Do you ever wonder if your daily routine is silently causing your back pain? Everyday habits often play a bigger role than most people realise. In today’s blog, we’ll be taking a look at five common back pain culprits, as well as steps you can take to help your back feel comfortable, stronger, and more stable.
Habit #1: Poor posture at your desk
Our bodies weren’t designed to sit or stay in one position for hours at a time, but the modern world often demands it. If you have a desk job or spend a lot of time hunched over mobile devices, it could be contributing to your back pain.
Sitting at a desk can compress the discs in your spine, weaken your core muscles in the centre of your body (lower back, hips, pelvis, and stomach), imbalance your hips and lower back, all contributing to a variety of aches and pains.
Potential solutions:
If you can’t avoid long hours at a desk, it’s important to make sure that you’re positioned as comfortably and ergonomically as possible to begin reversing any postural issues.
Tools like adjustable chairs, lumbar supports, or standing desks can all help you to straighten your spine and relieve pain.
Ideally, your office chair should be set to a height that puts your eyes level with the top of your monitor. Make sure your keyboard is straight in front of you and that you’re not having to overstretch or hunch forward to type.
When sitting in your chair, your bottom and shoulder blades should touch the back rest, and your feet should be flat on the floor rather than crossed. If your chair doesn’t have integrated lumbar support, you could pop a small rolled up towel behind your lower back.
Habit #2: Prolonged sitting
Research from Cornell University shows that sitting puts 40-90% more pressure on the discs in your back than standing.
If you spend a lot of the day sitting in one place or position (this doesn’t just have to be at a desk), it could reduce blood flow to your spine, tighten your hip flexors, and weaken your core muscles.
Long periods of inactivity or prolonged sitting can result in lower back pain, hip pain, stiffness and a loss of flexibility, and even contribute to conditions such as osteoporosis.
Potential solutions:
It’s vital to add “movement breaks” to your day – this means that you should stand, stretch, or walk at least once every 30 minutes throughout the day if you’re physically able to. Set a reminder on your phone to help you turn movement into a consistent habit.
Choose a chair that provides good back support – even your comfy armchair! Ideally, your buttocks and lower back should be able to touch the back of the chair.
There are various exercises you can do to strengthen your back when sitting, even if you have limited mobility. A physiotherapist is the best person to advise you about the right exercises for your body.
Habit #3: Lifting incorrectly
If you do a lot of heaving lifting in your everyday life (perhaps because it’s part of your job, you have small children, you’re a carer, or because you enjoy weightlifting at the gym), it could be contributing to pain in your lower back or even acute injuries like herniated (“slipped”) discs.
Potential solutions:
Activities like weightlifting can have many benefits, but back pain as a result of heavy lifting is usually due to having an incorrect technique.
As this illustration from Alberta Health shows, you should always aim to:
- Keep your feet shoulder-width apart with one foot slightly ahead of the other to give your body a wide base of support
- Squat down, bending at the knees and hips only – if you really need to, you can put one knee to the floor and have the other knee bent in front of you at a right angle (a half kneel)
- Keep your back straight, your shoulders back, and your chest out, looking straight ahead
- Slowly lift by straightening your hips and knees – make sure you don’t twist as you lift!
- Hold the load as close to your body as possible, level with your belly button
- Use your feet to change direction, taking small steps and keeping your shoulders in line with your hips
- In order to put the item down, squat with your knees and hips
- Try to keep your core muscles engaged and strong, and ask for help if you need someone to share the load
Again, getting the technique right is something that a physiotherapist can help you with. If you work out regularly at a gym, ask a member of staff to check your weightlifting technique.
Habit #4: Sleeping in the wrong position
One thing we all do as humans is sleep (even if some people fall asleep more easily than others). Unfortunately, how and where you sleep can contribute to back pain, and back pain can interfere with your sleep, so it’s something of a vicious cycle.
Sleeping on an unsupportive mattress, using the wrong pillow, or sleeping on your stomach can all misalign the spine.
Potential solutions:
The ideal sleeping position is one that gives you a neutral spine, i.e. no bends in your back or neck. For most people, this position can be achieved by sleeping on your side with a pillow between your knees.
The Sleep Foundation recommends that you change your mattress every six to eight years to get the best night’s sleep and to protect your body. Aim to choose a medium-firm mattress and a supportive pillow that enable you to keep that all-important neutral spine as you snooze.
Habit #5: Lack of regular exercise
As we mentioned above, the human body was designed to move a lot more than our modern lifestyles suggest. If you have a sedentary lifestyle or neglect to keep your core muscles strong with exercise, it can weaken the muscles that support your spine. In turn, this poor muscle tone can lead to instability and a greater vulnerability to back pain.
Potential solutions:
Explore simple exercises such as planks, bridges, or gentle yoga stretches to increase your core muscle strength and boost your flexibility. If this is something you haven’t done before or you’re experiencing back pain, we would recommend speaking to a physiotherapist about the safest and most effective ways for you to exercise.
Activities like walking or swimming are fantastic options to increase your activity levels without overloading the spine.
Small steps towards better habits
Back pain can often come about slowly. You might start experiencing some niggling aches or feel stiffer in the morning before you realise that it’s becoming a problem. Alternatively, a problem such as a slipped disc can cause sudden, acute pain.
In either case, it’s sensible to get professional advice from a physiotherapist about how to treat the issue. The back is literally and figuratively central to our wellbeing.
As the problem probably didn’t occur overnight, positive changes may take time too. But change for the better is possible. Take small steps towards better daily habits – adjust how you sit, take regular movement breaks, update your mattress, lift with the right technique. Every time you practice a new habit, it will make a difference.
Take the first step towards a pain-free back.
If back pain is affecting your daily life, don’t wait for it to get worse. At The Physio Box, we specialise in personalised back pain treatment. Whether it’s improving your posture, designing a tailored exercise plan, or helping you make simple changes to your daily habits, our expert team is here to help.
Book your consultation today and discover how physiotherapy can make a difference. Let’s work together to ease your pain and achieve a lasting recovery.
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