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As part of internship at +Bauer Physical Therapy , Michelle Hoffmann, Physical Therapy Student at the Doctoral Program at Chapman University Program in Physical Therapy, presents: Caring for Your Back. Sign up for Healthy Back Habits You will receive weekly tips and exercises via email. Please read on and watch the video below.
If you have experienced back pain then you know how it can affect your lifestyle and ability to engage in work and daily activity. Back pain can knock you down for days or weeks. You may have debilitating pain where you are confined to a bed, or the daily nagging ache that just wears on you. There may be localized pain, or numbness and tingling that refers to the legs. Back pain presents itself differently based on the structures involved. There are many sources of pain that can be referred from the spine and surrounding tissue. This is why careful assessment and diagnosis is required to identify the culprit of your complaints.
Back Pain is not Created, or Treated, Equally. There are many treatments purported to relieve back pain once and for all. This just is not true. The relief of back pain requires looking at all possible causes and developing an individualized treatment program to address the potential stressors. Back pain can be the result of accumulated stressors that act on the spinal structures over time. These are a few causes of repetitive stress.
Postural habits
Lifting technique
Repetitive movements
Repetitive compression(sitting, bouncing)
Poor mechanics: golf, tennis
Poor preparation: lack of fitness
Repetitive stress must be avoided to lessen the build up of forces acting on the culprit structures so that healing can take place. In the long-term, this includes a host of educational opportunities that are specific to each individual.
Sitting and Chair selection while relaxing or at work.
Relaxation techniques to manage stress and pain.
Fatigue avoidance strategies in static and dynamic activity.
There is no one way to treat back pain. In many cases it did not take a day or a week for your pain to manifest itself. Likewise, it will not take a day, a week, or even a month to restore your body and relieve your back pain.
Managing Back Pain Begins with Education
If you have questions regarding your back pain please leave a comment below and sign up for the Healthy Back & Healthy Habits. Practicing for over 25 years, +Randy Bauer has treated a variety of surgical and non-surgical cases involving the spine(neck and back). From the 'stay-at-home-mom', the weekend warrior, the high school athlete, business person and entrepreneur, and high-level athlete, all have been treated with the same passion and expertise, addressing each with the desire to Get Better. Sign up for Healthy Back & Healthy Habits
You will receive weekly tips and exercises via email.
This is a great guide to good posture. There is one important suggestion that I must add. That is to become more attentive to how you feel during the day. Remember that fatigue will sneak up on you at work, around the home, or driving around town. When muscles fatigue and you do not provide some postural relief, the muscles will become painful. It is recommended that postural relief, fatigue avoidance exercises be performed throughout the day, even before fatigue is experienced.
Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance: Stop Back and Neck Pain
Most Back and Neck Injuries are not the result of a single event.
Back and Neck pain can be caused by sudden onset. This may be related to an acute injury. Sudden onset injuries are caused by trauma that may be related to a fall, motor vehicle accident, or quick positional change, such as a quarterback being blind-sided by a defensive end. This is often referred to as a whiplash mechanism of injury. These injuries can be serious, and for the most part, unavoidable.
Sanchez Blind-Side
Back and Neck Pain is the result of...
Poor Posture: Postural stress is accumulative in nature. This is the result of sustained positional changes of the neck and back. Often related to forward head position, or a rounded back, stress can result in overuse of muscles, chronic compression of discs or joints.
Forward Head Posture
Incorrect Body Mechanics:Poor body mechanics are related to the incorrect manner in which you perform a specific task. This can be related to poor static postures, such as sitting, or poor dynamic postures, such as lifting. These injuries can cause repetitive trauma, or repetitive trauma. Lifting boxes at work on a repeated basis, or a one time lift of a box in the garage at home, can place undue stress on spinal structures and muscles resulting in injury. Poor mechanics can also be referred to as poor technique. This is often seen in the weight training room. Young athletes performing Squats can place unusual stress on spinal structures that are likely to be injured in the maturing bone. Whether you are lifting a piece of paper, or a heavy weight, proper body mechanics must be emphasized.
Loss of Flexibility:Loss of joint mobility can normal mobility and muscle imbalances. This may be related to increased skeletal growth in the young athlete, maintaining sustained postures at the computer, or inattention maintenance of normal mobility of the extremities through decreased activity. When it comes time to move, and normal mobility is not present, injury can occur to soft tissue or spinal structures.
Stressful Living and Work Habits:Stressful habits, whether at work, home or on the playing field, are often related to decreased rest and recovery. The manner in which you perform or engage in an activity can result in fatigue. This fatigue may be physical, mental or emotional. If we do not provide adequate relief from stressful activity, fatigue may result, causing increased activity of an already tired body and mind resulting in injury, or increased perception of pain.
... A slothful body suffers the distress of deprivation - Hans Selye
Poor Sleeping Positions: The posture that we maintain during our sleep is important for recovering your body from postures, physical exertion, and mental activity that we engage on a daily basis. If we are to spend the day with the neck craned forward in poor posture, and choose to sleep with pillows propping our head forward in a flexed position through the night the muscles will become tight on the front of out neck, and the joints of the neck will become stiff and unable to sustain an upright posture.
Decline of Physical Fitness: Maintaining your health through physical fitness is the foundation of injury prevention. Specifically, if your muscles are conditioned to sustain physical activity, fatigue is avoided. Exercise improves physical function through improved cardiovascular health and by delivering oxygenated blood to working muscles. Strength training promotes increased capacity to perform work tasks and lean body mass. Leg strength and core stability, when combined with proper lifting technique, promotes the prevention of back and neck injury.
What You can do to STOP Back Pain and Neck Pain
You have control over Back and Neck Pain. The most effective action is to relieve the postural stress that accumulates with your daily activity. By relieving postural stress you begin to avoid the exaggeration of fatigue on muscles and soft tissue, joints and potential nerve and vascular structures.
Postural Stress Fatigue Avoidance
This schematic of the progression of postural stress, pain and injury demonstrates the effect of static positions on the musculoskeletal and neurovascular structures that ultimately lead to Cumulative Trauma Disorders(CTD's). The ability to Stop the progression of postural stress and fatigue is to be proactive in the Relief and Avoidance strategies you can employ through the day. If you wait until pain occurs, it is more difficult to unwind the effects postural stress has on muscular and support tissue, such as, fatigue, tension, decreased blood flow and compensation patterns of adjacent structures. For example, if the rotator cuff muscles fatigue in the shoulder due to sustained elevation(computer mouse), the upper trapezius muscle that connects the shoulder blade to the back of the head can overcompensate. The result is increased upper trap pain and headaches related to activation of trigger points.
If You Keep Working a Fatigued Muscle, It Will Start Screaming at You.
- Randy Bauer, Physical Therapist
Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance
The effect of a sedentary lifestyle, disuse and poor posture are weakness and fatigue of muscles with work. This also includes a sedentary job. It has been shown that working all day in a seated, sedentary position has a negative impact on back and neck related pain, and on your health.
Providing postural relief measures is the best choice for the proactive approach to stop Back and Neck Pain before it arises. When fatigued muscles are asked to continually work they can become painful. The goal then is Fatigue Avoidance through Postural Relief Strategies before pain occurs.
Here are 5 Postural Relief Strategies You can practice for Fatigue Avoidance, and Stopping Back and Neck Pain before it rears It's ugly head.
Take periodic microbreaks from sustained seated postures for 1-2 minutes on an hourly basis throughout your work day. For someone that already has significant back and neck pain directly related to sitting You may want to stand every 20-30 minutes. Another excellent recommendation is to use a Sit Stand Option chair such as the Salli MultiAdjuster Ergonomic Saddle Seat, and the Bambach Saddle Chair(below). These chairs provide excellent postural support for normal spinal alignment, a sit stand option, and correct sitting ergonomics at your work station, at home, or in the office.
Perform lower back, hip and lower extremity range of motion stretches for relief of sustained sitting postures.This may include standing from a seated posture, placing both hands on your hips and leaning backwards, lightly stretching the low back.
During your lunch or break take a short walk. This may only be for 5-10 minutes, but that is okay. During your walk take some deep breaths; inhale through the nose, exhale through pursed lips. Also reach your hands overhead, and behind your back(clasping your hands at your low back). Walking has many health benefits, and is a great way to restore the mind and body.
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
- John Muir (1838-1914)
Take a short meditative break a couple times a day. This will help relieve eye strain, provide a relaxation effect, and improve your focus. Try pushing yourself away from your desk, sit in a supported position.
http://www.humanscale.com/products/?shop=1To Stop Neck and Back Pain, attention to Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance must be practiced on a daily basis. With practice and careful attention to how you use your body in static and dynamic postures, repetitive or acute stress can be prevented. Developing the habits of physical exercise, and mental and physical recovery techniques, will promote a Healthy You.
To Stop Neck and Back Pain, attention to Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance must be practiced on a daily basis. With practice and careful attention to how you use your body in static and dynamic postures, repetitive or acute stress can be prevented. Developing the habits of physical exercise, and mental and physical recovery techniques, will promote a Healthy You.
