Do You Have Back Pain?

I imagine that just about everyone just answered yes to that question.  Back pain is one of the most common complaints heard today.  It prevents you from daily activities, as well as the fun you used to know as a kid.  Did you know that the back muscles are the only muscles in your body that never truly get any rest?  Even when you are lying down, your back muscles are in use.  That is why it always seems to be hard to get out of bed in the morning. But, there are things we can do, to at least, make the best of it.

The key is posture, posture, posture.  When you are a kid, your parents and teachers harped on posture, but as you got older, you discovered comfort and those wonderful Lay-Z-Boy chairs.  It was at that point that everything your parents built up started to fall.  As you will see in the video, most all of the chairs that we have to sit in, have a slant backwards to them.  Take a look at the chair that you are sitting in while you are reading this, it is probably slanted.  When you sit in today’s chairs of comfort, you will notice that you lean back to get comfortable.  But if you notice, your head is now leaning forward.  This happens because your head will always try to place itself over it’s center of gravity.

When this happens, your spine is out of line and placing undo stress on itself.  Over time, this causes bulging discs and the wearing down of vertebrae.  And then, on one fatal day at work, something wrong happens and boom, you are in the hospital looking at the concept of back surgery.  Keep in mind, that I am not trying to scare you, I am only trying to tell you what happened to me by experience.  I ended up having 2 bulging discs that made my right arm go numb, because I had a lifetime of bad posture.  But, one day, my physical therapist said something to me that changed my life.  He said, “Ears over Shoulders over hips.”  What?! Can it be that simple?

Ears Over Shoulders Over Hips

Yes, it was.  With three months of intense physical therapy and this new mantra of mine, I was able to avoid the back surgery that they wanted to perform. That is why I am sharing this with you.  I know that life is harder as you get older, and this life of comfort is not making it easier after all.  We sit at desks for long periods of time and we sit in our cars in traffic for what seems even longer.  If we don’t act proactively, this will start to catch up to you just like it did to me.

It’s easy, just start saying to yourself over and over again, “ears over shoulders over hips.”  If you do this, it will remind you to stand up straight, sit up straight and keep your back in line.  It even works when you are lying down.  The trick for that is to put a pillow between your legs and keep your shoulders off of the pillow when you lay down.  The idea is to constantly correct your posture and keep yourself in line.  That will take all of the undo stress off of your back and keep you healthier and stronger for longer.

I Care

Why and for what reason am I using a Volkswagen blog to do this? Simply because I care about people and if I can do anything to make that long trip to Spartanburg a little better for someone, I am going to do it.  I remember when I was in college, I used to have to drive back in forth from Charleston to Columbia to visit my family.  I wish that I would have known about this then.  I might have been able to prevent physical therapy 20 years later.  If you are interested in learning more about this, stop by the dealership and ask me more about it.  I am always willing to help.  -Kevin