Another 5 Tips to Cure Your Back Pain

“Backpain?  Never heard of it!” – said no oneever.

AsI mentioned in my first post about back pain, almost everyone will suffer fromit at some point in their life.  For thisreason, I’ve decided to post another 5 tips that could help if you’re suffering.  (In fact, if you said I’m a back pain junkie,you’d probably be right). 

So,once again, below are some tips that hopefully can help decrease your backpain, complete with the science that may put you to sleep.  Also, if you’d like to take a look at myfirst post on this subject, you can do so by clicking here.

• Changeyour sitting position every 10 minutes – Contrary to what you may think, there’sactually no ideal way to sit in a chair. I touched on this fact in my last post about back pain, but wanted toexpand on it a bit here.  When you sit inone position for too long (think of yourself as being hunched over at acomputer) you accumulate microtrauma in your tissues.  This microtrauma can then increase your riskof other problems, including soft tissue creep (another way of saying your onyour way to a herniated disc).  As Dr.Stuart McGill has pointed out, if you need to sit, change your sitting postureevery 10 minutes, so the loads on your tissues can be varied.

• Sidesleeper?  Put something between yourknees – This tip may be more applicable for women due to the increased Q angle(a special way of saying women have wider hips that alter the angle of theirfemurs to their knees), but it’s good to try if you suffer from back pain.  If you’re a side sleeper, your top leg willbe in adduction, which is often associated with lateral pelvic tilt.  Why’s that a problem? Imagine your lumbar spinebeing bent towards one side for hours on end while you sleep, and suddenly itmakes sense why your back may not be feeling great. If you’re going to continuesleeping on your side, try putting a pillow between your legs, which shoulddecrease your hip adduction and the tilt on your spine.

• Stopcrossing your legs – Once again, this may be more applicable to women, but ifyou sit with your legs crossed, please stop. You are placing shear forces on your SI joint, not to mention youprobably put yourself in lateral flexion. Neither scenario is what you’ll want if you have a cranky back.  Plus, I’m far from being a member of high society,but it seems as if sitting with your ankles together may be more polite.

• Ifit hurts your back, don’t do it – This saying is a take on one of the morepopular ones from Mike Boyle, and in my opinion, is simple and brilliant.  I can’t tell you how many people will performa specific exercise, only to be in pain while doing it, or in pain the nextday. Just last week I had someone tell me their lower back was hurting themduring a trap bar deadlift.  After a fewminutes, I come to find out that it hurts them every single time they do it,they just failed to tell anyone! 
  
  Onthis note, if you’ve had a bad experience with a certain movement or exercise,don’t try it even if your back is starting to feel better.  Why? Think of that movement as picking a scab.  Once you pick that scab, you may have to waiteven longer for it to heal correctly.  Safeto say, if something hurts your back, just don’t do it.

• Don’tpick things up with a rounded back – “Don’t lift with your back, lift you’reyour legs.”  Well, technically, that's not correct advice, as lifting something off the ground will always require some backbracing or movement, but what we want to avoid is having your back rounded, or in lumbarflexion.  Why?  Well, besides looking gross, there’s actuallya reason!  Two muscles, your iliocostalisand longissimus are located along your spine in your upper and lower back.  In your lower back, these two muscles have anamazing ability to keep your spine tight and correct as it correspondsto their line of pull.  However, when youhunch your lower back, these two muscles lose this line of pull, and youessentially have very little preventing one of your discs from poking out.