Simple Ways to Prevent the Onset of Low Back Pain

• Engage in regular fitness activity. If you are sedentary, you may want to check with your physician if you have any health problems or are over the age of forty. Also, you may want to consult with a physical therapist for injury-prevention education and with a personal trainer for instruction in proper use of the equipment at the gym.
• If you sit for long periods of time, interrupt your sitting regularly to get up and move around. If your work requires a lot of sitting, space out such activities as filing, faxing, or running short errands through the office periodically through the day.
• Consider taking a walk on your lunch break. · Be certain you have a good sitting position at work or in your car. Your knees should not be higher than your hips and make a habit of keeping your hips toward the back of the chair. This prevents slouching. Consider the use of a lumbar roll to keep a good sitting posture.
• If you have access to an ergonomist or an ergonomic evaluation at your work site, take advantage of any recommendations they may have.
• If you are gardening or performing any other activity that requires prolonged or repeated bending at the waist, straighten your back often and walk around. Intermittently perform a standing backward bending activity (place hands in the small of your back and bend backwards 5-10 times). This offsets the constant pressure in the back caused by bending forward and takes less than a minute to do every twenty to thirty minutes.
• When lifting an object from the ground:

  Get as close as possible to the object.

  Bend your knees while you maintain a hollow in your back, keeping your back erect as you squat.

  Straighten the knees, not the back, as you lift the object upward.

  Pivot your feet and do not twist the back as you move the object to another location.

  As you lower the object to the ground or other surface, get as close as you can to the surface onto which the object is to be placed.

  Bend your knees and squat as you lower the object, while maintaining the hollow in your back.

• After physical activity, avoid slouched postures immediately following the activity as your body cools down. Often, this is the time low back pain develops, not during the physical activity itself.

Reprinted with Permission
Rothman Institute
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