Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all of us are required to stay at home as much as possible. Although this is good to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it has some impact and implication to your health, namely your back. Because of home quarantine, our activity level reduce and we tend to move less. As a result, we become more sedentary throughout the day and this is one of the main triggers of back pain.
How can sedentary lifestyle cause back pain? Let Us Explain
There are 2 main causes of back pain, Too Much and Too Little Activity.
When the activity is too much, the load that you put on your back exceeds the back capacity and therefore this causes pain. This happens, when you suddenly lift something heavy from the ground and you feel a pull on your back.
When the activity is too little, the muscle and area on your back will stiffen up. Therefore, when you start to move, it can cause pain and discomfort.
This happens when you sleep or sit all day long, then you stand up and you feel soreness in your back.
In this Home Quarantine situation, “Too Little” movement is the one that we need to be cautious about, because we often don’t realize it until it is too late. Therefore, key number 1 to prevent back pain is to keep moving your back
Other than movement, another important thing that would help to prevent back pain is to strengthen and activate your core muscles. When we are sedentary and not moving, our core muscles tend to get inactive and become lazy. A lazy and inactive core muscles can reduce the tolerance of our back and therefore increase the risk of getting back pain. Therefore, key number 2 to prevent back pain is to keep the core active and stable.
To all of you people reading this blog, we encourage you to keep moving your back and train the core muscle while staying at home. Below is a Home Exercise Program that you can do at home to improve the mobility of your back, strengthen your core and prevent the back pain from happening. It consist of 7 exercises, 2 mobility exercises as a warm up, 3 stability exercises for the core, and 2 stretching exercise to end the program.
1. Cat and Camel -15 Repetition x 3 sets
2. Pelvic Roll side to side- 10 Repetition each side x 3 sets
3. Plank – 10 second hold x 8 reps x 3 sets (Focus on the activation of your core muscle)
4. Side Plank- 5 second hold x 6 reps x 3 sets (Focus on the activation of your side core muscle)
5. Bird Dog- 3 second hold x 8 reps (per arm) x 3 sets ( Focus on the4 activation of your core muscle)
6. Child Pose- 30 Second Hold x 3 reps
7. Cobra Stretch- 30 Second Hold x 3 reps
