Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
We all need to look after our backs. With approximately 8 in 10 Americans experiencing some form of chronic back pain, it is a burden we all carry to an extent. When it comes to being fit and healthy, looking after your back is key to many aspects of fitness, so what can a healthy back do for us, and how can we help it?
It Can Improve Our Posture
Many people will have chronic back pain and will have to undergo sessions with a chiropractor, but we also need to remember that there are things we can do to improve our back. A lot of people who experience lower back pain are guilty of sitting down a lot more or are in sedentary jobs. We need to focus on our posture to prevent back pain. You can strengthen your back muscles with a number of methods. For example, you can lift weights or do yoga. One of the biggest misconceptions people have when it comes to strengthening their lower back is that they shouldn't do things that actively engage the back. But this is why the next point is crucial.
Strengthening Your Core
For anybody that has problems with their back, the most likely culprit is not engaging their core muscles. We can maintain correct posture, but we have to remember that if we struggle to sit up straight, we need to engage our core muscles. This is especially true for those who have given birth and haven’t exercised since. Ensuring that we strengthen our core can make a massive difference in keeping our back muscles strong. However, when we are doing core exercises, we have to ensure that it is strengthening the core and we're not causing more issues to the back in the meantime. This means sit-ups are completely off-limits. And in fact, they can be incredibly bad for the spine for this very reason.
Ensuring You Understand the Work Your Back Does
Whether you are spending a lot of time picking up your children or you are not engaging your core in the gym, you've got to understand what your back and your spine are doing for you every day. When we become more conscious of what we need to do to maintain better posture and engage our core muscles every time we exercise, this is going to help us in the long run. Because if we strengthen our body's supportive structures, for example, the ligaments, we are going to feel the benefits. We need to ensure that in addition to the right exercises, we also keep our BMI within the right figures. Being overweight can increase lower back pain because it puts stress on the muscles.
It is a tough thing to do, especially if you have not engaged in any fitness routines for some time, but it's vital to remember that looking after your back is not just key to fitness, but key to your overall health and happiness. Ensuring that you do it right is going to make everything far easier in your life.
