This Single Mistake Brings Most People Crawling Into My Office
Every day I have a new person in our office complaining of pain in his/her back. Every day one of those people describes how the injury occurred and we see a similar mechanism. It is a frequent problem that usually happens when you want to accomplish something quickly instead of carefully.
This mistake causes injury to the spinal discs, leading to disc herniation and bulging, sciatic pain, and other nasty injuries.
This mistake is the combination of bending and twisting.
It happens all the time….
You notice something on the floor that you want to pick up. It’s off to the side and you just think that you can grab it while slightly twisting and lifting. Shouldn’t be a problem right? Or you pick up an object and you simply twist to put it away – again, no big deal right?
Definitely wrong!
These lifting techniques will eventually cause problems in the spine for everyone who practices them. If you want to be free of back pain, or heal from a spine already injured, then you’ll want to make sure that you are never bending and twisting ever again.
Why: Bending and twisting in the spine causes 2 main injuries, muscle strains and spasms. It can also cause disc injuries. The large muscles along the spine are very sensitive to twisting motions and this activity can lead to painful muscle spasms that will put you on the sidelines for a few days. But that’s not the worst of it. The discs in between the spine are compressed to a point that they can begin to bulge or herniate. When this happens, painful sciatica can occur that will cause pain and injury for 1-2 years for some people. You never want that to happen so, bottom line, don’t bend and twist.
What do you do about it?
It’s one thing to understand what not to do, but true success comes from knowing what TO DO and practice that over and over again.
So what are the steps to lifting well without hurting your spine and creating problems that could linger forever? Use my FCTB Method to lift without injury. Honestly, I didn’t invent the method, it’s just a combination of the best standards of lifting loads correctly.
- Always Face your load. When it’s time to pick something up, you must always face it and never perform any twisting motion to pick something up off the floor. Simply face the object then grab it.
- Keep loads Close to you: the farther away the object is from the body, the heavier it will be. Keep it close, save your spine.
- When putting a load down or placing it in a new location, Turn your entire body; do not ever twist to put something away.
- Bend at the knees AND hips, NOT the lower back. If you only bend the knees, the knees will be placed in a position that will cause more wear and tear on the knee. If you only bend at the back, you will place so much pressure on your spine that you will eventually cause significant injury.
Face your load. Stay close to your load. Turn your body and bend at the knees. If you follow the FCTB method for safe lifting, you will prevent the most common injury we see in our office. You will not only relieve pain but you will keep back pain from being a problem forever.
We at Tompkins Family Chiropractic are committed to helping you to live beyond pain relief. Yes, relieving pain is a good goal, but if things are really going to change for you, you must live beyond the pain, improving your health in the process. Take specific steps to not only feel better, but to achieve real health. You’ll lose weight, feel better, and prevent pain forever.
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Dr. Emil Tompkins.
Have a look at this article: 6 Steps to Improve Mental Health Without Medication
