When it comes to taking care of your health, there are plenty of things that you should do. While trying to keep your body healthy and strong, you shouldn’t forget that your spine also needs proper care and attention. You’d be surprised to see how poor spine health can significantly affect your life and health.
With that in mind, you should be extra careful about your spine’s health. Ideally, it would be best if you considered consulting with Chiropractor colorado springs or any other clinics within your location, and they should be able to help you with your spine concerns. However, if you’d like to try to improve them on your own before consulting with a professional for immediate action, listed below are some chiropractic care tips for optimal spine health:
1. Practice Good Posture
When it comes to developing good spinal health, the most basic and popular tip you’ll receive is to practice good posture. Consistently bending your body forward on anything you do can contribute to poor spine health. It can lead to back pain, spinal dysfunction, or potbelly. To prevent this from happening, you should maintain good posture as early as possible.
Ideally, you should sit straight as much as possible and try to keep your monitor at eye level. While it might be a bit uncomfortable and painful, practicing good posture can help keep your body healthy and prevent spinal issues.
2. Do Regular Exercise
One way you can actively help your body achieve optimal spine health is by exercising regularly. With this, you can allow your entire body to be stronger and healthier. It’s more of a holistic approach but could also significantly benefit your spine.
Most doctors would recommend that you exercise at least 30 minutes a day. It doesn’t have to be too intense, but rather something that keeps you active. You can go for a run, a brisk walk, jogging, swimming, yoga, rock climbing, and more. Doing so can improve your overall health, especially your spine.
3. Learn To Lift Properly
Common spine injuries come from bending and lifting heavy objects incorrectly. While it might be a lot easier to bend over and lift the object without any precaution, you may be putting your spine at risk. To prevent back pain and spine trauma, you should learn how to lift heavy objects properly.
When lifting something heavy, it’s essential to maintain a straight back and bend your knees as much as possible. Lift the thing by straightening your knees and concentrating on your core rather than your back.
4. Improve Core Strength
Your core muscles include not only your abdominal muscles but also your middle and lower back. With increased core strength, you can better support your spine, minimizing strain and pressure and preserving your spine health. Additionally, it can aid in the development of excellent posture and the alleviation of back pain.
You can do plenty of core exercises at home as part of your daily exercise routine. You can try to do planking, crunches, glute bridge, Russian twist, side bend, and more. If you’re uncomfortable doing sit-ups, plenty of workout routines can help you achieve a strong core without engaging yourself in those activities. While it can help reduce back pain and improve your core muscles, it can also give you hard rock abs, perfect for a beach body.
5. Purchase The Right Mattress
Your sleeping position can significantly affect your spine’s health. Since you’ll be spending seven to nine hours in bed, you must ensure that your body is in the most comfortable position possible. Remember that a poor sleeping position may strain your back, resulting in severe back pain upon waking up.
Despite your best efforts, your mattress has a significant impact on the way your body rests on your bed when you sleep. As a result, you should buy a mattress that supports your preferred sleeping position. You can choose between a soft, medium, or firm mattress and allow yourself to sleep a restful night without worrying about any back pain the next morning. One more option is to select which best mattress to try for ultimate comfort and back pain relief.
6. Use A Compatible Pillow
In addition to selecting the ideal mattress for sleep, having the appropriate pillow for maintaining spine health. Since your spine connects to your head, putting it in the wrong position can also affect your overall spine. To avoid a stiff neck and maintain a healthy spine, ensure you’re using the correct pillow for your head.
Similar to a mattress, plenty of firmness options could accommodate your sleeping position. Additionally, numerous pillow fillings provide comfort when sleeping. You can choose from down, synthetic, feathers, and poly. Regardless of the pillow you choose, ensure that you don’t strain your neck and relax as much as possible.
7. Wear Quality Shoes
Similar to needing proper support as you sleep, you also need adequate support when walking. This way, you can maintain a healthy posture with every stride. To make that happen, you should wear quality shoes that can provide maximum support for your entire body, especially your spine.
Ideally, it would be best if you looked for a pair of shoes with a strong base that can help you support your weight on your heel rather than on your toes. Additionally, it would be ideal if the shoes had ergonomic support to guarantee that they would stand securely when worn.
8. Quit Smoking
A study that shows that people who smoke experience more back pain than those who don’t. It’s because smoking reduces the amount of oxygen inside your body, which your body needs to maintain healthy and strong muscles and ligaments, which also helps to support your spine. With that in mind, you should quit smoking as early as possible.
There are different ways you could try to quit smoking; you could try to do it yourself or consult with a professional so they could help you out in the proper way. Apart from helping to improve your spine, it can also help improve your overall health, making it a beneficial holistic approach.
Takeaway
Preventing back pain and injuries begins with taking proper care of your spine. While improving and maintaining appropriate posture may feel uncomfortable initially, you are doing your body better than harm. After a few days or weeks of practice, maintaining proper posture should come naturally because you won’t even have to exert any effort.