Back pain – Injury prevention and self management
Some helpful hints for injury prevention
- Maintain good spinal mobility – do regular lumbar spine stretches
- Pay attention to your spinal posture, especially sitting posture. Check your driving position, work ergonomics and how you relax on couch or bed to watch TV or use devices. There are many tools that could help your situation. You could try a lumbar roll or sit/stand desk.
- Practice the 20/20/20 rule: get up and move every 20 mins, do your eye exercises: blinks x 20, looking into distance 6m (20 feet) and then to nose x 20
- Arch backwards in standing at home or work regularly, especially after sitting for a prolonged period
- Increase general activity if your lifestyle is sedentary- the exercise guidelines are for a minimum of 150 minutes per week, that’s 5 days of 30 mins
- Work on your general muscle tone and strength of abdominals, legs, back- the whole body really!
- Use good lifting techniques and arch backwards before and after the lift. Know your limits.
- Lie down to offload your spine- don’t sit to rest. You can use heat for muscle relaxation and pain relief. Some people prefer ice which you could also try
