News and Features
Bad Work Habits
As I have said before back and neck pain are rarely the result of one injury or incident. One of the keys to having a healthy spine is understanding that most spinal injuries are the result of the cumulative effects of months or even years of:
- poor posture
- faulty body mechanics
- stressful living and working habits
- loss of flexibility and strength
- general lack of physical fitness
A chiropractor is able to get you back to work rapidly and often you will not need to be off work at all whilst you are undergoing treatment. But a chiropractor’s nightmare is someone who has or does:
- stooped posture
- slumped sitting
- improper lifting
- twisting
- weak abdominal muscles
- tight hamstring muscles
- emotional tension
- smoker
not because we can not help these patients but because they will need a lot of care and advice, which from their point of view means a lot of time, effort and money. My heart goes out to their spine as they are under such strain most of the day.
So if I could get you to change some of these habits then I hopefully will have prevented a problem in your spine.
Here are some things that I would like you to avoid ( some of these you will have already read about in previous articles):
- Do not jolt your spine unnecessarily by jumping out of your truck, or off a high object
- Do not get your knees in the way when you lift
- Do not lift with a flexed(bent) back and/or neck
- Do not lift with the weight to far away
- Do not use your back to lift a load but your legs
- Do not reach for a heavy load
- Do not bend at the waist when shoveling , but at the hips and knees
- Do not stand in one spot and throw the load, but turn and step to keep your hips and shoulders moving on the same direction
- Do not keep a shovel away from your body, but keep the load close to your center of gravity
- Do not twist whilst keeping your lower half still as this twists your low back
- Do not lean over, whether standing or sitting, for long periods of time
- Do not twist your neck to look behind you
- Do not sit too far away from your work so that you are in effect reaching
- Do not sit with your low back unsupported
- Do not leisurely lean away from your work when sitting as this cause your neck to bend forwards into a stressful position just to be able to see.
- Do not stand or sit in one position for too long
- Do not thrust your head and neck forwards when you read, especially if you wear bifocals
- Do not work overhead for long periods of time with your neck bent backwards
- Do not stand with your knees locked, stomach muscles relaxed, and your back swayed
- Do not stand bent forward at the waist or neck with your work in a low position
As you can see I could go on for ever but I think this should help you avoid a spinal injury. If however you do get a spinal injury please make sure you get it treated as soon as possible by a chiropractor because the longer you have an injury the longer it will take to treat it.
