It doesn’t take a degree to stay healthy, but any physiotherpist, doctor in training or FNP online program student will teach you that spinal health is vital to anyone who wants to stay active and pain-free. At some point in our lives, over 20% of people will deal with some type of spinal degeneration or injury, and nearly 30% deal with recurring or regular back pain.
Luckily, back pain is usually treatable, and sometimes curable. But unlike many illnesses, there is rarely any medication, surgery, or other quick fix. Healing and maintaining a healthy spine is something that takes consistent, daily practice and attention – prevention is the key.
Exercise
When it comes to keeping your spine, or indeed nearly any part of your body in peak condition, there is no substitute for regular exercise. This goes double for those looking to keep their backbone in tip top shape. Lower back strength is especially important for those looking to heal or avoid back pain, as this is the area of the spine most frequently at the heart of painful chronic conditions.
In general, most cardio or core-intensive exercise can help you keep your back in good condition. Generally speaking, when most people hear cardio, they think of running, but unfortunately this is rarely a good solution for those seeking prevention or treatment of degenerative spinal conditions. Running is an extremely high impact exercise, meaning that it puts stress on joints and can potentially cause compression of intervertebral discs.
Luckily, there are plenty of alternatives to running that are still available to those suffering from back pain. Swimming is a popular choice, and not for no reason. It’s one of the most low-impact exercises possible, making it a convenient option for those looking to maximally reduce any potential damage to the spine (or any other part of the body, for that matter). It’s also an incredible full-body workout, serving to strengthen arms, legs, and core all at once. And, conveniently, it’s recognized as being just as effective at promoting positive mental health outcomes as running, releasing plenty of endorphins and giving off the same “high” experienced by committed runners.
Rowing is another exercise that has been proven to be good for spinal health. Like running and swimming, it promotes great cardiovascular and overall health. It shares the additional benefit of providing a full-body workout with swimming, engaging arms, legs, and core simultaneously. And of course, like the others, it has demonstrated great benefits for mental health, too. This is especially important given the comorbidity between spinal issues and mental health problems. On top of these more easily measurable benefits, rowing also helps promote proper posture, another crucial aspect of maintaining good spinal health.
Posture
Maintaining proper posture is absolutely vital to keeping your spine in good shape, and a frequent cause of both back problems and a host of other chronic issues that plague the chronically slouchy amongst us. But it’s not just slouchers that feel this pain; indeed, many people have every intention of practicing good posture, but just don’t get it quite right. For better or worse, posture is something that has to be practiced in a specific and disciplined fashion in order to obtain favorable health outcomes.
In a world with an increasing amount of people working at desks, good sitting posture and a quality chair are absolutely crucial to maintaining a pain-free back.
If you have trouble maintaining good posture at your desk, it’s often recommended to make use of a yoga ball to help correct posture. Using the right chair with lumbar support and sufficient adjustability can make a big difference too. If you’re not keen on fancy chairs, it’s always a good idea to use a sit-stand desk to minimize time sitting. We can’t recommend this option enough, as sitting too much has been demonstrated to be associated with a whole host of negative health outcomes.