Back pain affects many, if not all of us at some point in our lives. And though most cases are not severe enough to require any kind of specialized medical treatment, the discomfort people feel can, in some cases, be terrible. Many wonder whether there is something they can do to prevent back pain in the first place. Well, the answer is, yes. Here are some of the most effective ways to avoid it.

• Sufficient exercise. Exercise is important for a number of different reasons. Exercising often will enable you to keep your back muscles strong. Your abdominal muscles and back muscles work together in order to give your spine support and strength. By building up muscular strength and flexibility in your hips and thighs, you can maintain good pelvic bone alignment. Regular exercises such as swimming, walking, and cycling allow your muscles to function better. Also, good posture and regular exercise help minimize chronic back conditions. Remember to consult your doctor before you start a new exercise routine you are not accustomed to. Keep in mind however, that while regular exercise is great, it is important not to strain your back.
• Maintain a healthy weight or lose weight if you are overweight. Being overweight is simply unhealthy at many levels. To have strong bones, you need to consume enough calcium and vitamin D every day. Maintain a healthy diet in order to maintain a healthy weight. If you are overweight, it puts a tremendous strain on the back muscles. Losing weight can make a dramatic difference to back pain and discomfort.
• Lifting heavy things. Try to stand up straight and avoid heavy lifting when you can. If you do lift something heavy, make sure you do it carefully. Bend your legs and keep your back straight. Poor lifting and carrying techniques are the most common and most avoidable causes of back injury and pain. Never carry loads that are too heavy. If you think you may have trouble lifting something, get help. Don’t risk back injury.
• Proper support. Chairs need good back support. Use chairs that are at the right height. Straining to get on or off a chair, especially if you have to twist the spine into strange positions, can cause discomfort and injury. Ergonomically designed chairs are best. Where mattresses are concerned, it is important to get one that provides enough back support. Get a medium-firm mattress rather than a very firm mattress. Use pillows to support the neck, but beware they do not push your head and neck into odd angles.

We tend to believe that our bodies do naturally good and healthy things. We assume that if the body does something by itself, then we shouldn’t interfere. But that’s not necessarily true. Give a monkey a pack of cigarettes, and it will smoke all of them. Where did its instinct of self-preservation go? Feed junk food to your dog and see if it stops eating it. Sometimes, we have to use our reasoning to find out what’s best for our health, we have to help our bodies. In other words, instincts need our aid. For example, you may feel that a soft bed is cozy and comfortable when you lie down on it, but how do you feel when you wake up? Surely much worse than if you had slept in a harder bed, where (according to you first thought) you shouldn’t even be able to close your eyes. The same happens when we sit down on a chair. First we sit up straight, but as time goes by, our posture becomes poor, and at the end of our working day we end up aching and in a bad mood —and we are lucky if we happen to know why.

But first of all, our bodies don’t use chairs out of choice. They do it because they don’t have a choice: by repetition, our social context fixes our behavior, it tells us to use certain objects or do things in certain ways. In fact, sometimes, during moments of relaxation or entertainment, people choose to sit on the floor, or to adopt different positions. This tells us that chairs aren’t the natural place to sit on.

So, why do we use them? They’re obviously a good invention, but nowadays their use is so widespread that we lost track of their origin. Besides, if we look around, we’ll see a lot of other inventions that are thought to be used together with them, which leaves us no choice. A brief history of chairs can help us understand where they come from. Books point to ancient Egypt, where they were used only by noble families. Then, Greeks and Romans adopted their use. For centuries, it was a symbol of status, while benches were used by common people in their everyday lives. And then, in the Renaissance, they stopped being a privilege and became affordable.

Like many things then, this object is here by “historical accident”, and now that we know it’s not a natural and perfect thing, we can question it, we can think of improving it. Let’s do it; let’s give our bodies some help. They need it, specially nowadays, when we live in a world built by civilization, pretty far from nature, and the things we use were already here when we arrived. It’s a mistake to assume that an object can’t be improved just because it’s been used for decades or centuries. Try adding a back support to your chair and see the difference. It will help you have a healthier life.

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