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Do you know how to protect your spine?

Did you know that approximately 70% of back pain episodes occur in the first hour of the morning?

When we sleep in bed for 6-8 hours, it allows the discs in our spine to rehydrate after a day of walking around and slowly compressing them and squeezing out all of the fluid. Then when we get out of bed it takes about an hour for the compression to start working on the discs again, which leaves us more vulnerable to irritate, inflame, or even herniate those discs.

So how can you protect against this? Firstly, do everything you can to avoid bending at the waist. When you bend forward, your lower back is in it's weakest and most vulnerable position and people often cause a lot of tissue damage like this resulting in pain. It's even worse first thing in the morning because bending forward is also the easiest way to bulge or herniate a disc in your lower spine.

When you first get out of bed do it slowly instead of just jumping out, then get walking and after about 10-15 minutes do some light exercises of anything that does not involve bending. Also a hot shower helps loosen everything up. After doing both of these things and then waiting a full hour before bending, it's now safe to do things like putting on your shoes and socks.

If you currently suffer from back pain then you should especially follow these guidelines as not only are you more at risk of really damaging your back, but the upright exercise, warm shower, and no bending will help loosen up all of your tissues. As anyone who has ever suffered from back pain will attest to, it's always worse first thing in the morning anyway due to lying still and not moving for so long.

If you are dealing with a stubborn low back problem that just won't seem to go away, call us at (402) 593-9930 and get it assessed to see if we can help. or find further information on our website.



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