Back Pain - Why Not Think Ergonomic Solutions?

Back pain is one of the main reasons why people take time off work and why? It is because we spend too much time in sedentary, sloppy positions, doing very little movement and letting our muscles become lax and under-used.

We have become a society that drives around in cars - to the shops, to the gym, to work. We use elevators to go upstairs, hire dog-walkers to exercise our dogs, and then take blood pressure tablets, because our hearts are not energetic enough to pump sufficient blood around our arteries! We have become docile, inactive humans that do not understand why we need correct movements in our bodies.

It doesn't have to be this way. If we 'do' more and learn how use our bodies correctly, so that we protect our skeletal joints; become more energy efficient about movement, that will keep our bodies safe from injuries, when performing our normal functional activities each day. We will then become more active and alive, suffer less aches and pains and lose weight that develops a more positive health cycle.

The term for this is ergonomics. It is about how we use our bodies in relation to the equipment in the environment, so that we can develop an understanding about how to move correctly in daily living.

I encourage readers to consider taking up yoga. Yoga teaches about balance and movement; allowing the physical body to relax into safe positions, focusing the mind for the purpose of an calm inner self. Yoga has excellent movements, as well as the correct breathing to learn. All the movements you learn from me all originate from yoga, I use all the movements in my daily activity.

If you hurt too much for Yoga, then I will introduce you to understand Ergonomics. I want you to first learn how to sit without a backrest. This can be done by sitting at the front of your seat, or using a stool, or getting on your bicycle and taking a bike ride. You could also try sitting on the floor with your legs crossed.

Now lean back, so that all your body weight goes directly down to your spine, from your pelvic area up to your head; you are now sitting ergonomically. It does not require any muscle tension and you can sit like this for as long as you want.

I now want you to see how long you can sit like this and time yourself. Remember that the pressure on your abdomen will deplete the oxygen supply from the area and your body will soon be asking for more oxygen. That is normal, so lean to the left and put all your weight on one pelvic bone - like reaching to pick up a glass of water. Take a swig of it and then reach over to your right side and put it down.

This is an ergonomic or functional movement, because you are using the balance of your body in ergonomic sitting, to stretch and change the balance in your body for comfort that creates a functional purpose to the movement. By taking a drink of water, you are hydrating your body and changing the balance position of your body that allows oxygenated blood to replenish one side of your abdomen and then the other side for comfort.

(If you are sitting on a bicycle, pedaling creates the movement that your body needs for replenishing oxygen in your body, for comfortable sitting.)

Nobody has ever died from doing too much movement. We have the capability of doing far more than we realize. We only need practice and rest for us to develop our bodies in however we choose to 'do'.

What we do die of is not 'doing' enough of the right movements that create all the medical problems of today.