7 Hot Tips to Protect Your Back – From the Professionals!

Over 80% of Australian’s will experience back pain at some time in their lives. So it’s a huge problem for the vast majority of us.  The good news is that most back pain is not due to a serious disease or health condition.

We’ve put together a list of 7 hot tips to protect your back – chances are you’ll need it at some stage!

1. Exercise your back regularly.  Walking, swimming, jogging and bike riding are all excellent ways to strengthen your back muscles and maintain mobility in your spine.

2. Always bend your knees and hips, NOT your back. This is known in the business as “hip hinging”.  To practice this, use a broom stick contacting along the length of your back then bend forward and attempt to maintain contact between the stick and your back throughout the movement (see the pic below).  You will need to soften or slightly bend your knees to fully bend forward.

3. Learn to lift heavy objects using the correct lifting technique. That is, make sure you carry the item as close to your body as possible and bending from hips and knees rather than bending from the lower back.

4. Try to take a short break from sitting every 30 minutes.

5. Maintain a good posture – avoid slumping in your chair, hunching over a desk, or walking with your shoulders hunched.

6. Lose any excess weight.  For every kilogram of weight you put on, it adds an extra 4kgs to your knee joints.

7. If your back pain isn’t going away consult one of our friendly Osteopaths.  The longer a problem hangs around, the more difficult it is to resolve so don’t put it off any longer. Book online here or call the clinic on 5941-4157 today!