Save the back

Back is a basic erector of body. It keeps you upright and standing on both the feet. If we look into our old ancestors, it is noted that in ancient time man use to walk on all its four limbs. But with evolution and more of brain and mind, man slowly learnt to walk erect. The main load of the body weight and the body gravity line falls on both legs through veritable column. With stronger back we can perform better in all the works. The back is always overused while lifting, pushing and pulling any object. For these heavy movements always use legs rather your back.

The vertebras are a column of bones placed on each other with intra vertebral spaces and disk in between. The vertebras at cervical level lift the neck, at chest level holds the ribs in position and at abdomen level keep the upper body erect and lifted up. It also binds the hip bone with the back for hip's flexion and extention movements.

The vertebras are attached with legs and hip bone with thick muscles like psoas major - minor, illacus, lamborium etc thus keeping the upper body straights.

If you have weak cervical vertebral bones, than with the weight of the head our cervical nerves get pressed and we have number of cervical symptoms, like neck pain, shoulder pain, trapezious pain, vertigo and headache. Similarly if we have weak lower back then the lumber symptoms like sciatica, pain and both legs and hips, package and some time pain in the lower body joints.

To keep your back healthy Avoid leaning forward during all works. While sitting keep your back straight and chest up. Never lean forward from back and never lift weight with your legs straight. When you lift weight keep your chest up and get power from legs only.

To improve your back stiffness and minor problem, perform yogic asans for back extensions and stretching while lying flat on stomach or in gym you can do light weight good morning exercise, light weight hyper extension etc. To strengthen the lower back from front it is great to do some hip flexion exercise while lying on back. Some exercise like reverse crunches, leg raises, hip flexion, parallel bar hanging knee raises are the excellent exercises for the back.

If you still have problem like backache, sciatica (Rhee pain), Numbness of the legs, difficulty to stand for long time etc. then never go for any pain killer or other drugs just get the services of a qualified and trained physiotherapist and get lumber traction (Intermittent or continues) IFT, SWD, TENSE etc. Similarly for cervical pains and symptoms the best is the physiotherapy before it gets worsen and you may require a surgical procedure for permanent relief.

............Dr. Randhir Hastir