Low back pain is a common ailment that can significantly impact your quality of life. In fact, low back pain is the most common cause of pain and disability across the world.
In this guide, we’ll delve into the top 10 tips that can help you improve and prevent low back pain. From simple adjustments at work, regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, these tips can help you manage your symptoms and minimise the risk of low back pain.
1. Move regularly
Regular movement of the spine is the single best way to reduce the risk of and improve low back pain symptoms. This movement can include simple exercises like flexing forward to touch your toes and arching your back to open and close the spinal joints while stretching muscles, nerves, and ligaments. Inactivity and lack of movement significantly increase the risk of developing low back pain. Therefore, regular movement throughout the day is the best way to keep the spine healthy and to maintain the flexibility of ligaments, muscles, and soft tissues.
2. Stay active at your desk
If you work at a desk, make sure to get out of your chair regularly, as sitting in sustained postures for long periods is not good for the spine. Whether you maintain a good posture or a bad one, there is no substitute for moving out of the static position you are in during your working hours. Research suggests that your discs, ligaments and muscles start to degrade if you remain in a static posture. By doing some basic movements every 20-30 minutes, such as touching the floor and arching your back a few times or standing in a flexed position can be very helpful. Sitting at a desk for eight or nine hours will not be good for your back in the long term, no matter how good your chair is!
3. Walk
Taking regular walks has been shown to have a very positive effect on the spine, and most musculoskeletal structures within the body. Walking two or three times a day, even if they’re relatively short, can help maintain the stability and muscular strength around the spine, as well as its flexibility and the normal pressures it is designed to tolerate. Additionally, walking is good for your mental health, digestion, heart, lungs, and overall wellbeing. Even walking for 5 or 10 minutes can significantly benefit your wider health.
4. Don’t rely on painkillers
Specifically anti-inflammatories. When people get low back pain, they often reach for medication such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or stronger versions. Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with this, regularly taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories is not good for your back or your internal organs. Painkillers do not address the underlying cause of the back issue. Although they may help to reduce the pain to allow you to function, in the long term, it is far better to understand the cause and implement lifestyle changes rather than rely solely on medication. Seeing a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist is very sensible if you find yourself relying on painkillers and anti-inflammatories to get through each day.
5. Do regular exercise
Growing research shows that regular exercise, including strength training, is highly beneficial for the spine. As with any exercise, it’s important to start gently and progressively build up the resistance, repetition and frequency. If you start a new exercise regime too soon and intensely, you can risk injury. Therefore, taking things gently and building up over a longer period will reduce the risk of injury and provide significant long-term health benefits for your spine, muscles, and joints.
6. Don’t lay about all day
Inactivity has been shown to be one of the biggest risk factors for low back pain. The more inactive someone is, the more likely they are to present with low back issues. This may be because the spine becomes accustomed to having pressure and the muscles become weaker over time. Additionally, if bones and joints aren’t used regularly, the joints deteriorate and even bone density can reduce. Therefore, spending all day in bed or laying on the sofa will not help you in terms of low back pain. Getting up, getting out, and getting active are the three things that you can do, even if you start small, to reduce the risk of developing low back pain.
7. Don’t smoke
Numerous studies show that tobacco smoking negatively affects the lower back, particularly the quality of tissue around the lumbar discs, ligaments and muscles. Research indicates a high likelihood of direct negative impact on the discs between the bones in lower back, increasing the risk of disc prolapses or bulges, commonly referred to as a “slipped disc”. Therefore, if you do smoke, it is vital you quit. And if you don’t smoke, it’s important to avoid starting.
8. Maintaining a healthy weight is important
Those who are significantly overweight have an increased likelihood of developing low back pain issues due to the extra pressure on the joints, ligaments and muscles. Adopting a healthy lifestyle to maintain a healthy weight is a really good way to reduce the risk of you suffering with low back pain.
9. If you get a twinge in the back, don’t panic
Almost everyone will experience back pain at some point in their life. Low back pain is quite natural given the many joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons in a relatively small area, and significant, pressure the back endures from day-to-day activities. It is not surprising that muscles can become tight, ligaments sore and joints stiff. In the vast majority of cases, these issues recover naturally with time. If you experience a twinge or pain in your back, allowing things to settle with relative rest and adding gentle movement over a matter of days or one to two weeks. If things don’t improve, that’s when it’s worth seeking some advice.
10. Seek help if things aren’t improving
If you have low back pain that has been present for some time and is not improving, it is worth seeking professional advice from a musculoskeletal specialist. Physiotherapists are specifically trained in musculoskeletal problems and are well equipped to assess, advise and educate you on the best way to manage your back and overall musculoskeletal system. While it is rare, low back pain can sometimes be caused by other issues. If your pain is not improving after a few weeks of an acute or new episode of low back pain, it is advisable to seek professional advice from a qualified physiotherapist or your GP.
Acute episodes of back pain should settle typically within eight weeks or, in many cases, much quicker. However, understanding the cause and how to best manage this is very important. If the pain has been persistent over a long period, seeking professional advice is a very sensible step and one which may mitigate the risk of further pain in the future.
Author – Phin Robinson, Founder & Director of Pure Physiotherapy.
Pure Physiotherapy can support you with any musculoskeletal concerns you may have. Our clinics located throughout the UK are here to help.