(ThyBlackMan.com) Men suffer from many back problems that cause them undue pain. If you’re one of those men, here’s what’s likely causing you so much trouble, and what you can do for prevention.
Your Poor Posture Is Killing Your Back
If you slouch, you’re undoubtedly causing a lot of strain in your low back. Rounding your upper back, the thoracic spine, causes a natural curve in your low back as a compensatory mechanism. This, in turn, causes some pretty nasty facet joint pain, and can be the cause of unending back pain.
Straighten up by putting your back up against a flat wall (with no trim on the floor), heels flush against the wall. Put the back of your head against the wall and tuck your chin. If you are having trouble visualising this, place a tennis ball under your chin and hold it to your sternum and then raise your chest until the back of your head touches the wall.
Now, squeeze your butt slightly until your stomach flattens out a bit. This is proper posture. Feels weird, right? That’s because you’ve been standing wrong your whole life.
Work on maintaining this posture everywhere you go and your back will feel much better. You can also buy the Lumo Lift, which is an 
app that helps you keep from slouching by monitoring your shoulder position in space. When you slouch, you get a gentle buzz to remind you to stand up.
It’s annoying until you start standing up straight.
Loosen Tight Muscles
If you have tight low back muscles, you can use a foam rolling device to work that out. Muscle kinks can turn into spasms, and spasms equal pain. According to Neel Mehta, M.D., director of outpatient pain medicine at Weill-Cornell Pain Medicine Center, using a foam roller might just do the trick.
They cost about £10-£30, and you just lay on them and smash your low back muscles into the foam, rolling around on the roller, almost like a rolling pin, using your bodyweight as leverage. It sort of feels like a deep tissue massage. It’s painful at first, but over time, your muscles loosen up and you feel a whole lot better.
Talk To Your Employer
If you’ve been injured at work, the cause of your low back pain might be obvious. Employers have certain responsibilities to ensure a reasonably safe working environment. If they don’t, they could be held liable. Specialist claims firms like http://www.slatergordon.co.uk are accustomed to seeing these kind of claims.
First, speak with your safety officer or person about what can be done about the unsafe conditions at work. Try to come to some kind of an agreement about what can be done to change the environment and what the employer will do to help you recover.
Stay Active
If you can’t do much in the way of exercising, at the very least you should be getting outside to walk around. Slow movement that’s constant will get the blood going, and it will often make your back feel better. The trick is to change up how you walk. Instead of using the sidewalks all the time, try walking through the grass or over uneven terrain.
Try not to walk with your quad muscles, which requires you to lean over. Instead, use your glute (butt) muscles to “push” yourself forward. This is sometimes known as “glide walking.” The alternative is literally a series of “falling steps,” where each step puts sheer force on the knees and back.
Olivia Ellis works in physiotherapy and likes to share her insights with an online audience. You can find her thoughts posted on a number of relevant websites.
Staff Writer; Bob Turner
