Get Back into Shape This Spring

Enjoying the Season Without Hurting Causing Back Problems

Feb 19, 2009 Wendy J Meyeroff

Ah, spring! All the winter couch potatoes start furiously spring cleaning, pulling out the gardening tools and gearing up for other activities. Guess what happens?

Many of those busy beavers end up bent over in desperate pain with an aching back.

Sure...everyone knows all about the rules for lifting properly (from the knees) and not lifting too much and not straining, etc. Well, maybe everyone knows…but the statistics show most people aren't paying attention.

Estimates suggest that something like 60 to 80 percent of adults suffer from some form of back injury at some time in their life. The reason is simple: It’s hard to stop using one's back.

It’s Not Necessarily the Big Things

Most Americans are surprised to find out that it’s not just major lifting that gets them into trouble. It’s not unusual for someone, especially an older adult, to say to a doctor or chiropractor: ‘I don’t understand it. I just bent over to pick up a pencil and WHAM!”

That “WHAM!” comes from a series of “micro-traumas”. Rather than one serious trauma, like pulling out a heavy trunk to remove the summer clothes and install the winter gear, most Americans abuse their bodies with what are called “poor body mechanics over time.” And whether we like it or not, those poor body mechanics relate to all those lectures we’ve heard a thousand times.

For example, consider the following questions:

The last time you had to reach under the sink for a pot (or beneath a workbench for a tool), you:

  1. Bent from the knees
  2. Bent from the waist?

You usually sit on the couch in the following position:

  1. Up straight with a hassock at your feet so as to stretch out
  2. Sort of twisted in various directions

You had to pull a soft carry-bag out of its storage space from a shelf above my head in the front closet. To get it down, you:

  1. Got a small step ladder, took a step up, and then reached for the bag
  2. Stood on tiptoe and s-t-r-e-e-e-t-c-h-e-d for the bag?

For most people, the answers are all (or mostly) “Bs” -- and that’s why most people have (or have had) some sort of back problem. None of these behaviors in and of themselves are likely to destroy one's back, but do these and other twists, turns, and stretches and the odds are those microtraumas previously mentioned will develop.

So Now What?

So the back problem develops. The question is, what to do next?

Years ago, people tended to crawl into bed for days, even weeks, with or without their doctor’s instructions.

Not anymore. More and more health care experts agree that bed rest may be a good idea for a day or two, but after that it’s get up and moving. Today a doctor is more likely to have their patients working out in a gym-like setting, bending and stretching, rather than just sitting on a table with a hot-pack.

Of course, it isn’t advisable to just get up and jump around. Before doing anything, see an orthopedist...not a chiropractor, not a physical therapist...but a medical doctor, and get a proper evaluation.

This is not to say that chiropractors and other experts won’t eventually be part of your treatment. But the first step is to get a proper diagnosis and additional recommendations.

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