Preventing back pain is a common topic of conversation, especially in the workplace and even more so in professions which must cope with manual labor and heavy lifting. While it is vital to understand proper kinesthesia and body mechanics, there is actually a whole lot more to consider when trying to prevent painful back symptoms from taking over your life.
This article covers both the physical and psychological methods of preventing pain from establishing itself in your spine. Remember, preventing chronic pain is often far more effective than treating it once it takes hold.
Physically Preventing Back Pain
In order to prevent pain, it is crucial to follow the proper procedures laid out by the safety officers at your workplace. If you must tax your body with hard labor, make sure to move efficiently and distribute the stress evenly throughout your anatomy.
Generally, it is better to lift with the legs, instead of the back. It is best to work close to your torso when exerting force. It is ideal to use your entire body to accomplish a task, rather than just a limb or 2 alone. These pieces of advice are common sense, but must still be practiced in order to remain effective for back pain prevention.
Most importantly, take breaks from difficult tasks whenever possible and make sure to change your position regularly if you perform repetitive motion work. Doing anything for too long is sure to create some form of pain eventually.
Psychologically Preventing Back Pain
This is the terrain less traveled during most back pain prevention programs. The subconscious is a great initiator and perpetuator of chronic back pain syndromes. Many patients are convinced that their pain is due to some back injury, degenerative process or circumstantial event, but this is rarely the case.
Remember, most physical back pain conditions will heal rather quickly on their own or with appropriate medical care. Long-term treatment resistant pain syndromes might actually be part of a psychosomatic back pain process and will not typically respond well to a number of seemingly indicated treatment options.
So, in order to prevent back pain from gaining the upper hand in your life, remember to stay in touch with your emotional side. Do not repress or suppress anger, fear, frustration, sadness or guilt. Take time to explore your unresolved childhood issues and pay close attention to your closest relationships.
Sometimes the sources of our greatest stresses are not negative or sad, but are rooted in happy events and interactions. Do your best to understand your personality type and be aware of your predisposed psychological weaknesses. Sometimes, seemingly good personality traits, such as the desire to succeed or the desire to help others, can be emotionally draining and enraging to the inner self.
Knowledge therapy makes an excellent addition to a health maintenance program for anyone, with or without back pain. This is the one treatment which can prevent a host of problematic health issues before they ever achieve the power to begin.
Preventing Back Pain Tips
Many of you do not consider the emotional realm to be a major source of back pain and that is exactly why there is an epidemic of suffering patients today. The medical system has propagated the structural myths about back pain to the point where virtually everyone thinks of the spine as a delicate and easily damaged structure. This could not be further from the truth. The body is strong; very strong indeed. However, it is still greatly limited by the inner workings of the mind.
As a final thought to consider: The body and mind work together to create every state of health and disease. Thinking of back pain as a combined process of the anatomy and the emotions is an enlightened approach which is likely to help you avoid chronic pain, despite hard work, stress and a lifetime of progressive anatomical degeneration.
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