Do you suffer from back pain?
If you have gone from mild discomfort to intense pain affecting your mood and daily tasks, people will tell you that this is normal, but if you don’t improve your posture and don’t do any adapted physical exercise, things will tend to get worse.
Why does your back hurt when you sit for hours and hours?
Ideally, the answer should be easy, but every back pain is complex and multifactorial. The main cause is mechanics. That is, how you move or if you don’t move at all.
What does this cause? It generates tension, stiffness and a great deal of weakness in different muscles, causing an imbalance that causes alarms to go off in our nervous system and send out pain signals.
Because that’s what pain is, our nervous system telling us that something isn’t working properly and we need to correct it.
Where should you start?
You should start taking small breaks every 30 or 45 minutes, during which you move around a little.
There are many simple breathing, body posture or activation exercises that will help you break up that monotony.
A good option is the Pomodoro technique, which consists of combining blocks of 25 minutes of work with a five-minute break, lengthening the break every four cycles. This technique will help your productivity.
Which body posture is the best?
Everyone is different and has to adapt, but it’s best to change your body posture frequently and not stay in the same position for long periods. You should try to take as many breaks as possible and combine them with these guidelines:
- Feel how your sit bones make contact with the chair to keep your pelvis neutral.
- Avoid arching your back and sticking your chest out.
- Avoid pushing your head forward and raising your shoulders.
- Keep the screen at eye level.
- Try different chair heights.
- Raise your feet with some kind of footrest.
- Maintain a good breathing rhythm by focusing on the exhalation phase.
Are stretches important?
Based on scientific evidence, many benefits have traditionally been attributed to stretches, but they seem to be unclear. Some of the benefits are protection against injury, improved recovery and muscle relaxation.
If you have an imbalance where a muscle isn’t working properly, stretching will accentuate that weakness. So, stretches should take up a small part of the programme, because if you just stretch, you’ll be neglecting the most important thing, which is exercise.
The best way to know how many stretches you should do is to have a professional give you a thorough assessment.
Why is exercise the key factor?
Micro-breaks will help you alleviate the effects of so many hours in the same posture, but the key is to balance your body and generate that armour that will allow your back to hold up every working day.
This is where strength training comes into play and you should be putting this routine into practice at least twice a week; it will bring you countless benefits for your back health and for your general health too.
A good way to start is with a full-body routine, performing one exercise per muscle group, 2 sets of 10 repetitions, focusing on posture and breathing.
Improving takes time, at first it takes effort and having professional help will help, but I assure you that when you least expect it, the day will come when you don’t recognise yourself, because the pain will have disappeared.
Jorge Trigueros
JT Sport Personal Trainer
Centro Deportivo Arena (Alicante)
