Resources for People with Back Pain
Sitting has been blamed for a lot of back pain. There is now very good research showing that sitting is not a problem for the back. How could you injure yourself sitting in a chair?
When you have back pain sitting is often sore. This could be because your brain has less other stuff to focus on. Moving more and sitting less can help your mood, your circulation, and your pain. But sitting is fine for your back.
Your back is designed to bend, extend, twist, and turn. It is meant to do all of these movements. They are good for it. Moving your back through its full range of movement is a great way to make sure all the tissues get the oxygen and nutrients they need.
Lifting used to be seen as being bad for the back, but research does not support this idea. In fact, it’s been clearly shown that lifting less, or lifting with special techniques (like keeping your back straight) does not prevent back pain.
People do often notice that their back pain starts while lifting, there's nothing to say that this is because you lifting wrong, or that your pain might not have started with something else had you not lifted. This does not mean that you should avoid lifting, or use special techniques in the future. You may as well lift in as many ways as you can. This way you will be good at whichever technique you need.