How To BEAT Back Pain at Work
If you suffer from any type of back pain,
you know that it can make work almost
impossible sometimes – heck, I know of
people who’ve lost their jobs because of it.
So that’s why I wanted to share this great article
with you about how you can “beat back pain at work”.
I hope you find this helpful:- Matt Furey
How to BEAT Back Pain at Work
by Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS. MFT
It’s getting to be so bad that by Monday afternoon, you’re
already tired of being at the office. You’re not even thinking
as far ahead as Friday.
In reality, it’s not the folks you work with who are getting
you down – they’re tolerable, mostly, although there is that
one guy in accounting. Where do they find these people?
It’s not even your boss, who, if he knew even half as much as
you do, would be a shoo-in for Executive of the Year.
No, the biggest pain in your neck is actually located a bit
lower. And it’s really what’s making working where you do
seem a lot worse than it actually is.
Face it. It’s your aching back that’s sucking the joy out of
your nine-to-five existence and making you feel 10 years older
to boot.
Sure, you’ve learned to tolerate the bad coffee, pointless
meetings, and lame jokes in the course of your day. But you
just can’t tough it out when it comes to back pain, which can
range from dull, nagging aches to those unexpected twinges
that feel like you’ve been hit with a taser gun.
The bad news about back pain is that it not only lives with
you all day at the office but it also comes home with you at
night. It may even dog your weekends.
How do you develop pain?
If you are experiencing back pain at the office, you may think
that it is coming from all the sitting, standing, and lifting
that you have to do. And, indirectly, it does. But it is
actually more about how the body has to adapt to all the
sitting, standing, and lifting than the activity itself. Let’s
take sitting as an example.
Because of the amount of time you spend sitting, your body must
gradually adapt itself to that position. This happens in a
number of ways. The first thing it must adapt to is how the
weight goes through your hips and pelvis. Then, there is the
way you sit – upright, slouching, or something in between.
Most importantly, it’s what happens to the muscles while you’re
sitting. For example, your hip flexors will get tight from
being in a shortened position and your butt will get weak and
flabby from being in a relaxed state.
That simple combination of tight hip flexors and weak glutes is
called a “muscle imbalance.” The result of these muscle imbalances
will be postural dysfunctions of your pelvis and spine. These
imbalances send both your spine and pelvis into abnormal positions,
the combination of which can be devastating to a person with a healthy
back and catastrophic for a person suffering from any form of back pain.
What can you do about it.
What you must also understand is that your imbalances are the
result of what you do in your everyday life – your workouts,
sitting, the activities of your job, and your own personal
habits. I’m not going to tell you to stop going to work. But
what if you changed the way you present yourself at your desk.
Instead of sitting at your desk, try kneeling. I kneel at least
30 percent of the time I spend at my desk. I have a small foam
pad that puts me just high enough to type and see the monitor.
I sit on a therapy ball – and guess what. I don’t sit still like
my momma told me to. I move my hips in every direction,
which means I’m working on my core balance all day long.
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Action steps to take
———————-
Sitting
When I sit, I sit with my legs in all different positions –
sometimes bent, sometimes behind me, other times stretched out
in front or even to the side of me, keep the legs moving.
Every 10 minutes or so, I will work my body in some way – and,
yes, that includes walking away from my desk. But more than that,
I make it a habit to stand up when the phone rings. I also stand
when I have to read something or when I’m rearranging the stack
of stuff on my desk for greater productivity.
Standing
If your job requires you to stand all day long, be sure you have
quality footwear and a neutral shoe insert. Our body mechanics
start when our feet hit the ground. It is best if your feet are
in the most neutral position possible.
One negative body pattern that many people fall into is to
continually shift their weight from one foot to the other. The
problem with this is that most people find eventually decide that
one leg will be more comfortable than the other, and then that leg
will get most of the weight most of the time. This will wreak havoc
on the pelvis and spine. Better to put equal on each foot as much
as you can, and learn to correct when you catch yourself shifting
your weight or leaning on one leg too much.
Lifting
A third obstacle on the job can be situations where you have to
lift anything over 10 pounds repeatedly. Again, it’s not the
activity itself that puts you in jeopardy; it’s your body’s
inability to tolerate the stress of the weight. In other words,
you should be able to lift anything you want to and not have any
difficulty doing it. The problem occurs when your body is
suffering from the muscle imbalances and postural dysfunction
that we talked about earlier – and you don’t even know it.
So, when you lift that object and you get injured, think of it
as the straw that broke the camels’ back. Your body was already
in a compromised state, and it just needed that last bit of stress
to send you in to a painful condition.
Stress
It’s an unavoidable fact of life at the office, and it can also
play a role by causing your muscles to tense up, which makes you
more prone to injury. Stress also lowers your tolerance for pain.
In some cases, minimizing stress on the job can be a daunting task,
but deep-breathing exercises, walking around the block, or even
talking about your frustrations with a trusted friend can help.
In closing, I want to leave you with this message: Even though
the workplace can be a hazard to your health, if you do find
yourself having back pain, remember that your thoughts and your
beliefs about your situation will have a direct impact on your ab
ility to recover and how fast you recover. That’s why it’s critical to
learn all you can about your condition and take action as soon as
you can.
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50 Years of Back Pain Gone in Just Days
Jerry Tarman had suffered from
chronic back pain on and off for
over 50 years. Like most people, he
had tried it all…
Chiropractors, physical therapy, he even overdosed
on Tylenol but nothing gave him lasting relief until
he discovered muscle balance therapy.
Unlike most treatments which only deliver
temporary relief, if any at all, muscle balance
therapy delivers lasting relief to 8 out of
10 people who use it because it addresses
the underlying cause of the pain, not just the symptoms.
If you suffer from any type of back pain, neck pain or sciatica, I
urge you to learn more about this breakthrough new treatment.
Click below to learn more about this breakthrough new treatment.