3 Things to Avoid When You Have Back Pain
Every year, millions of productive hours are lost to different forms of back pain, and our sedentary lifestyle and poor exercise habits don’t help.
Back pain can be very manageable. To ensure this, it’s important to avoid certain things. Here are three important things you should avoid if you have back pain:
1.Avoid Lifting Heavy Objects
Heavy lifting or incorrect lifting of objects is one of the major causes of back pain, especially lower back pain. If your work involves frequently lifting heavy objects, it is advisable to stop the activity until the condition of your back improves. You may need to get an assistant to do the heavy lifting or get special equipment to reduce the strain on your back. Make sure you are aware of proper lifting techniques before getting back into it.
2. Avoid Poor Sitting Posture
Like heavy and incorrect lifting, poor sitting posture is a leading cause of back pain. Slouching on your chair, sitting for too long, sitting on a chair that is too high, or too short can lead to poor sitting posture. This places tremendous stress on the muscles, joints, and discs, causing back pain. At all times, sit with correct posture to reduce the pressure on your back.
To make this even easier on you, make sure that your work station is optimized for proper sitting posture, especially if you work long hours sitting in front of a computer. Take short breaks to stand, stretch, and walk around to correct posture, warm up your muscles and joints and get your circulation in top gear.
3. Stop Self Help
If your symptoms persist for more than two weeks, it probably won’t disappear on its own and you should get help. Go to your doctor or physical therapist for a proper diagnosis of the underlying cause of your back pain. It may be advisable to attempt self-help at first, but you are making matters worse if you don’t seek professional help when your symptoms don’t improve. It’s better to start receiving the right treatment earlier than to wait until things become worse and less manageable.
Back pain is a serious, but manageable health problem. When left untreated, it can lead to pain in other parts of the body, reduce productivity, make recreation and social activities difficult, and ultimately lead to mental and emotional problems.
You don’t want to aggravate your situation by engaging in activities that can worsen your back pain. If you have back pain, Lilly Physical Therapy can help you regain normal use of your back within the shortest time possible.
