How to Have A Healthy Back?

Regular exercise is one of the best ways you can prevent back pain. Good body mechanics, or moving properly, as you sit, stand, bend over, pick things up, and push and pull furniture are also important. Repetitive motions, if performed incorrectly over time, can cause joint strain and injury. You aren’t helpless against back pain. What you do daily makes a powerful difference. Small changes can go a long way to preventing debilitating pain. Observe the following basic tips for a lifetime of back health.

• Exercise regularly: Following a consistent, balanced exercise program will go a long way toward keeping you fit and strong.
• Use good posture: You can practice good posture every waking moment and improve your posture. Naturally, you aren’t going to remember every minute, but the more times that you catch yourself slouching, the more often you can correct yourself and use your core stabilizers.
• Move properly: The most common way people injure their backs is when they bend over, pick something up, and turn their body as they stand. Practice good movement mechanics whenever you lift, bend, or pick up and carry anything. Even if you pick up a pencil, use good movement habits. That way when you pick up something that is heavier, you’re much more likely to do it properly.
• Check your desk setup: Make sure your desk at the office and at home is set up according to good ergonomic principles. Make sure that your chair fits your body and that your computer and monitor are positioned so that as you work, you use good posture.
• Use a headset: Many people spend a lot of time talking on the phone and bending their necks into awkward positions. Your head weighs anywhere from 8 to 12 pounds. If you hold it improperly, you can affect your overall posture. Use headsets whenever possible, especially for extended conversations.
• Use a backpack: People often carry heavy and unbalanced loads on their shoulders. Balance the weight by using a good quality backpack and avoid carrying things that are too heavy.
• Buy furniture that offers support: Every chair or couch that you sit on affects your posture, particularly if it’s a piece of furniture that you use often. A good bed is also important, because you spend one-third of your life sleeping, and if you’re not getting good support, it will affect your posture. Make sure the furniture in your life is also supporting a healthy back and good posture.

Core Programs for Good Balance and a Healthy Back

More than 80 percent of adults in North America suffer from back pain at some point in their adult life. That statistic is staggering. In the United States, back pain is the leading cause of disability from work. One major American corporation spent $75 million in only one year to pay healthcare providers who treated employees with low back pain. Back pain is often related to poor posture and lack of stability in the spine, due to weak core muscles. In addition, poor postural stability over the years eventually leads to balance problems in later years. Increasingly, older adults are suffering from falls or from the fear of falling. The same contributing factors that present as a pain in the back when you’re younger, can lead to a broken hip or permanent use of a walker when you’re older. One out of every three people over age 65 falls at least once a year. Twenty five percent of people over the age of 50 who break a hip die from a fall within the first year after the accident. About 50 percent of those who break their hips never regain full walking ability. That should get your attention. The loss of balance and postural control doesn’t happen overnight, but occurs slowly over the years, as the muscles that support good posture grow weaker.
Just as you need to take preventive measures against osteoporosis and muscle wasting, you need to act now to preserve your sense of equilibrium for the future. Better balance also serves you well in dozens of sports, from mountain biking to rock climbing to in-line skating. You’ll catch on to these activities more quickly and avoid injuries that would befall those with a shakier sense of balance.
More and more health clubs are adding classes onto their schedules that incorporate core training and balance exercises and use balance training equipment.

How to set up your home gym for quickies?

If you think you’ll need quickie workouts from time to time to keep up your conditioning; then streamlining your home gym is essential. If you only have ten minutes to exercise, you don’t want to spend six of those minutes trying to find where you put your exercise bands. Management of your home gym space is critical for successful quickies. The following tips help ensure that your home exercise space is ideal for quickies.

• Consistent space: If space permits, the ideal situation is to have a dedicated space that’s only used for your exercise sessions. In many homes, however, space is at a premium. If you can’t allocate a spot only for exercise, at a minimum choose a place that you use consistently and that’s large enough for your movement needs.
• Storage containers for equipment: You must have proper storage for your equipment in order to find it quickly and to avoid accidents. Storage is particularly important when it comes to dumbbells because other family members or you may trip over randomly placed equipment. For every type of equipment that you purchase — dumbbells, bands, tubing, stretch straps, mats — you need to have a place for it to belong. Store dumbbells on racks and use baskets or crates for bands, tubing, and stretch straps.
• Workout plans or log: You want to be able to do your routine immediately. If you haven’t memorized it, you need to reference it quickly and easily. If you keep a workout log, keep it with all of your equipment. All of your workout design resources (such as this book) should also be easily available.

• Clock or timer: If you know that time is always going to be an issue, keep a clock visible either in or near your workout area. As an alternative, keep a timer and set it for 10 or 15 minutes or whatever you’ve allocated, so you’ll stay within your time budget and be sure to complete your planned exercises.