6 tips to help reduce back pain
4/5 people experience back pain at some point in their life and it's one of the leading causes of work absence in the UK. As it is ‘back care awareness week’ from the 5th - 9th October, I wanted to share with you some tips to help avoid or reduce back pain.
Here are our 6 tips to help in avoiding or dealing with back pain -
Keep moving -
It has been shown that exercise can help reduce back pain. Keeping mobile is more likely to speed up your recovery than bed rest. Pick exercises that don't aggravate your back though, low impact movement like walking, yoga, swimming etc are ideal but if weights aren't making the pain worse, go for it.
Stretch -
You may not be able to go to full range, but even light stretching can ease tension and pain in the back. Think side bends and spinal twists and don't forget to stretch out the front body too. If the muscles through our chest and front body are short from being hunched over, it can mean the muscles throughout our back are working too hard to shorten (or often not doing much at all), it's these imbalances that often cause pain.
Strengthen -
If the muscles of your back have been over lengthened through shortening in the muscles in the front of the body, they often aren't doing very much at all. By strengthening the muscles throughout your back you can improve your posture and balance between the muscle groups. When everything is functioning well you are much less likely to experience pain.
Posture -
Think about how you're sitting at your desk, how you're walking, carrying your children etc. Even small changes can make big difference to how stiff and sore you back feels. Desk related pain is a big one I see in the clinic. Make sure your screen isn’t too far forward, your arms are resting on the table/desk at right angles, your shoulders are back and down (but not holding stiffly), your chin is tucked back slightly. Ideally your feet will be flat on the floor with your hips and knees at 90 degree angles. However, you don't need to focus on perfect posture to feel better, yes aim to do more of the above but even mixing up how you do things/ how you sit can make a big difference. Just do things differently. And get up regularly for a break.
Relax -
Make time to just be. A stressed body holds tension and is much more likely to be in pain. Even just sitting for 10 minutes with a cup of tea can calm the nervous system. what ever it is that makes you feel calm make sure your getting some of it in daily.
Have a massage -
massage is a great tool for calming the nervous system. When we have pain, our nervous response is often on high alert. By resetting our nervous system, we can often reduce tension, pain, stiffness and make it easier for you to get back to what you love doing quicker.
As you can see from this video (made during lockdown of me massaging my husband whilst our massage studio was being built), treating back pain often involves massage therapy through the front of the body too to restore balance in the muscles and enable them work optimally.