FEELING GREAT: Three top tips to manage back pain at home

Back pain affects most people at some point in their lives. While it’s not usually serious, it can be uncomfortable and debilitating to live with (and it “can” become serious if it keeps getting put off, hoping it’ll go away on it’s own…).
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Feb 2020, 00:00 BST
Back pain can cause huge problems at home and work.Back pain can cause huge problems at home and work.
Back pain can cause huge problems at home and work.

Here are three simple tips to help you get going…

1. Daily lower back exercise rituals - closely linked to going to see a good physio – because you want to be sure that any exercises you are doing are right for you and will work - if you can get into the routine or good habit of doing simple stretches and strengthening of your lower back muscles, you will benefit right through your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and beyond. In the same way that you brush your teeth twice per day to keep them clean and avoid pain, you need to look at working on your back in a similar way.

2. Stay hydrated. One really simple way to avoid this is to cut out the stuff that makes you dehydrated in the first place. Things like excessive coffee, tea, alcohol and energy drinks. And being dehydrated can cause muscle aches and pains, fatigue and dizziness. So, it’s important that you keep your water intake up in an attempt to ease o any extra or unwanted tension in your lower back muscles. My tip, drink water little and often throughout the day.

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3. Avoid carrying your back pack or bag on one arm, or in one hand - for this, you’re going to need to completely ‘ flip’ everything you’ve likely done for years when it comes to carrying bags.

This one is a very common mistake. Carrying a workbag or even shopping bag over one shoulder, means that the weight is not evenly distributed. And the result is one side of your spine is under more pressure than the other. Guess what happens to the side of your body carrying the extra weight all these years? (Likely to be the side you’re feeling the pain on most.) More, if you carry the bag over your left shoulder all the time, you could end up with a curvature of your spine and it would mean that your left side is working too hard taking the weight of the bag every day, and certainly much harder than your right side.

For more tips like this, go to this website to download my free back pain guide filled with tips and exercises to help you ease it: www.paulgoughphysio.com/back-pain