and eat right. An oversized gut is not a good look. Load up on healthy and natural foods that include lean meats, fruits, and fresh vegetables instead.
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