Back Safety

Although there are many components to health, there are a few back safety tips to prevent pain and injury. 

Obtain:

1. Regular exercise
2. Proper material handling techniques
3. Basic understanding of ergonomics
4. Chiropractic care

Step 1 Regular exercise

Benefits:

1. Easier to maintain a healthier body weight
Added pounds can put additional strain on your back.

2. Easier to maintain flexibility
Flexibility allows your body to move in full ranges of motion. 

3. Improves overall health
When you're physically balanced, your mental and social components of health often improve as well. Balanced health is the key for a healthy body. 

Comments

[fitness4life]

Along the lines of exercise and back safety, with weight lifting make sure to keep the back straight at all times (which was touched upon already). Usually this is done most easily by tensing your back and abs before lifting something (especially important in squats). And also make sure to work out the muscles in the front of your torso as much as the ones in the back. Otherwise, you get an imbalance which pulls your pelvis one way or another and causes back problems. Just thought I would add that little bit.

[nicoleb00]

thanks for the comment. I didn't go into great detail on specific exercises. i do believe balancing anterior and posterior muscles are important, however many individuals have tight hip flexors and weak gluts and hamstrings....actually most posterior muscles are weak including lats, rhomboids,etc. I believe stretching the tight muscles and strengthening the weak muscles will improve spinal health.