How is your back? Mine feels a little better, thank you very much. Let’s talk about the little things that we do and don’t do that place load on our backs, shall we? First, let’s talk about load. Load can be a single event such as lifting something heavy at an ineffective angle, or it can be little things adding up over time.
Everything you do, even sleeping, places a load on your back. The information I am going to share with you now is courtesy of a recent visit I made to a physical therapist at Kaiser. I have been working out off and on, mostly on, for 40 + years. Yes, I DID start working out at age 3, thank you very much! And I still see outside experts when I need clarity.
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We are going to talk about changes in lumbar disc pressure, especially relative changes in pressure in the third lumbar disc. This is the joint that gets a lot of us, (me included.)
The number is the relative load and the description after the number describes what activity causes the load.
25-Lying flat on your back
35-Lying flat on your back with your knees elevated
75-Lying on your side
100-Standing straight with good posture-(note this does not mean standing up from sitting)
140-A cough while standing up
140-Sitting up straight with good posture in a chair
150-Bending forward at the waist while standing
150-Lying on your back and lifting your legs
185-Sitting in a chair and leaning forward
210-The bent knee sit up
221-Standing and bending forward at the waist while holding or lifting weight
275-Sitting and bending forward while holding or lifting a weight
Oops! How many of us just figured out why our backs hurt?
- How many of you sit in a chair and then lean forward?
- How many of you do seated weight exercises at the gym?
- How many of you lean forward and then stand up, when getting up from a chair?
- How many of you bend at the waist to pick something up?
- How many of you spend a lot of time sitting?
“So, John, how in the heck am I not supposed to do these things? I have to sit at work.”
Yes you do, and I am still willing to bet that you can find a way to do some of your work standing. I bought a simple platform for the mac air I use in much of my writing work. I will work sitting for a while and then I will work standing for while. I think the platform I bought was $25 including shipping.
I sit on a nice hard dining room chair that gives me good support working. I make sure that my sitting angle is the one I told you about in a previous blog. Then I assemble my nice inexpensive lap top stand and work standing for a while. Then I take a break. Then, I sit and so on.
GOOD NEWS! In the next blog we will start on exercises and and stretches for our backs!
Action Items/Activity Triggers
1. Change positions often. Get up from your chair every 30 minutes.
2. Sit right up in your chair, not leaning forward
3. Get up from your chair by sliding to the edge of your chair and then standing up straight using those nice strong leg and butt muscles
4. Try not to bend forward at the waist and pick stuff up
5. Whenever you pick anything up, engage your core.