Article

Back Pain. Why Not Think Ergonomic Solutions?

Topic: Baby BoomersFeaturing Gail McGonigalPublished Recently added

Legacy signals

Legacy popularity: 2,981 legacy views

Back pain is one of the main reasons why people take time off work and why? It is because we spend too much time in sedentary, sloppy positions, doing very little movement and letting our muscles become lax and under-used.
We have become a society that drives around in cars – to the shops, to the gym, to work. We use elevators to go upstairs, hire dog-walkers to exercise our dogs, and then take tablets, because our hearts are not energetic enough to pump sufficient blood around our arteries! We have become docile, inactive humans that do not understand why we need correct movements in our bodies.
It doesn't have to be this way. If we ‘do' more and learn how use our bodies correctly, so that we protect our skeletal joints; become more energy efficient about movement, that will keep our bodies safe from injuries, when performing our normal functional activities each day. We will then become more active and alive, suffer less aches and pains that develops a more positive health cycle.
The term for this is ergonomics. It is about how we use our bodies in relation to the equipment in the environment, so that we can develop an understanding about how to move correctly in daily living.
I encourage readers to consider taking up yoga. Yoga teaches about balance and movement; allowing the physical body to relax into safe positions, focusing the mind for the purpose of an calm inner self. Yoga has excellent movements, as well as the correct breathing to learn. All the movements you learn from me all originate from yoga, I use all the movements in my daily activity.
If you hurt too much for Yoga, then I will introduce you to understand Ergonomics. I want you to first learn how to sit without a backrest. This can be done by sitting at the front of your seat, or using a stool, or getting on your bicycle and taking a bike ride. You could also try sitting on the floor with your legs crossed.
Now lean back, so that all your body weight goes directly down to your spine, from your pelvic area up to your head; you are now sitting ergonomically. It does not require any muscle tension and you can sit like this for as long as you want.
I now want you to see how long you can sit like this and time yourself. Remember that the pressure on your abdomen will deplete the oxygen supply from the area and your body will soon be asking for more oxygen. That is normal, so lean to the left and put all your weight on one pelvic bone – like reaching to pick up a glass of water. Take a swig of it and then reach over to your right side and put it down.

Further reading

Further Reading

4 total

Article

When we think of art, we think of pictures, or images of life. We can use this as a metaphor for creating a style of how we want to live as we age. For me style is not about a type of furniture, it’s design, or a colour in the material. It is simply a way of life that has practical purpose, through comfort and safety. This type of art describes the fundamental source of how we perceive comfort and how it is woven into our daily activity, through the products we choose to use that meet our needs for comfort and safety.

Related piece

Article

“Active Living” is about how we choose to ‘live’ our lives every day. It includes all the movements that we create to accomplish tasks that we do for ourselves & others in our family, our work, our sports & recreation, plus are all other aspects of our daily lives. It embraces everything that we “perform” to make “living” the content of our daily life. We live in a constantly changing world, where movement and adaptation are all part of the daily living process. We are constantly challenged by the way we move around and how receptive we are to our environment.

Related piece

Article

What do these three words mean for our human body? When we PROTECT our body, it means that we are protecting it against injury; like protecting our head with a helmet when we cycle. We protect our back from injury, by bending our knees instead of our backs when lifting a heavy box. We protect our ankles by wearing hiking boots, when we go hiking; so that we do not stumble over uneven surfaces and strain our ankles. We wear waterproof clothing when it rains, so that we are protected from getting wet; the wetness can cause a chill, with a potential chill that can threaten our health.

Related piece

Article

HOLDING DAILY LIFE IN COMFORT using a “RELAXED HOLD” Gail McGonigal B.Sc.O.T., M.Sc.Health Is living life comfortable for you? Or does performing routine daily tasks result in pain or discomfort in your hands? It happened to me several years ago, when I began feeling pain in the base of my thumb joints when performing normal everyday tasks. I have always been a very fit and active person, riding my bicycle everywhere and just getting on with my daily life.

Related piece