Back pain is the most common cause of visits to your family doctor, because of its interference in our movements in daily activities. The reason for its high incidence is because you are creating too much dynamic movement in your spine, during these activities; with insufficient balanced, stationary movement that your spine truly needs.

The spine consists of 24 individual vertebral bones that lay vertically on top of each other, attached to the one above by a facet joint; that keep the vertebrae linked together for producing a vertical support. Between each vertebra are discs made from cartilage that act as cushions or shock absorbers between each vertebra. These protect the spine from any downward pressure, such as when lifting or carrying items.

The main purpose of the spine is to provide a vertical frame to our body, so that we can stay upright in a balance position, for all the daily living activities. Each of the individual vertebrae can make minor adjustments to the spine, for maintaining the upright position when moving our body.

Movement in the spine should not be compared to any other skeletal joint, because the vertebral joints are called gliding joints; which means they only make tiny gliding movements for keeping the spine upright and balanced. The vertebral joints are incapable of too much movement, or they force the tendons and ligaments to stretch, generating discomforts in your back.

There are no strong muscles surrounding your lower spine that support any movements and therefore you will feel strain and stresses on the tendons and ligaments that hold the spine together. If the severe movements continue on a repetitive basis, the tendons and ligaments will stretch and one of the discs may protrude between the vertebrae; leading to pressure on the nerves that will cause severe back pain.

“How will I know if that I am doing things wrong?” you may ask. The answer comes by understanding what muscles you need to be using. The strongest muscles in your body are your leg muscles, because we use them so much in productive mobility.

It is your powerful quadriceps and hamstring muscles in your legs that you should be using instead of bending your back. These large muscles will take enormous amounts of power, with the help of your arms, when lifting and bending. The pectoral muscles in your upper back are used for overhead lifting, but the muscles in your legs do all the work in your lower back.

My advice is to take up yoga, as this will teach you how to perform correct movements in your body and strengthen the parts that are giving you problems.

In turn, I will write about the movements in basic daily activities that will cause problems in your back. If you are not doing the movements correctly, then this may be causing your discomfort.

The body has so many joints to move in purposeful activity for safety and comfort. It is often difficult to know whether you are performing these activities correctly. It may seem elementary to explain the movements, but the slight physical changes that you can make, can actually make a dramatic difference to the comfort of your back.