How to manage a bad back?

[Stephen Blair]

My backs better now thanks to doing as little saw work and manual handling as possible.

  When I do I wear a hips brace and back posture brace support, when you are young it may be bad form as you become reliant but as you get older it's different.

  My battle now is Asthma from years of fumes and dust made worse with Anti inflammatory painkillers, it's management rather than cure.

  Have no back pain and I'm coughing and getting environmental triggers all day and night or hardly walk right, not sleep for pain but breath ok!

  Mechanise as much as you can and get a good mattress and seat warmer for your digger is what I recommend 😀

[Tippin Alaybye]

Have you thought of a one way ticket to a Swiss clinic?

[Khriss]

I would never go near chiropractors, had some of that couple times and felt worse fr 3 days after. K

[nepia]

3 days is too long but it's quite normal to feel a bit sore for a day after treatment.  Not always of course but it is common.

Advice for me for the night following treatment was to drink plenty of fluid and take Ibuprofen at bedtime.

Edited April 14, 2021 by nepia

[sime42]

Probably like many on here I suffer with back problems. Over the last year or two its become a major issue and required time off my regular work of log cutting and feeding the processor.

 

Recently I have been using a back brace which seems to help quite a bit but not exactly comfortable to wear and might lead to other problems?

 

Just interested in how other manage. Pain killers, physio, gym work, massage, operations of something else? 

This book is really good. It's short, readable and takes a no nonsense approach to the issues of back pain, causes and treatments. It describes the back in terms of a mechanism, which is all it is really, a series of joints. The idea being that you can treat the problem yourself before it escalates too much.

 

Treat Your Own Back by Robin McKenzie | Waterstones

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Personally I'd always go to a physio rather than a chiropractor or osteopath. The latter often seem to have a bad reputation for being no good, and money grabbers. Physios might also be more used to dealing with active, physical people like ourselves and sports people. Providing the issue is not too serious, one that requires surgery, you want someone to diagnose the problem and then give you some exercises to do at home, rather than asking you to go back to them every week for three months to be poked and prodded, at £50 a session. (That happened to my partner. She wasn't impressed and jacked it in after a couple).

 

The most useful thing that I've taken from that book, and a couple of visits to a physio is the best way to treat a bout of acute back ache is to do an exercise to bend it the opposite way to normal, i.e. arch it backwards. A good way is do some press-up, but try to keep your groin pressed to the ground. A few days or weeks of that, a couple of times a day, really helps in my case. The rationale is that the discs get squeezed out backwards from bending and lifting over time. As they're flexible they can, to a certain extent, be squeezed forwards again to where they should be by bending the back over backwards. Works for me.

 

All that said I think a certain amount of back pain is a sad consequence of manual labour and getting older. Mine always aches a bit after too much bending down or heavy lifting. Also, bad posture is a big culprit. I reckon there's as many desk workers or more with back problems.

 

Swimming and cycling are good for stretching out and freeing things up. Hanging upsidedown too! I've never tried it but the idea is to stretch the back and open up the vertebrae.

 

 

[Clutchy]

I bought this a few weeks ago. I can definitely feel it taking the pressure off as you hang upside down but it hurts like **** when I stand back on my feet and gravity compresses my spine again.

 

Going to try again when I'm in less general pain, if it still hurts someone can have it for free if they collect 😬

 

YOLEO Gravity Heavy Duty Inversion Table with Adjustable Headrest & Protective Belt Back Stretcher Machine for Pain Relief Therapy (Blue): Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

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[Lowestoft Firewood]

12 minutes ago, Clutchy said:

I bought this a few weeks ago. I can definitely feel it taking the pressure off as you hang upside down but it hurts like **** when I stand back on my feet and gravity compresses my spine again.

 

Going to try again when I'm in less general pain, if it still hurts someone can have it for free if they collect 😬

 

YOLEO Gravity Heavy Duty Inversion Table with Adjustable Headrest & Protective Belt Back Stretcher Machine for Pain Relief Therapy (Blue): Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK

---

Shop YOLEO Gravity Heavy Duty Inversion Table with Adjustable Headrest & Protective Belt Back Stretcher...

 

Used one at the gym and it definitely made a difference. Also doing a lot of pull ups made a big difference to my level of back pain after doing loads of climbing, probably the increased strength meant less work on my back

[briscoe]

Buy one of these Tens machines. Uses electrical impulses to stimulate muscles that have gone into spasm and release them. 

They are surprising powerful and feel like a massage. Half setting is powerful enough. 4 pads on the lower back really eases up a stiff lower back and associated sciatic pain. Multiple programs for different massage types.

 

AUVON Dual Channel TENS Machine for Pain Relief, TENS Unit Muscle Stimulator with 20 Modes, 2" and 2"x4" TENS Pads Replacement: Amazon.co.uk: Health & Personal Care

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Other than that 20 minutes meditation a day to calm the nervous system and tight muscles

 

 

[oldwoodcutter]

Most tree workers of a certain age have that stance where they rock back on their hips to ease their back whilst standing still.
I got on ok with a tens machine years ago but eventually I got treated by a female osteopath who although looking about 17 sorted me out .
Occasionally when I have to lift big lumps and my lads aren’t about I put on my weightlifters belt which keeps everything in place.

[topchippyles]

2 minutes ago, oldwoodcutter said:

Most tree workers of a certain age have that stance where they rock back on their hips to ease their back whilst standing still.
I got on ok with a tens machine years ago but eventually I got treated by a female osteopath who although looking about 17 sorted me out .
Occasionally when I have to lift big lumps and my lads aren’t about I put on my weightlifters belt which keeps everything in place.

No spring chicken now see old timer 🤣