Four Ways to Stop Spine Pain Before It Starts

From your neck to your tailbone, your spine plays a critical role in how you move every day. Learn about four ways to stop spine pain before it starts.

Unfortunately, spine injuries and pain—especially in the lower back—are common issues. According to the World Health Organization, low back pain is “the leading cause of disability worldwide” and “the condition where the greatest number of people may benefit from rehabilitation.”

It is well known that physical therapy can be beneficial for those who struggle with spine pain. However, only seeking care when you are already in pain has its disadvantages.

Spine injury preventive care is gaining more traction as its benefits are better recognized. Why only receive care after you’ve had an injury? Instead of being reactive and treating an injury that has already happened, it is far more effective to provide care that reduces the chance of a spine injury occurring. Preventive care tries to stop spinal pain and injury before it starts—saving you time, money, and, most importantly, your quality of life.

Physical therapists are important resources for preventive spinal care. Their expertise and care can make a positive difference in how your spine functions.

Education, posture training, movement variety, and muscle strengthening, especially when combined, are four ways to combat spinal injury and pain. Physical therapists are experts in combining these strategies to help you build up your spine’s resilience against injury. Let’s explore these four components.

Knowledge is a powerful tool to combat injury. The more you understand how your body works, the better decisions you can make to care for it. Physical therapists have years of education under their belts on anatomy and physiology (the parts of the body and how they work together). They are excellent resources to learn how your spine works; and they love sharing their knowledge with others!

How the spine functions and how spinal joints, muscles, and nerves work together for the body is often taught as an analogy to a sailboat:

A stable mast (spine) and well-maintained sails and attachments (connective structures) allow the boat to travel with ease. Weaknesses in these structures can put the sailboat at risk of damage. Similarly, weak muscles can put your spine at risk for injury.

There are a variety of ways to build strength. Your physical therapist can build a strengthening plan unique to your needs and give you instructions on proper exercise form.

Your spine can move in all directions. Depending on its role, each section of your spine has more or less of a certain movement than other sections. For example, the upper portion of the neck (near the base of the skull) has the most rotational range of motion of any segment in the entire spine.

The saying “variety is the spice of life” applies to the spine as well: Moving your body in a variety of directions keeps your spine healthy, flexible, and resilient to injury.

Unfortunately, many of our day-to-day tasks do not require much variety of spine movement. Sitting primarily keeps the spine in a forward-rounded position. Walking only requires slight spinal rotation.

If we don’t routinely move our spine in all directions, we will lose the ability to do so. Therefore, it is important to incorporate daily activities that bring the spine into a variety of positions. Such activities include yoga, dancing, and swimming.

Your posture fluctuates based on the situation you are in. If you are talking to a young child, you may crouch down to be at their eye level. If you are in an interview, you may sit taller than if you were out to dinner with your friends.

How does posture influence spinal function? Posture can change the way gravity exerts pressure on the spinal column. Our spine is meant to have certain curvatures to optimize the pressure on the bones, discs, and connective tissue. Frequent movement and changes in posture can help keep structures flexible and fluid.

Posture can become problematic when we are involved in prolonged repetitive tasks, such as assembly line work, standing for long periods, sitting for long periods at a desk, scrolling on our phones, and watching television. The best-case scenario for these situations would be to take frequent breaks (ideally, every 20 to 30 minutes) to allow for a change in posture. However, this is not always possible. Learning how to sit, stand, and do work tasks in a neutral posture can make a major difference on spine health.

Taking these proactive steps can make a big difference in your future spine health. Talk with your physical therapist today about how to incorporate these strategies into your care plan.

Reference

World Health Organization. Low back pain. World Health Organization. Published June 19, 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/low-back-pain

‌