6 Tips for Keeping Your Back Healthy

When back pain strikes, your quality of life tends to diminish significantly. You may not be able to go to work, engage in your favorite social activities, or even accomplish simple everyday tasks. To top it up, back pain can significantly affect your overall health, mood, and sleep patterns. The only way to successfully avoid back pain and all its negative effects is to simply take care of your spine. The following are a few tips on how to keep your spine healthy and your back in good shape.

1.     Maintain a Good Posture at all Times

A bad posture puts pressure on the bones and discs of the spine, thereby creating or aggravating a painful back. Therefore, the best way to keep your back healthy and avoid developing pain is to ensure you maintain a good posture with every activity you engage in. This entails:

·      Maintaining the natural curve of your spine when seated, especially if you will remain sitting for a long time. This can be done by sitting with your back straight, shoulders back, buttocks touching the back of the chair, and feet flat on the floor.

·      Keeping the shoulders back, head straight, and knees slightly bent with one foot in front of the other when standing for long hours. This posture helps take off some of the strain on the lower back.

·      Lifting items (especially heavy ones) using your legs and not your back. This can be achieved by bending the knees and keeping your back straight when lifting items.

2. Exercise Regularly

Like any other body part, the spine and back muscles get stronger with regular exercise. Exercise has been proven to enhance endurance, reduce back stiffness, rejuvenate overused back muscles, and allow for a healthy exchange of fluids between discs. This makes regular exercise a very powerful tool for keeping the back healthy. What’s more, exercise helps eliminate stress and excess fat both of which are known risk factors of back problems.

3. Stretch Out Your Spine at Least Twice a Day

In addition to exercising regularly, it is important that you also perform stretch exercises in the morning before heading to work and at night right before bedtime. This is because most back problems are caused by tightening of the hamstrings, hip flexors, and calf muscles. A good stretch routine will loosen everything up and thereby promote your spinal health.

4. Eat Right

A healthy diet will help keep the nerves and muscles of your back nourished, healthy, and strong. This in turn puts the back at a better position of handling the everyday stress that it is subjected to. Some of the foods known to promote a healthy back and spine include anti-oxidant rich foods, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

5. Allow your back to Rest Properly at Night

The spine and back muscles get strained daily whether the day is spent sitting, standing, driving, running errands, or engaging in any other activity. This is why you should allow your back to unwind and rejuvenate at the end of the night by getting enough sleep and sleeping in the right position. The best sleeping positions are;

a)     On your back with a pillow positioned under the knees
b)    On your side with knees slightly bent and a long pillow between the knees

While it is a common practice to sleep on the belly, avoid this habit as it puts strain on your lower back.

6. Avoid Overloading Your Backpack or Purse

Carrying a heavy backpack, purse, or even a young child on a regular basis causes unnecessary strain on the back and neck. So, keep your luggage bags light or try using ergonomic options such as pull along hand luggage suitcases or child carriers.

While back pain is one of the leading reasons for visits to the doctor’s office, you do not have to put up with the pain. Put these tips into practice and you will be able to avoid the various common back problems including pain.