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You have likely been advised to 'bend through your knees', when picking something up to avoid hurting your back.  While this is good advice it overlooks the most important joint you should move through when picking items up.

In this webinar, we share how to move through your hips and why this is vital for everyday activities and exercise.

If you have questions about this video or others, be sure to reach out.

In this webinar discover:

How your posture can affect your lower back discomfort

What changes you can easily make to ease the pressure

Implement a simple exercise several time a day

In our last installment, we shared a way to change how you sit to decrease the pressure on your lower back a.k.a., your lumbar spine, specifically the pressure on the discs between your vertebrae.  The cervical spine and the lumbar spine are the areas where disc herniations occur most often.  

In this installment, we will look at three things that you do each day that can contribute to pressure and nonoptimal alignment of your lower spine.

How you sit or stand. 

Depending on what you do for work or how you spend your time you likely sit, stand, or a combination of both throughout your day.  We touched lightly on sitting optimally last time.  As a reminder, you want to sit on your SITS bones.  These bones are located at the bottom of your glutes.  (see picture below)

How you stand matters as well. 

If you tend to stand with your weight mostly in your heels and your knees locked you likely also stand with your glutes slightly...

Do you ever feel like your lower back tighten up while you are sitting or standing for any length of time?

This is unfortunately too common and as it turns out quite costly.  According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation between 1996-2016 treatments for lower back and neck pain cost nearly $77 billion by private insurance, $45 billion by public insurance, and $12 billion out of pocket by patients themselves in the U.S.

Those numbers likely don't include over-the-counter medications and some non-medical treatments for pain.

While injury, surgery, and other physical trauma can be sources of back discomfort there are many lifestyle or habit-driven activities that over time can be the main driver of back pain, tightness, and discomfort.

Let's start with an easy not-so-easy....posture.

1. Easy, because for many of us, it is something we can readily fix.  Not so easy because
2. You have to wade through the plethora of conflicting information.
3. The information may...

If you struggle with back issues and have been told you need to strengthen your core you need to watch this webinar.

Jenice covers your deep core muscles that attach to and stabilize your spine.

She will also take you through simple yet effective exercises for your deeper core muscles.

Does the action of squatting especially when exercising bother your knees or back?

It is a common concern for many.  Some are even being told by their doctor to avoid squats.  While that sounds easy enough, it is nearly impossible to avoid squatting in your everyday life.  Squatting is required to sit.  This means, when you use the restroom, sit to eat, watch T.V. sit. your desk, drive, etc.

It seems that is a necessary activity so let's take a look at what might be going wrong during the squat that may be causing the discomfort.

If you caught our last installment we spoke about the importance of moving through the hip joint to alleviate pressure on the low back as seen in the top photo.  The model bends or rolls through the hip joint as she goes down into the squat.  This motion helps the model use the large muscle of the glute to stand back up versus the muscles of the back or around the knees.

In the bottom photo, the model is not bending through...

 According to a recent article published by the NIH (July 2022), back pain remains one of the top reasons for doctor's visits. 

The article lists various back pain causes, including congenital to non-spine related and risk factors from age to psychological.

The article's recommendations for helping with back include medication, strengthening, stretching, and surgery. 

One thing the article did not cover:
what you should stop doing for the health of your back and spine.

The picture below shows four everyday activities you may do throughout your day to move or for posture.

Each of these will put pressure on your spine and change the soft tissue (muscles, tendon, ligaments and fascia) in your lower back area. Eventually, the alignment of your spine will change and put pressure on your discs, spinal cord, and spinal nerves.

So the number #1 thing you can do is stop or modify the following activities:

1. Stop bending through your low back. When you bend, bend at your...