Do you find that housework can literally be a pain? Daily household activities such as ironing, washing dishes and vacuuming can lead to serious body discomfort and in particular, back pain. We can offer you preventative measures to protect your body from such discomfort, and reducing the probability of pain from household activities.
Regardless if you’re picking up weights whilst at the gym or simply reaching for your groceries; it’s important to consider your lifting technique to minimise potential for pain and injury. Ensure you are bending from your knees and not simply bending from your waist when reaching for your groceries, and keep your items close to your body. When needing to place items, step into the direction of your turn. This avoids straining your spine and body from excess twisting.
While ironing or washing your dishes, place a stool under the ironing board, or attempt to raise your foot opening a cabinet under the sink. By having one bent leg, your body maintains and upright position removing some stress off your back, and reducing the potential of painful injuries.
Whilst carrying out the task of vacuuming try a new stance, this is called ‘fencer’s stance’. You aim to place all your weight on one foot, stepping forwards and backwards with the other whilst pushing the machine. This means you aren’t bending and leaning forward and creating unnecessary pain through uncomfortable positions.
If you are maintaining good posture whilst carrying out every day routines, you’re preventing your body from pain caused by the repetition of awkward stances and positions.
Abdominal and back exercises provide an addition to reducing your risk of injury whilst carry out your daily tasks. Having an engaged core means that we are able to perform our day to day tasks to the best of our ability. When people have a vulnerable or painful low back, they tend to not be engaging their core. This will then change how our body distributes work load. Low back pain can be significantly reduced by doing these small things during your day you are minimising your risk of injury.
Core and Back Exercises To Help With Back Pain
There are many exercises that can assist in building up strength, in your core and back. An exercise that can help to strengthen your back is; bringing your knees into your chest for about 60 seconds at a time whilst lying down. This can help with some lower back pain relief, as it elevates some pressure of the nerves, and spaces the discs in your back.
Another easy exercise for core stability is a pelvic tilt. This involves lying on the ground with your knees bent, leaving your arms at your sides. Whilst tightening your core muscles, bring your navel and lower back towards the floor without using too much of your leg muscles. This exercise should repeated 5-10 times and held for 5 seconds each.
By staying thoughtful of your posture and doing regular exercises for your back and core you are reducing the potential for pain whilst carrying out your daily routine tasks such as cleaning.
