Maybe you shoveled snow yesterday or helped a friend move into a new place. But today, you feel it: an aching back. As one of the most common conditions, there’s a whole lot more to it than just an achin’ back. About 540 million people worldwide experience back pain, and since 1990, back pain disability has increased by 50 percent. With any widespread phenomena, myths begin to pepper public perception. But should you really believe everything you hear?
Myth: Heavy lifting is always the culprit.
Fact: Lifting something too heavy is a bad idea, but experts say the way we lift actually matters more than the weight of the object itself. So what’s the correct lifting form? The Mayo Clinic recommends crouching with one knee as close to the item as possible (don’t lift from a standing position), raising the object between your legs while still taking a knee, and using your legs to return to a standing position. Don’t twist your torso, and keep your core muscles tight.
Other causes of back pain can include arthritis of the spine, disc problems, sprains, sciatica and more.
However, just education on correct lifting techniques alone isn’t the sole fix. “The only known prevention of lower back pain is usually exercise and education,” says physical therapist Justin Lantz, an instructor of clinical physical therapy at the University of Southern California. “When you give somebody exercise and education to stay active and lift the right way, it’s better than exercise alone.”
Myth: Bed rest is the perfect treatment.
Fact: While your doctor will often ask you to be gentle with your back, staying in bed for a few days can actually slow the healing process or work against you. “Your muscles can atrophy in as much as 48 hours with bed rest,” says Lantz. In fact, continuing to exercise as directed by your doctor increases the chances of a quick recovery. A 2014 study involving workers with back pain found that those who exercised during their recovery period took 58 days on average to return to work, while those who didn’t took 87 days. Actually, exercise is the best thing you can do.
Myth: Massage is required.
Fact: While massage is very helpful in some cases — researchers have found that massage therapy helped with pain reduction and increased mobility in people with chronic lower back pain — experts aren’t exactly sure why it may work or who may get the most out of massage, nor does it serve as a long-term solution. It’s also not the cheapest option for treatment. Talk it over with your doctor before hopping on the massage table.
Additionally, seeking the aid of a chiropractor can also relieve pain and improve function, meaning you can go about your day-to-day tasks easier, according to research from 2017.
Myth: You can’t stretch too much.
Fact: Stretching muscles in the back, legs and hips definitely increases mobility and decreases muscle stiffness, but if you’re feeling pain, that’s a sign you should not perform those movements. “Some people take the advice to remain active and they go quite the opposite way,” Lantz explains. “Then you have the person who goes out and gets a gym membership and pushes through the pain and that can make it worse also.” Taken with strength training and aerobic exercise, stretching rounds out an effective trio for relief.
Myth: You’re too young for back pain.
Fact: Of course, age impacts overall psychology and can lead to back pain in older adults. However, lower back pain in kids and teens is increasingly more common, according to a study from 2017. “Lower back pain is extremely common symptom among all age groups, children to the elderly,” Lantz says. “Usually everyone experiences back pain at some point in their life.”
Additionally, if you sit too much and don’t get enough exercise, you’re more likely to experience back pain, which is why doctors stress the importance of a healthy diet and workout routine.
Myth: You should get a new mattress.
Fact: While it may seem intuitive to point to your bed as the reason for your discomfort, getting a new one might not make a difference. Researchers in 2014 asked patients with lower back pain to rate their comfort or discomfort when sleeping on a waterbed mattress, a foam mattress and a firm mattress and found that the hard mattress was only slightly more likely to result in worse outcomes. Furthermore, they had no recommendations on which type of bed would be best for relieving pain. “It’s hard to say a soft bed causes this,” Lantz explains. “I’ve had patients come in with soft beds and hard beds.”
Myth: You need surgery.
Fact: Most non-specific back pain (that is, not due to a fracture, sprain or other injury) goes away on its own. Even if you have a herniated disc, it’s possible to not even feel pain, let alone need an MRI, Lantz says: “Not all herniated discs need surgery unless you have red flag symptoms,” like tingling in one or both legs.
It seems my back pain was caused by yoga. I was just following exercises from a Beginners’ Manual and the exercises were so simple they looked like those calisthenics you see kids do in school. But I love what yoga has done to me (my posture improved dramatically and my balance has steadied, being 65 years old) and didn’t want to stop for long periods of time. So I’d give it a few days’ rest then resume the yoga. But I noticed once I do only the warmups the pain like muscle strain shows up the next day when I wake up. So I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.