"Your Healthy Back" booklet

This blog post is one in a series... informational books/ articles that I have read in recent weeks...

Recently I helped a neighbor go through her garage to organize and prepare for a yard sale. As we went through boxes, bins, bags, and cans, we found several missing items. My daughter found a little booklet called "Your Healthy Back." My friend said that I could keep it.

I read through it last week, I appreciated the information. Even though it was printed in 1986, the info was still valuable. Some of the things I have heard before. Some of the ideas were new. It has contents such as "Simple ways to keep back pain out of your life" or "Learn to bend and reach without hurting your back." It states that low back pain is one of the most common painful afflictions in America. As many as 8 or 10 of us--whether we dig ditches, shoulder a mail sack or push paper-- we all know the agony of back pain. Most low back pain, like heart trouble, is caused by the way we live our lives. Lifestyle is the biggest cause of back pain. People acquire a lot of habits that lead to back troubles.

Wait, so you're telling me that back pain can be avoided? That's what the booklet says. Prevention is preferable to the "treatment treadmill." So what kind of lifestyle fine-tuning do we undertake? PROPER EXERCISE! That is the single most important thing you can do to prevent back pain. Not just any exercise, but the kind that relaxes and strengthens you back. It states that someone who doesn't exercise regularly is just asking for back pain. A lot of people sit in an office all day, encounter stressful situations, drive home, eat dinner, and sit on the couch in front of the TV. There is no release for the tension that builds up in the muscles. 

So one of the things we need to do is build up our back muscles, right? Wrong. Few people have weak back muscles, but rather it is their abdominal muscles that need fortification. They take a lot of weight off of our back muscles and help brace the spine. When our abdominals are weak, we overload the back muscles and set ourselves up for spinal alignment problems. Very often strengthening the abdominal muscles proves to be all that was necessary to eliminate backaches. 

The authors encourage you to do three things before you begin an exercise program:

1. Get your doctor's ok first.

2. Start out slow and easy, avoiding jerky or painful movements.

3. Don't ditch your exercise program when your back feels great.

Exercising sensibly is one lifestyle adjustment that fends off backaches. The purpose of good posture is to hold the curves in the back to their natural arcs. The booklet talks about bending with the knees and squatting instead of bending at the waist. "Bend with the knees" is something you always hear when lifting something. This is good, but also holding the weighted item close to the body helps too. Avoid situations that impose large forward bending torques upon the upper body.

There are exercises included in the booklet, such as leg slides, half sit-ups, hamstring stretches by making circles with one leg while in the air, and wall push-ups. There is also the cat-cow exercises while on all fours, lateral leg lifts (on the side), psoas stretch by pulling knees up to the chest and holding them there while laying down. There are also pelvic tilts (lying or standing), squats, and more.

Another warning which is a bad habit for me is DO NOT CROSS YOUR LEGS, EVER, warn the experts. Sitting cross-legged nearly doubles the stress on your spine or tissues. 

Exercise has never been my favorite thing to do. But I have to offset my desire to read, sit, and do crosswords with my desire to have a healthy back. I do like doing yoga, with my app called Down Dog. I also like going for a walk to relieve stress and for a cardio workout. Ever since I was in physical therapy, I have done those exercises for 5-6 days a week, and it helps my back. I lift weights, stretch with a band in the door, and do "dead bug" exercises. 

I hope this info has helped you too! Now get off the computer or phone and go for a walk! 😁

1 Timothy 4:8
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Bible search results

Jeremiah 9:24
but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.

Daniel 11:4
After he has arisen, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others.