I am sick of my back hurting! What should I do?
My back has been killing me slowly for a long time (like over a year) and I am finally willing to do something about it. I am only 38 years old dang it! That is too young to have a bad back. My problems are I sit all day, don't really excercise and eat....well not healthy but not terrible either (alright maybe terrible). Vitals (in case that matters) I am 215lbs, 5'9".
It is really only my lower back which aches all the time. I get up and I feel like I need to hunch over for a minute to loosen up and generally it feels painful. So what is really going to be the best thing to help? Walking 2-3 times a day for 10-15 minutes? Losing a few pounds? I have also heard that it is important to strengthen your core by situps and stuff on the front to help the back? I have also thought about rearranging my desk so I have a standing desk because I thought it might be prolonged sitting more than weight which is doing me in.
Anyone else tackle a similar problem and have good advice to share?
When I first got a desk job I had back problems like crazy as well. After I began exercising regularly the back problems went away. I didn't even drop weight that quickly only losing 20 pounds over the course of a year. I also didn't kill myself in the gym. 30 minutes a day 3 to 5 times a week and now the muscle pains are gone.
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See a doctor. I mean actually go to one and have him or her check you out. Don't just look at the doctor because that won't work.
Could be your bed, the way you stand, the way you sit, picking up crap wrong, or stress. Could be cancer also or some other nasty thing. My personal back pain was caused by how I was sleeping.
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Well, you're obviously aware of your problems. Sitting lets your hip flexors shorten and tighten, also adjusting the tilt of your pelvis leading to poor posture.
Here's a few thoughts:
* Frequent breaks to stand and stretch
* Make sure you use proper posture while sitting
* Core training will certainly be of use. Current research on this though is that repetitive flexion isn't really good for the spine. Core strength is ultimately about supporting the body so resistance to motion is great core work, meaning push ups are a great core strengthening exercise for example.
* Losing weight would also be great
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I want to know the least I can do!
To stop the pain, probably the best, single, thing you can do is to quit your job - or make it so that you're not sitting all day. With your size/weight - sitting 8+hours a day is not good for the spine...
Second to that - walk every day - at least 30 minutes. In good shoes (preferably Vibram Five Fingers).
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I love Vibram's they are so odd looking. I doubt I would ever ware they in public but they look neat.
This is advice I have heard before...and I hate it. (even if it is right)
Get home at 5pm, eat and play with kids, put them to bed 8-9pm. So now I have 1-2 hours do actually do something I want to do. I could play video games, watch TV with my wife, or excercise. I am at the point where I am going to have do it because the pain in getting to be...well a pain. I just hate giving up my video game time, oh and the wife thing too.
lose weight
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Probably time to adjust your seating arrangement. Is space an issue?
Or what Mex said.
Pyroman wrote:
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Do what I do - combine gaming and exercise.
Alternatively, there's no reason that you can't combine exercise and playing with your kids (assuming they're not infants). Take them to the park and play soccer/tag/whatever. Run around like a loon for half an hour with them. They'll probably enjoy the heck out of it.
Could you fit exercise into your lunch break? Eat a sandwich while you take a brisk walk for a half hour.
Option 4: a DS works perfectly well on an exercise bike.
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LarryC wrote:
Good ideas. If I am creative I can hopefully figure out how to integrate exercise in to my day.
Sit on a ball?
Pyroman wrote:
Gravey wrote:
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This, though I would emphasize that losing weight would not just be great, it is probably key. The human back is just not made to support being overweight without complaint. For someone at 5'9", dropping below 175 would solve most of your problems.
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So you really want to know the least you can do? I haven't had back problems in a long time, and I don't regularly do what I'm advising here anymore (but I did for a while) and I still do it once in a while if I feel stiff in the lower back. I'll start with the trick and then explain the story.
The actual exercise is to sit on the bed, and crack your back left, then right. You know, twist until you get some good cracks out of it, but don't do anything crazy that might hurt you. Then, and this is the key, you need to lay down motionless on the bed, don't use any of your back muscles at all for 15 minutes. Works well to do it just before going to bed, if you can keep yourself flat on your back for at least 15 minutes.
Story time. My dad when he was younger had terrible lower back problems. To the point that he had to lay down on the floor in his office during the day just to make it through the pain. He went to tons of doctors, all kinds of crazy suggestions, medications, various surgery options, but nothing worked and he didn't want to have spines fused or whatever they tried to do. He finally found a doctor who assigned a complex set of exercises--stretches mostly. To his amazement this did the trick. Then he started removing exercises, since there were quite a few, and he wasn't convinced they were all needed. Through trial and error, he isolated the crack back and then rest one to be the only one he needed to do for his back problems.
The doctor explained to him why it was supposed to work (mind you this is from like 50 years ago) and I can't verify the accuracy, but I'll pass it along for what it's worth. He said that the back muscles get contracted in knots around the spine, and can never really reset properly. Cracking your back stretches them pretty good, but if you use the muscles they just snap back in the knotted mess they were in. Completely resting the back after the cracking lets them "untangle" a bit.
Could be bunk but it worked for him and worked for me. Perhaps it's just a mind over matter thing and if someone proved this doesn't work it will suddenly stop working! (so give it a shot before the nay-sayers come in and explain why there is no way this can work)
Also - walking counts as exercise - 30 minutes a day will work wonders.
Malor wrote:
The benefit in cracking a joint, near as I can tell, is that you're stretching those muscles around the joint. Try actually stretching those and I bet results will be even better.
Pyroman wrote:
Gravey wrote:
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My experience is that you can't sufficiently stretch it far enough without cracking, at least in my case. Everyone probably has different thresholds of when their back cracks. Just saying what works for me.
As for the second easiest thing to do, you could diet to lose weight. I'm not sure this will help your problem, but it would be good in many other ways. The easiest thing you can do is cut out the simple carbs. Complex carbs are good, simple bad. Remove all sugar, white flour, corn (including corn syrup, if it wasn't obvious), and simple starches like potatoes, and also beans (including tofu) and I promise you will shed weight so fast you will be annoyed you have to buy new clothes. Most people can't give up those simple things though, but if you can it's so easy to lose fat. Most people also cheat without realizing it. Fruit juice? The devil's nectar. Almost all breakfast cereals, gone. Eat bacon and eggs for breakfast instead, it sounds insane but if you can switch hardcore for 2 weeks you will be amazed at the results.
I was starting to get chunky when I went on a health kick about a year ago after doing tons of research into diet. Now I'm back down to 10% bodyfat, probably what I was in college. Minimal exercise, diet is the key.
Fix your posture and go for regular (like once a month or so) deep tissue massage. With this simple recipe you can avoid undue hardships such as exercise
A lot of back pain is caused by either the back being stronger than the stomach or the stomach being stronger than the back. If you got a good and healthy, lovable gut going, you might have a hint at what you need to do!
I know I do.
I had very similar back pains a few years ago. The suggestions in this thread are generally the right ones.
First, you should go see a doctor, and preferably not a quack. The doctor will probably tell you that you should lose some weight -- consider it, because that will help avoid a lot of back pain.
My doctor said I have a slipped disk, and he prescribed physical therapy and told me to get a standing desk at work. At physical therapy they taught me "core" training and a series of stretching exercises. At work I was able to get a desk that converts between a sitting desk and a standing desk at the push of a button (very fun to play with).
All of these things seemed to help, and my back is generally fine now. When my back starts hurting sometimes, I'll do a bunch of the stretching exercises, and that usually helps.
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Ibuprofen 600mg three times daily, strengthen your core, and lose the gut. Its nothing sexy or fun, but at 38 you have to decide to just do it or it'll get worse. If you're 5'9" and weigh 215 pounds, think of it as carrying a 40 pound weight around your lower back all day. Makes my back hurt thinking about it.
Do you have access to a treadmill? Jogging would help alot.
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I had the same issue. I'm a reasonable weight and exercise pretty regularly, so I was sorta at a loss. Went to the doctor, he recommended a series of back stretches and sitting up straight (really straight, like people laugh at me and ask "Are you a Marine or something?" straight). Those two things pretty much did it for me.
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No, just... no. Retain your manlihood. Do some f*cking situps, or get a treadmill and do 30 minutes a day. And eat (semi)healthy.
I have a full-time job in which I work at home, at my computer desk, for 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week. I eat healthy for breakfast and lunch and do between 60-100 situps a day or at least every other day (with my arms across my chest, not behind my head, that's cheating ... sort of). I also have some light dumbells that I use for bicep and tricep exercises. Then for dinner I eat and drink (
) whatever I want.
You can do this.
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That can be really bad on your stomach when taken that much. I use 600-800 mg occasionally when I have bad muscle pain, and it works great, but 3 times a day is too much unless prescribed by a doctor.
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Yoga works too. Ever tried "the plank"?
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You could try a new bed. My back has been feeling wonderful since I've gotten used to my new bed.
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+1
Stretching for all of 10 minutes in the evening will help anyone. Just google "back stretches" or some such thing.
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I suffer from a bad back. I'm 32. My father has severe back pains. The things I do and have helped:
- Probably the easiest thing to do - try changing your work seating arrangement a bit. Like try a different chair, move your keyboard and monitor a bit if you don't have a symmetrical desk. Try a different mouse. Lower or raise your armrests, if you have those. Raise or lower your seat or your monitor. Try a different keyboard. You're spending so much time at your desk at work, even a little change can work wonders.
- Switch jobs. Most of my problems went away with my current job. The difference is that I don't sit at my desk all day anymore, I move a lot around the office, although it's still basically a desk job.
- I use a saddle chair at home when I'm at the PC. It keeps me from slumping.
- I watch my sitting posture. I still catch myself all the time form sitting badly, but at least I notice it now and don't end up hunched over all day. This applies to the desk, the pc, the bed and crucially, the sofa.
- I'm not telling you to not exercise, but for me, when I exercised regularly (running, the gym), it didn't really help me with my back problems.
- When you're crippled with pain (happens to me maybe every other month), go see a doctor once you're able to sit up. I got muscle relaxants and prescription ibuprofein. I take these whenever I can feel a cramp coming on, perhaps once every other week. The drugs have kept me from being unable to go to work.
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