Versatile and regular exercise helps you keep your body muscles in good condition, which also makes your back feel better. When back pain is prolonged, it is important to get an individual exercise program and also to find suitable forms of exercise to improve functional capacity. The most important goal is to continue your usual daily activities at work and in your free time as well as possible, despite your back pain.
Current research evidence suggests that instead of striving for a good posture, the attention should be shifted to sufficient variation in posture and pausing. It’s time to stop blaming posture alone for various pain conditions. Pain conditions are almost always multi-factorial problems that cannot be overcome simply by striving for perfect posture. We should probably be more concerned about immobility than what position we are in when we are still.
When in place, some people develop back pain symptoms or a feeling of discomfort more easily when sitting and some when standing. Even in these groups, there is hardly any need to try to change the posture, but avoid continuous standing still, look for alternatives to the working position and strive for a relaxed position. This way, one-sided loading of body structures is reduced.
The solution to the symptoms that appear in certain positions cannot possibly be that we try to force all people to stand or sit as described in the anatomy book. Recognizing and considering individual factors is important and we need to look for a more flexible approach to examining posture.
It’s perfectly okay to sit on the couch sometimes, if that feels good to you. Finding a relaxed position while sitting seems to be essential instead of constantly actively trying to maintain a good posture. There is no one correct sitting or standing position, the most important thing seems to be sufficient movement during the day. Back and neck pain are associated with many other more relevant factors than posture, which must be considered individually.
Talk to your doctor, your supervisor and your colleagues about how you could function as normally as possible despite the back pain. At home and at work, focus on the tasks that you can do best. Increase the number of things you do a little bit at a time. As the back pain eases, the functional limitations also decrease. Remember that a slight increase in pain when using your back is normal and does not lead to a worsening of your back problem.
