Maintaining a Healthy Back
Isn’t it funny how we always say to friends and family that we got their back but we don’t necessarily say the same about ourselves? Our backs play a pivotal role in our health and quality of day to day life.
As the backbone of our lives, literally unlike how the phrase is usually intended, our back and its health can go to the wayside if we don’t look after it properly. When you don’t look after your back health, you can begin to develop chronic back pain that makes it difficult to even sit or stand.
Since we sit or stand on a daily basis, it’s important to care for and focus on our back health and work with a health specialist to maintain a healthy back for the long haul.
In order to keep and maintain a healthy back, here are five tips to help you out:
Exercise
Given that health is one of the three core pillars of the Introspective Musings series, it’s no wonder that exercise is at the top of the list.
Our back is, in large part, supported by our back muscles and abdominals. With that in mind, you can incorporate a few simple, easy exercises into your daily routine, such as:
Bridges
Superman stretch
Partial sit-ups
By flexing and strengthening the surrounding muscles, you’ll take a substantial amount of weight off your spinal discs which causes back pain in the first place. If you’re interested in expanding your exercise knowledge and routine to help out with any other chronic bodily pain you’ve been experiencing, you can learn more from an earlier post discussing functional fitness and its benefits.
Sleep Position
Since we sleep for approximately a third of our lifetimes, it’s wise to look after sleeping habits. As a starting point, if you’re not getting enough sleep or sleeping on a near consistent schedule, your body may decide to turn against you. Take it from my personal experience when I say that it’s no fun to be in physical pain and sleeping irregularly.
With regards to our back health, there is a proper and improper way to sleep. Sorry to all of you who sleep lying on your stomach, but sleeping in that position brings undue stress to your neck and back.
The optimal sleeping position is on your side to help support both your neck and back throughout the night. Similarly, sleeping in the fetal position or flat on your back can also help protect your back.
Oh, and don’t forget about getting a supportive mattress to further aid your back health when it comes to sleeping!
Ergonomics
Let’s face it - we’ve all, and currently maybe still are, sat in front of a computer at a desk more hours on average per day in the last year than we normally do. Setting up your desk and workstation for this work from home economy is vital for both your neck and back health.
Consider the following ergonomic tips:
Screen height: By far, this is the one aspect of our desk layout that we often violate that ends up negatively affecting our neck and back. Ensure that the top of your screen is at eye level so that you don’t have to constantly look up or down, thus causing neck and upper back pain in the first place.
Ergonomic chair: Consider investing in an ergonomic-friendly chair with a backrest that supports the curve of your lower back. We all know the large temptation to slouch in a regular chair, but at the cost of our back health, it might be worthwhile to prevent that temptation by looking into an ergonomic chair.
Get moving: Last, but not least, it’s important that we get up and move our bodies after so many hours of sitting down. Consider using the Pomodoro technique to help keep you accountable to take a quick walking and/or stretching break after sitting for long periods of time.
Your Posture
In the modern world, it’s too easy to find ourselves slouching over a device at any given moment. Over time, your back’s shape begins to change from its more natural “S” curve, which ends up leading to back pain.
Even if it’s just for five minutes a day, spend time focusing on your posture to ensure that you use the right muscles in your back to avoid putting strain on other parts of your back that could lead to structural damage. In fact, you could take a page or two out of the dance and arts worlds and learn how those artists hold and carry their posture for healthy backs as well - check out this video if you’re interested!
Manage Your Stress
In general, stress negatively impacts all aspects of our physical health, and that’s no exception when it comes to our back health. Since the body intuitively picks up on energy, it’s no wonder that the more stress we have - we unintentionally induce a greater degree of pain to our backs.
Consider decompressing your mind and stress levels by participating in relaxation and mindfulness activities, such as meditation or yoga. In managing your stress levels through these types of activities, you’ll drastically reduce your stress levels and feel a drastic difference in your back as well!
Those are some of just a multitude of tips and strategies that you can incorporate to maintain a healthy back throughout your life. Our backs play a pivotal role in our day to day activity and bodily function, so it is of utmost importance that we look after our back health.
Next time you wake up feeling a bit out of whack or feel a strain in your upper back while working at a desk, I hope you can refer back to these tips to slowly, but surely, heal your back. Hopefully, we’ll all have each other’s backs now, including that of our own!
Disclaimer: I am not, nor claim to be, a health professional. Please consult your health physician if you have serious back pain to obtain an accurate diagnosis of your health circumstance. I am not liable for any actions taken upon reading this post.
“You are the age of your spine. You are as flexible as your spine. That transfers to other areas of your life.” - Diane Lane
