What You Really Need To Know
Vic Vogel
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) reports that eight out of ten people will experience back pain.[1] According to NIAMS risk increases for the following reasons:
Spine diagram
- Getting older, normally beginning at age 40 and up
- Poor physical fitness
- Obesity
- Inherited diseases such as disc disease
- Other disease e.g., cancer and arthritis
- Your job, e.g. heavy lifting, lifting and twisting
- Smoking, your body does not get enough nutrients due to nicotine and other smoke chemicals inhibiting cell growth
A study conducted by the International Social Security Association The U.S. Study of Work Incapacity[2]
Stated, “A substantial percentage of those who apply for and are awarded DI benefits and SSI disability benefits allege that they are unable to work because of back problems”. Additionally the studied indicated, “More than 40 percent of the injuries and illnesses resulting in time away from work were sprains or strains, most often involving the back.”. This indicates the amount of back pain reported. Back pain is an issue for everyone.
It is clear that physical fitness plays a large role in back pain. The previous list shows poor physical fitness, obesity, and degenerative diseases are directly related to fitness conditioning. Given 8 out of 10 people will experience back pain, it makes sense to take steps to prevent back pain, and reduce its affect. The NIAMS recommends some back pain preventive measures:
- Exercise often and keep your back muscles strong.
- Maintain a healthy weight or lose weight if you weigh too much.
- To have strong bones, you need to get enough calcium and vitamin D every day.
- Try to stand up straight and avoid heavy lifting when you can. If you do lift something heavy, bend your legs and keep your back straight.
Preventing and reducing back pain is another reason to embrace Total Fitness™ mentioned by Vic Vogel in his book, Building A Strategy For Fitness: A Model To Reach And Sustain Total Fitness & Health, (Amazon.com 2009). Vic emphasizes a total fitness approach for health. Total fitness involves implementing his model:
Education + Nutrition + Optimal Movement = Total Fitness™
Back pain prevention involves understanding back pain, the physiology of the spine, and muscles supporting the spine and back. Second, it requires good nutritional habits to provide nutrients the body needs to build strong muscles and bones. Last, it is important to become active through both exercise and daily activities (Optimal Movement™). You can visit Strategy For Fitness.com to find more information on nutrition, fitness, and some specific back exercises you can do at work.
The best back prevention exercises involve building strong core muscles, and emphasize posture. Core development emphasizes more than the traditional abs exercises. Exercises such as the plank movement and Pilates are exercises that build both oblique, internal stomach muscles, and back muscles.
An additional activity that compliments exercise is dancing. Classical dances require excellent posture habits and core strength to execute the moves correctly. Dancing is an excellent example of combining exercise with fun for Optimal Movement™.
[1] www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Back_Pain/default.asp
[2] http://search.ssa.gov/search?q=back+pain+percentage+ssi&btnG=Go&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&client=default_frontend&entqr=0&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&proxyreload=1&ud=1&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=default_frontend
