Back Injuries
How To Eliminate The
#1 Work Related Injury
Back injuries are the most common type of chronic soft tissue injury, and most people suffer from some sort of back pain at one time or another in their lives. There are many reasons for the high rate of back pain.
The backbone is connected to the neck bone…
Our body works like a chain with each link relying on the other to work correctly. If one link in the chain isn’t working, the other links work harder to maintain equal balance. The back and spine are the center of our body, and the source and anchor for our movement. Because of the central position of the back, everything above the back (head, neck, shoulder) and everything below the back (hips, knees, feet) can negatively impact the low back.
We’ve all heard the story…
Usually, people who suffer from an acute back injury don’t go from a perfectly healthy back to an injured back. “I bent down to pick up a pencil and my back went out”, “I stepped down from my truck and my back locked up.” Was it really that one move that caused the back injury–probably not!
More likely, they have endured a lifetime of underlying risk factors and one action was one move too many. Whenever we sit or stand with a slouched posture, bend at the waist instead of the knees, or skip that workout, we are putting our back at risk of injury.
Our mother was right…
Our posture is a major factor in the health of our back. No matter what we’re doing (even reading this right now) our bodies are holding some type of posture. Most of us are not heeding Mom’s advice; “Sit up tall! Don’t slouch!” When we sit, stand or work with bad posture, we are creating numerous muscular imbalances all over the body. These imbalances affect the stress being placed on our joints along the spine, the hips and the neck. If we look even closer at the spine, we see the intervertebral disks that provide cushion and shock absorption to the spine. Without sitting or standing tall, we may be compressing these discs and adding pressure to the spine.
So, what can TIPS do?
Our staff has the tools to ‘even out’ those links in the chain and our applications will have you feeling the correct muscles working. The TIPS Whole Body Approach has simple, yet effective exercises for improving strength, increasing flexibility to muscles that are impeding function and relieving extra back stress.