What can be done for your back health without shelling out any money at all? Everyone loves a freebie…
The Posturite wellbeing at work experts have put their heads together to pick just five easy and free ways to benefit the health of your back and to help prevent back problems and discomfort. There are sound recommendations here for both your personal and working lives.
You know full well that a ‘bad back’ can be a wretched experience, so you realise that looking after your back is important. Preventing back pain is better than attempting to cure or relieve back pain after all. For best quality of life, it’s a good idea to take good care of your precious spine.
Here’s also your free ‘Best 5 Things You Can Do For Your Back’ poster to display in your workplace, and your back care Powerpoint slide deck.
This Back Care Awareness Week 2 - 8 October 2024, let’s get straight to these nuggets of very simple but highly effective back care advice:
1: Drink plenty of water
Keeping hydrated is brilliant for numerous aspects of our health – including our back health. It’s recommended that you drink at least six to eight cups of water a day to:
- help keep the discs in your back hydrated
- maintain the health of the joints and muscles in your back.
This joint lubrication should help to decrease pain in your back and maintain joint health – giving you improved comfort.
Feel free to hydrate yourself with healthy drinks other than water, but water will be your lowest cost choice! If you’re sweating because of exercise, heavy work or hot weather, you’ll need to drink more than the eight cups too.
Drinking water to keep your back healthy also helps you to take those regular breaks from being sedentary - you’ll need to move to pop to the bathroom. Win-win.
2: Support your back when sitting down
Please don’t run a mile when I bring up the word ‘posture’. We can talk ‘positioning’ if you prefer; and do make sure your back is supported either by toned muscles or external support. The inward curve at the lower part of your spine should maintain contact with the back of your chair.
If you’re an office worker, check your positioning at your desk using this Art of Sitting guide to help you.
If you discover you're sitting too low for the desk or table, and you’re having to temporarily use a chair which isn’t adjustable, you could sit on a cushion to improve your position.
If you realise, after checking the sitting guide, that you're sitting too high, and your elbows are desk height but your feet are not supported, use a foot rest or a suitable box.
Whatever position you use, make sure it's a supported one in a good spinal position. This will help your body to relax and most importantly, help to prevent back pain.
3: Sit less
Talking of sitting, let’s do less of it! Your back hates inactivity and often finds sitting a challenge.
- Being disturbed from your work to go and open the door for a delivery? It’s good for you.
- Having to go and replenish the paper in the printer? It’s good for you.
You’ve moved. Moving is good for your back. If you have the mobility, regularly change your postures during the day and evening, and cut down on too much sitting.
As Jon White from Posturite expressed when co-presenting the ‘Back pain: keep it simple, feel better’ webinar:
“We know that movement is vital for preventing back pain. As humans we were designed to move – muscles should shorten and lengthen. Research suggests that every 30 minutes is a good time to break static posture. Moving little and often is ideal.”
Why?
When you sit down:
- Intervertebral discs are usually under more pressure and therefore maintain less fluid. Over time this makes them less healthy and making you more susceptible to injury. When you move frequently, it will help your back to keep its natural range of movement.
When you reduce the time you spend sitting and are more active:
- You’ll help keep the muscles around the spine strong, so they can provide more support to the bones and joints and take pressure off them.
- Standing, stretching and moving helps to strengthen your core. Your core is the group of muscles around the middle of your body which help stabilise your spine and pelvis.
Find ideas for active working at Move More in ’24.
If you have downtime after work, cut down on sitting too. If you want to make a call or watch a video, pop your device on a tall piece of furniture and stand instead of sit for a little while! You could use a bookcase, cabinet, mantlepiece or windowsill.
To care for your back when you exercise:
- Warm up carefully
- Don’t overdo it to begin with if your fitness is a little rusty…
- Wear suitable shoes (tip – this isn’t flip flops)
4. Give up smoking
Let’s next look at why smoking is bad for your back. As NHS Wales explains:
“Smoking reduces blood supply to bones and soft tissues. Nicotine within tobacco slows the production of bone-forming cells and reduces the amount of bone-forming calcium that can be absorbed from what you eat. Smoking also reduces the amount of oxygen available to your muscles during activity.”
Consequently due to smoking you could then experience a higher risk of:
- Low back pain
- Osteoporosis
- Shoulder injury
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Tendonitis
- Fractures
You’re a smoker who wants to reverse these bad effects on musculoskeletal health? Get support to decrease or stop smoking. It will be well worth the effort and of course you’ll save money too.
To let go of a ‘bad’ habit like smoking, think what you could replace the bad habit with. Could you replace the time you spent smoking with going for a little extra walk to occupy your mind and body?
5. Lift, push and pull objects safely
Learn proper handling techniques so that if you need to lift up, pull or push an object, you do so safely and you don’t hurt your back in the process. There is a difference between what you are able to move and what you can safely move.
The Health and Safety Executive has good advice on this. For example, good handling techniques include:
- Using both hands instead of just one.
- Lifting the load in front of and close to your body, avoiding twisting.
- Plan where you’re going to place the object before you start. Will you need help? Remove those obstructions before you lift.
A trolley on wheels can come in very handy!
Back care is about a combination of exercise and support. It's a balance of these two elements to get the best out of your back. The advice is not to go too far with either.
This article has been factchecked by Katharine Metters C.MIOSH, MCSP, C.ErgHF PGCE, Head Consultant at Posturite.
Get your back care poster here.
See the whole collection of Back Care Awareness Week resources.
Further information sources from:
If you’re concerned about your back, always consult your doctor.
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