How to Prevent Bad Back Pain

In order to understand how to prevent bad back pain, you must first know and understand what is causing it. The majority of back pain that many experience, is normally associated with an underlying problem with the sciatic nerve. However, there are some cases that are caused by over worked or sore muscles.

Since the majority of cases are due to sciatic nerve problems, here are some things to avoid, to prevent bad back pain.

1. Avoid carrying or lifting with your arms extended outward and in front of you away from the body.


2. When you are standing or sitting, avoid bending at the waist.


3. If possible avoid sitting for prolonged periods, if it is not possible, refrain from slouching.


4. Avoid lifting objects too heavy for you.


5. Avoid twisting repeatedly, or twisting repeatedly while holding a heavy object.


6. Weight lifting improperly such as, trying to jerk the weights up because they are too heavy for you.

Most problems with the sciatic nerve occur from improper lifting of heavy objects or twisting at the waist. When lifting heavy objects lift with the legs, do not use your back to lift. When twisting at the waist, whether standing or sitting, do it slowly, do not jerk the upper body around quickly.

Sitting for long periods can cause spinal decompression especially when you are sitting in a position where you are slouching or in some other improper position that causes the spine to arch forward. If you need to sit for extended periods, use some type of lumbar support pillow or cushion on your chair this can help keep you from slouching.

Exercise, ones designed to backward extend the spine, can help keep the discs and vertebrae in the lower spinal column in alignment. These are simple backward stretches done on a medicine ball, and believe it or not, if you are already experiencing bad back pain due to an underlying problem with the sciatic nerve, these stretches can help alleviate the pain.

If you are already a sufferer of sciatica or have problems with the discs in the lower back then, you should avoid high impact activities. Some of these activities would include, running, jogging, jumping, driving off the road, (mountain bike, dirt bike and atv's as well as any four-wheel drive vehicle) contact sports, winter-sports such as, skiing or sledding on uneven terrain, water sports such as, boating, water skiing, or jet skis in choppy waters.

High impact activities like the ones mentioned above, contribute to spinal decompression, and if you are already suffering from spinal decompression, you can make it more severe thus causing even more severe pain. If you suffer from, herniated discs, then these high impact activities can damage the discs further, and once again, worsen the pain you feel.

Statistics show that only about one in one hundred actually benefit from surgical procedures to repair damage to discs that are causing sciatic nerve pain, and also show that there is a chance that surgical procedures can also worsen the condition instead of helping it. So, all other avenues of treatment should be pursued before considering surgical procedures to correct lower back pain.