South Sound Sidekick series offers advice from experts living in the, well, South Sound. It posts every Friday. Today, Chiropractic physician Monti Sorem, DC, CSCS, EMT-IV, NSCA - who works at Elite Sports and Spine in Bellevue - has back care advice.
Whether you are an office worker for the state, the local bartender at your favorite downtown watering hole, a weekend warrior, or over-the-hill class champion, you will experience back pain at some time.
Depending on activities of daily living, fitness levels and anatomical structure put more at risk than others. Having back pain occasionally is normal, but when it becomes chronic and affects your everyday life, work or sport, than it is an issue. When there is transient pain after activity, it is a signal that your muscles and joints are giving in. If you are in pain, stop doing what you did or train your body to handle what you put it through.
What you DO NOT want to do is try to cover up chronic pain, ignoring it, then go to lift the case of beer that just got delivered to the back door and prolapsing your rectum. OK, so that is an extreme case but it could happen. Some more common injuries are to the ligaments to the spine, muscles of the spine and the intervertebral discs - the cushion between the spine bones. Believe you me; you don't want a disc injury. In my professional life these are difficult cases and everyone has a very individual experience with pain and disability. Once that disc is injured, you will have continued problems in the future and realistically your spine is a ticking bomb.
So here it my short version of advice to take care of your back and rectum for that matter:
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