moving your loved one into a nursing home

3 Tips For Keeping Your Back Strong

1 October 2015

Alisa Mantyla

Dealing with a back injury can be frustrating, if not debilitating. When your back is stiff and inflamed, it makes it hard to do anything at all. Regardless of whether your back was injured in a car accident or you simply pulled it by lifting something too heavy, you need to take action to help strengthen your back and get back to doing all the things you enjoy. Here are a few different tips you can use to get your back into shape and minimize future injuries.

Stretch Out

If you are someone who sits in an office chair for hours on end during the day, you need to get up and move. Oftentimes, people end up slumping over their desk because it feels comfortable to them. Instead of constantly slumping over, you should move around a bit every 20 minutes. Stretch yourself out in the opposite direction. By stretching backward, you can keep your back mobile and prevent it from stiffening up on you. You might even benefit from partaking in a yoga class on a weekly basis.

Physical Therapy

If your injuries were from some type of accident, you might want to go through physical therapy to help restore movement and mobility to your back. Physical therapy can help to manipulate the back and work out any knots or kinks that might have occurred from straining or contorting the back out of position. The therapist will walk you through strengthening exercises to help get your back into proper condition and form, without overdoing it all at once. Contact a company like Hillcrest Nursing Center for more information.

Improve Your Health

Smoking will increase the likelihood of developing osteoporosis in your spine. Once osteoporosis sets in, there is a good chance that you are going to find yourself dealing with compression fractures. Individuals who smoke tend to suffer with more back pain than their nonsmoking counterparts.

Another thing to consider when looking to keep your back strong and healthy is to lose weight. Having extra weight will cause more stress and strain on your back than if you are healthy and in shape. Start a diet and exercise program to get within a healthy range for your height, age and gender.

While some back injuries cannot be prevented, you can do your part to minimize their chance of occurring or affecting you to the point where you are left with debilitating pain for an extended period of time.

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