Alleviating Back Pain While Decorating for the Holidays
Does the mere idea of holiday decorating make your back start to ache? It’s not just your imagination – the lifting, bending and reaching motions associated with decorating and cleaning can be extremely hard on your back. And – on top of that - each year an estimated 5,800 people are treated in emergency rooms for falls associated with holiday decorating activities. But don’t let those statistics deter you from a treasured tradition. Your expert back doctors in Asheville NC are here to offer some holiday cheer in the form of back-saving decorating tips.
The Importance of Proper Body Mechanics
Regardless of whether you already have chronic back pain or you’re just looking to prevent injury, the key to a healthy spine is good body mechanics. The term body mechanics refers to the way you position your body as you move around. Using the right body mechanics helps to ensure that you can complete a task safely and efficiently. Some examples of proper body mechanics include:
Positioning your feet the proper distance apart
Bending at your knees rather than at your waist
Being mindful of your body’s alignment when moving
Avoiding extreme twisting positions, especially at the waist and neck
Avoiding straining
It’s critical that you maintain proper body mechanic protocols in everyday activities as well as activities you only do once or twice a year around certain holidays. Doing so will help prevent triggering your chronic back pain and help to avoid getting new injuries. If you’re looking for additional suggestions for improving your body mechanics, get in touch with the very best back doctors in Asheville NC at CPI for more tips that will help your specific back concerns.
Lifting with Care
One of the most popular mistakes people make in decorating for the holidays regards lifting. Lifting is one of those actions that is surprisingly easy to do wrong and – in many cases – comes with significant consequences. The good news is, however, that it’s easy to lift the right way when you know how. We’ll walk you through the key points:
Lift with your legs. When bending over to pick up that box of decorations, be sure to bend at your knees rather than at your waist. This does take some time to get used to, so don’t feel bad if it seems awkward at first. Lifting with your legs is essentially the same motion as you would use when going from standing to squatting. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and make sure you are focused on making your legs do the work.
Engage your core/abdominal muscles. Abdominal muscles are critical for stabilizing. Just as with your legs, remain mindful, engaging your core as you balance the item you are lifting. When you’re doing it correctly, it may feel like you’re tensing up your stomach as if you were completing a sit up.
Keep your back straight. We touched on this in step one – lift with your legs – but this step is critical for preserving lower back health. Visualize a string going from the top of your head straight up to the ceiling and keep your whole upper body aligned with that string. Don’t twist or torque your body horizontally when lifting, either. Make sure you are facing the item straight on.
If you are still concerned about your lifting technique, check out this slide show to get more visual cues on what these positions look like.
Low-impact Holiday Cleaning
We realize that cleaning is at the top of most people’s to-do list for the holidays, especially due to COVID-19 concerns. We highly recommend recruiting a friend or family member (or two) to help you with your cleaning tasks in order to minimize triggering your back pain. If you do this, be sure to remind everyone involved to keep a 6-foot social distance, wash hands often and wear masks. (Or avoid all the stress and treat yourself to hiring a cleaning company to do the job for you.)
If you are unable to find help, remember to take breaks and set realistic goals for yourself over a set period of time so you don’t do too much in one day. We recommend starting a week or so before the day you want the cleaning to be complete and only doing one room a day until it’s all done. And continue to be mindful of your posture as you clean – as much as possible avoid slouching, twisting and bending at the waist.
Preventing Falls
Some of your holiday decorating will involve getting up on a ladder to complete. Even though we know many of you are well-versed in ladder safety, falls are still one of the top causes of new and lingering back problems, so we are going to offer a few tips.
Work with a partner so that one person can help keep the ladder stable while the other climbs up it.
Be sure the ladder is settled on a flat surface to ensure maximum stability.
If you have a history of vertigo or struggle with balance in general, ask someone else to do the climbing for you.
Don't lean or reach horizontally while on the ladder; Climb down and move the ladder directly under where you need to reach.
Back Doctor Asheville
These are just a few tips that we hope helps make the holiday decorating tasks a little less painful. We know that – for many people with chronic or acute back pain – tasks like these can cause issues 365 days a year. If you are looking for quality care for your back pain in the Asheville area, give us a call. Start the new year out right with the Comprehensive Pain Consultants of the Carolinas.
Get in touch with us by calling 828-483-4438
Disclaimer: You should always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health care provider before beginning any exercise program. The information contained in this article does not constitute medical advice, nor does reading or accessing this information create a patient-provider relationship. Comments that you post will be shared with all visitors to this page. All comments are not governed by HIPAA and you should not post any private health information.