BY DR. ARNAN SISSON

7/28/2023

I’ve had a few clients coming in recently with back issues. And the common trend was that most of these folks hurt themselves around the house. They were painting, redecorating, and even moving furniture. So today, we’re going to go over a few tips to help you not only avoid back pain while decorating/doing DIY projects but make it so you can just have more fun with activity without fear of hurting yourself.

The first tip I would give would be to warm up. Sometimes these DIY projects can take hours, so in a way their one very long workout. So, you can go for a short 15-minute walk to get the muscles moving or even take a hot shower before tackling home projects. Both strategies will loosen the muscles that are prone to injury.

The second tip is to not do too much too fast. Very often folks are coming from a long winter we’re they’re not use to doing lots of physical activity. Or their just not very active in general. And in those scenarios, it’s a good idea to ease into the above activities.

A good idea would be to just do 30 minutes to an hour of the activity at first. The next day see how your body responds to it (soreness, aches, or pains). Then gradually ramp up the amount of time spent on these projects. This way your body can become accustomed to it and the risk of a strain will shoot down.

Another great tip is to not focus on one particular task too long. It may be that you have to do some painting, move furniture around, and even repair a kitchen table. What ever the tasks may be you should do 20-30 minutes of one then jump to another and rinse/repeat. This will alter the stress to your body and reduce the injury risk.

The fourth tip would be to make sure your working at the right height. For example, if your doing some decorating/DIY work that involves sitting. You want to make sure your back isn’t extremely bent over or extremely extended. A great way to solve that problem is to just simply adjust your seat and even adjust your table (add a book or box to lift whatever your working on). Having a more neutral spine will off put the stress on your body.

The final tip would be to stay hydrated. While working around the house its easy to forget this and taking breaks throughout the day to get a sip of water or tea is going to help. Not just stay hydrated, but it will help alter the stress to the back.

Try those few tips out around the house, they’ve worked really well for my personal clients. And it should definitely help anyone else that is itching to do some work around the house.

That’s it for today, remember movement is medicine!

P.S. If you already have some back pain that’s stopping you from doing any work around the house, no worries! Go download your free back report to help get you one step further from the frustration that comes with back pain. And back to the active life style you haven’t had in months or even years!