Ways to Prevent Back Pain: Get ahead of that pain!

It’s not an uncommon thing that you experience back pain throughout you life. More than 16 million adults each year experience chronic back pain and more than 80% of the population experiences normal back pain. Now there are many causes of back pain due to how complicated the spine is with all the vertebrae’s, ligaments, nerves, muscles, discs, etc. While sports injuries are the leading cause of back pain even the simplest of movements can cause you to feel pain. For example standing up wrong all the way to waking up in the morning and having slept weird. Now lets get into way to prevent back pain.

For this exercise you will want to start by laying face down with your arms in front like you are superman and your feet on the ground too. From there you will want to tighten your core up and then squeeze your glutes together. After your tighten everything up you will want to stay tight and lift your arms up. While lifting your arms up you will want to keep your glutes tight and lift up your legs up at the same time. You will feel the exercise in your lower back and in your glutes. You will want to hold this pose for about 20-30 seconds. You will want to repeat this exercise 5 times over.

One of the most important things you can do in general is have a healthy diet. Eating whole foods and watching what you eat can have a direct impact in the function of you body and how it deals with inflammation and pain. You will want to stay away from high sugary foods, foods that are processed in addition to foods that can increase inflammation that slow down your body for example artificial trans fats, refined carbohydrates, alcohol, to much dairy products. You will also want to make sure you are taking in enough calcium and vitamin D. This will help make your bones stronger and help prevent osteoporosis.

When talking about exercise you don’t need to go crazy with it. But, if you are maintaining a constant exercise routine that can involves lifting weights, running or even walking for a period of time once a day can decrease your risk of back pain.

Good posture in monumental to a healthy spine and getting rid of that annoying back pain. Try and stay mentally conscious of your posture, I know its hard but when you notice that you are slouching when you are standing or sitting in a chair try and sit back up. When sitting in a chair try and sit up straight with your back against the back of the chair. When we are talking about standing you need to keep your head up tall and your shoulders back. Try to pull your scapula’s back a bit to encourage your shoulders to stay in position. 

If you know that you will be sitting at a desk for an extended period of time try and switch up standing and sitting throughout the work day to relieve that stress on your lower back. If you are sitting at your desk try and find a ergonomic chair that aids in the natural curvature of the spine. If you don’t have a chair like that you can put a small pillow between the chair and the small of your back to support you.

Physical activity can help make your back stronger while lowering the risk of back pain in the long run. What I always say move it or loose it! If you look at the below figures, those are some exercises that will help strength your back.

For this exercise you will want to start of on your back with your knees up and feet flat on the floor. From there you will want to tighten your lower back and squeeze your glutes while raising your hips towards the sky. After you will then want to slowly let your hips fall back to the floor. Repeat this motion 20 times in three sets.

For this exercise you will want to kneel down on your knees and have your hands on the floor. Make you’re your knees and hands are shoulder width apart and you are balanced. You will then slowly start to lift your left leg and your right arm. While doing so make sure to keep your core tight and arms and legs straight. You will want to hold this position for at least 30 seconds to 60 seconds and repeat the steps on the opposite arms and legs. Repeat both sides 3 times.

One of the most important things you can do to prevent back pain is to stretch on a regular basis. For me stretching in the morning and before I go to bed have been most beneficial times for me. I wont talk about the specific stretches you can use in this post but if you go back through my blogs for back pain I have written a detailed summary of all the stretches you will need to prevent back pain.