subject: Body Language That Can Give You Back Pain [print this page] Body Language That Can Give You Back Pain
To illustrate, most episodes of back pain are caused by bending awkwardly, wrong ways of lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects, twisting, and slouching in chairs. These actions cause the muscles on the front part of your torso to shorten and put too much pressure on the muscles of your back. It can also throw your spine into an unnatural alignment, thus leading to back pain. Back pain may also be caused by standing, sitting, or driving for too long without taking a break. Your body is not designed to stay in one position for extended periods, and when it is forced to do so, the muscles become stiff and the joints inflexible. When this happens, you are sure to experience back pain to some extent. To avoid experiencing back pain from these everyday actions, make sure that you do them properly and with the right posture. For example, if you have to lift a heavy object from the ground, bend from the knees and then lift the object using the strength of your legs. While you may think that bending from the waist and then swinging the object up is the easiest way to accomplish the task, it also poses the highest risk for muscle injury and back pain. And if you need to stay in one position for long periods of time, be sure to take a short break every hour or so to stretch your muscles and relieve them from stress. Of course, back pain does not always occur as a result of your unguarded actions. Sometimes it can be the result of your body's normal ageing process. Be that as it may, being careful with your movements is still an excellent way of preventing even the type of back pain that normally comes with age. Bad habits like smoking can also be a risk factor for back pain, so you may want to start cutting that habit while being careful of your actions, so as to further lower the chance of suffering from any type of back pain. And while your actions may be the most common causes of back pain, a lack of physical activity can also be a contributing factor because unused muscles are weak muscles, and weak muscles are prone to injury. To avoid back pain, therefore, you need to engage in regular exercise, but you have to make sure that you do it right.
