This is probably the most important topic we'll cover; how to identify the different types of pain and how your body communicates the level of severity.

You might be starting a new workout routine for this new year to become stronger & healthier, or hesitant to start one if you have recently experienced pain. Learning to recognize your pain can make the difference in knowing:

- When to start your workouts.

- How high or low to set your goals.

- How fast or slow to push your body.

- The difference between soreness vs. injury.

- What to give your body to properly recover and heal.

If you struggle with discomfort or pain in your back and shoulders, working out can be the last thing on your mind. However, as counterintuitive as it may seem, working out can be one of the best things that you can do to prevent back and shoulder pain, bad posture, or even serious damage in the future.

Knowing what exercises to do, how to incorporate them into your day, and when to give yourself a break can be the difference between a productive and comfortable day or a trip to the chiropractor.

Learn to Recognize Pain

Whether you’re a weightlifter, an athlete, or just have a demanding job, you know what it’s like to work through pain. Sometimes it’s what you have to do, and other-times it can actually make you feel better. However, that depends on the kind of pain that you have.

If you have a dull, aching pain that feels like it’s coming from a large area, this is just post-exercise soreness. It comes from light wear-and-tear and the natural build-up of waste products in your muscles from exercise. Doing light, flowing exercises like stretching can help to make this kind of pain go away. Not much to worry about, just light monitoring is required to know when the muscle is ready for the next workout.

If you have a sharp, stabbing pain that feels like it’s coming from a very small area, this could be the result of a muscle or tendon tear or rupture. This is serious. Try to rest and ice the area rather than working it. If the pain doesn’t go away or gets worse after a couple of days, talk to your trainer or your general care provider.

The core of your body is your foundation and is what keeps you strong, flexible, and active. Planks help by strengthening the muscle groups of your core regions, thus boosting your overall body strength; especially you back muscles.

The major muscle groups of your core include the:

-Abdominus (Abs)

-External Obliques (Next to the abs and below the ribcage)

-Erector Spinae (Mid Back)

Doing Planks regularly helps build your body’s high level of functional fitness while also reducing muscle strain and back pain. Having more control of your core improves your balance and gives you better posture.

Add Planks to your workout to strengthen your core and back muscles.

Taking care of your back while you train. 

If you have a 9-5 job which involves any physically activity, there is no doubt you are going to experience exhaustion with a certain level of back pain and fatigue. Back pain can drive you nuts, since it makes it difficult to perform daily chores. Therefore, you need to take ample care of your back so that you can seamlessly enjoy doing your work. Being physically fit boosts your mental health and can save you from mental disorders like add treatment and anxiety.

In the next few posts we’ll cover the 5 best training exercises to strengthen your back muscles to avoid pain and be more productive at work:

Deadlifts:

There is no doubt that deadlifts are an amazing workout technique that helps increase your muscle endurance and strengthens your entire body. If you look at the posture, and ergonomic motion of deadlifts exercises, you’ll notice that it is highly beneficial for people needing to lift heavy items or patients at work; jobs requiring repetitive squatting and lifting such as firefighters, warehouse workers, and package handlers, etc. It is also an easy workout to perform but the key is maintaining a straight back to keep your spine aligned correctly.

To perform the  basic technique:

Start by picking up a barbell from the floor, lift the bar to your knees, hold, then lower the bar and return it to the floor maintaining proper posture all the way through.

Proper posture in this position means:

• planting your feet flat on the floor,
• keeping a straight back,
• pushing off to lift with your legs,
• putting your weight on your heels,
• maintaining this posture all the way through.

Safely try the deadlifts next time you are at the gym or working out from home.

Most likely, you are reading this sitting down, and possibly in front of your desktop computer.

Back pain is such a typical part of life, people may think it is almost normal. About four in five people will suffer from lower back pain at some point in their lives. Herniated discs, strained muscles, and bad posture are the typical causes. People are more likely to miss work as a result of a sore back and it is a major reason people claim a job-related disability. Back pain ranges from minor to very serious and can feel very differently from one person to the next. Since it is so common, many people fail to take it seriously until the pain becomes an obstacle they cannot overcome.

The home and office environment are notorious for making back pain hard to manage or prevent. Changing the sleeping, sitting, or working spaces to accommodate a better ergonomic environment may be the only way people can continue to function. This requires research and close attention to the places where people spend most of their time. By making changes to the room and developing healthy habits, people can stop back pain from turning into a problem they cannot handle.

Home Office and Workspace Modifications for Back Pain

People thought shifting the primary means of work from a factory to an office would be easier on the body. However, decades of experience has shown the office environment can be as hard on a person’s back as fields requiring a lot of physical labor. Years of repetitive stress from sitting in an uncomfortable position can cause a lot of damage.

Start by evaluating your home work space. Take a look around and notice areas where clutter piles up, dim lighting or darks spaces. Notice the shape of the furniture you use while working, does it look to be design for support and comfort, or around home decorative trends? Pay close attention to the material it is made of, does it have a balance of structural support with cushion or padding?

All of these factors play a role on your mood, energy level, and amount of focus impacting your sitting posture.

People may spend as much time in the office as they do sleeping in bed, and in some cases more than that. This underscores the need to have a supportive work environment with a chair ideally set up for a person’s back. A few modifications to the chair and desk may make a significant difference in a person’s ability to function while they work. We’ll take a good look at your chair in a following post.

Helpful Habits in the Workplace

One of the biggest problems with back pain caused by a bad work environment is it tends to accumulate slowly. This means people may not notice they are causing back pain or injury from bad posture until it becomes quite pronounced. Most people expect to have a little discomfort after a long day at the office, and this can lead them to ignore signs of back problems on the horizon. It does not take a lot of work for people to identify what they may be doing wrong and form a plan to correct it. Understanding what it means to have a good posture makes it easier for people to develop a habit. Once they have this information, they can put it into practice in a way to ensure they will continue to have better muscle and joint health over time.

For additional tips on home modifications read the guide from Kris Lindahl Real Estate : https://www.krislindahl.com/back-pain-management-guide.php

Next, we’ll look at bad posture from sitting all day and how improper fit of your computer chair can lead to back pain.

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