Life Hacks to Help Beat Back Pain: Part I

Over the years I have learned countless “other ways” of doing things in order to save my back. It actually took me a while to get across my head that if the movement hurts I probably shouldn’t do it. In some cases, I figured I was going to need push through the pain in order to find relief. Yeah, that didn’t ever really turn out in my favor. What I did learn though are a lot of daily activities that you can either improve on or change completely in order to save your back.

Try to be conscious about these things and you will see a lot less irritation through out your day due to poor decisions. Some of these will make you go DUHHHH! But if my 24 year old brother can have a “ah ha” moment with his back pain simply from changing one thing, I know there is someone else who can to!

1) Where is your wallet? I’ll use my brother as an example with this one. He had been experiencing some pretty bad back pain for a few days and couldn’t figure out why. His day consists of a lot of moving around with random bouts of sitting depending on the job. Long story short he had called me talking about this back pain he had been having asking for some tips and after a few minutes of talking we narrowed it down to his actual wallet. I don’t know what he has in that thing but its super thick and he would always put his wallet in the same back pocket. Here is the kicker, its not so much about having the wallet in his pocket it’s when he is sitting that makes all the difference. During those bouts of sitting that wallet is acting like a wedge. It jacks his right hip up while the other sits at a normal level. I suggested to take the wallet out when he drove or ever sat down and he did just that. Guess what? Within a couple days his pain was gone. He was having legit lower back joint pain and within a few days it was GONE. Thats awesome. No MRI’s, no pain meds and no body scans just a simple life adjustment and boom.

2) Switch Sides: This one is more for the ladies but can be for any student as well who carries a book bag on one shoulder. I remember Stuart McGill mentioning in one of his articles I read about that fact that it’s not so much that people are wearing their book bags and purses the wrong way, they just need to learn to always be switching sides. Stuart McGill is HUGE on one arm kettlebell carries also known as suite case carries. It’s a great way to develop core stiffness. This is a link to his short write up on the “Bottoms up Kettlebell Carry”. The whole idea behind the book bag and purse hack is to be mindful of the constant strain you are putting on your back. Most of the time we will always resort to doing what is comfortable or what is a habit. Thats where we can develop painful situations over time. Similar to the wallet story you can apply these tips to the book bag or purse. Instead of getting rid of the purse/book bag all together just be sure to switch sides through out the day. Break the habit of throwing it over your right or left shoulder and rolling on. Be mindful of what your doing and how long its been on that one side. You want to maintain an even supportive muscle balance.

3) None of this one arm push pull junk: Yeah I am talking about vacuuming. This is  tough one to beat because vacuuming has always been done with one arm which normally is your dominant side. The problem with this is over time this will create imbalances and put a lot of twisting torque forces which can cause pain. Stuart McGill talks about this exact thing in his book and how if we switched to a two hand technique which keeps the vacuum directly in front of us the entire time, we are able to minimize the load and pain experienced when doing it. Another factor you can consider is the fact that most people don’t use their core the way they should. While vacuuming you may start out with good intentions bracing your core and trying make sure its regid and supportive but after a few minutes you can’t keep this up. You begin to slack off and just allow the joints to absorb the stress and strain of the movements you are doing. If you already have a bad back this will only make things worse! Keep the vacuum in in the middle of your body and use two hands. It may feel goofy and even look weird but how often do you vacuum? You can handle it 😉

4) Think like an athlete: With everything you do you have to be mindful of what your body is doing. Picking things up off the ground, bending down, sliding things around the office, shutting doors. All these things are common activities we do every day over and over and over. Well, if your back is already in pain not being mindful while doing them only makes things worse. With everything you do, you have to think about what your core is doing. I have to constantly do this every day. Things like picking my 2 year old up out of her crib, lifting a basket of laundry, picking up different things around the yard all require athleticism. Whether you make this connection or not start looking at your core as the foundation of every movement. It needs to be tight, rigid and able to last through out your activity. The one thing I try to do every day is before lifting an object I do a mental core check. Before stooping down or lifting anything up I lock my core in place before I make the lift. If you actually saw me doing it you wouldn’t notice but its just a subtle thing I do before I lift anything. I make sure everything from my upper/lower back along with the entire front of my core is squeezed tight. I can tell a huge difference in the pain I feel when lifting certain objects. It keeps my spine tight and supported and I don’t release this contraction until the object is in place. Yeah, this can feel like a workout but remember the more you do this the stronger you get. You won’t need to spend an extra hour in the gym doing core exercises when your constantly doing them through out the day.

BOOM there you have it. I have 4 more tips you can take action on immediately but will save them for next week! Excited to get them out to you! Thanks for reading guys!

Question: Why do you think we experience back pain while cutting the grass? Give me a quick answer below and we will see if you got it in PART II of this series!

Talk to you soon!

William