After the day of lovers, Valentine's Day, and all sorts of nonsense days, Carnival, there is one day in March that interests at least as many people: This Back Health Day! Albeit for a completely different reason. If you believe current studies, back pain is the new widespread German disease. Accordingly, Back Health Day is likely to attract great interest. As every year, it is organized by the “Healthy Back Campaign” (AGR) and the “Federal Association of German Back Schools” (BdR). This year in focus: the balance – in two senses.
- Leader: Back
- A matter of opinion: the “back health” model
- Less stress, more exercise
Leader: Back
The front runner is an old friend: the back. Most absenteeism on workplace are due to musculoskeletal diseases, the highest proportion of which, according to the TK Health Report 2016, is due to problems with the back. There are many reports like this and if you delve into the matter a little, even a layperson can come to the conclusion that back diseases have become enormously more important in the last five years. Since the reading is extensive and diverse, and numerous university studies and health insurance reports deal with the topic in different ways, a specific comparison is impossible. However, the picture that emerges is quite clear: back pain is still the number one disease in Germany, closely followed by psychological problems.
It's not difficult to suspect a connection between first and second place - and not much more difficult to find concrete evidence for it. The “Healthy Back Campaign,” for example, gives a very clear indication in this direction and sets the motto for this year’s day of action: “Find balance – strengthen your back“. The motto is based on the knowledge that 90 percent of back problems are not caused by serious illnesses, but rather result from various psychological or physical problems. In quite a few cases, these problems interact.
A matter of opinion: the “back health” model
According to the AGR description, back pain is the result of a physical or mental imbalance - or the interaction of several imbalances. To put it figuratively, you can imagine back health as a large seesaw on which there are two small seesaws. The small rocker on the left represents the body struggling to balance stress and recovery, while on the other side the psyche does the same. Only when the two small seesaws are in balance will the large seesaw on which they stand also be balanced - and your back health will be in balance.
Analogously, this means that physical imbalance - possibly caused by sitting too much on the Office chair and too little compensatory exercise after work – can make your back just as sick as a mental imbalance. The imbalance of too much sitting and hardly any stress can lead to an imbalance in the system, just as too much stress during normal physical strain can result from a sustained sitting position with sufficient balance.
“Both too much strain and too little exercise and rest are poison for the back,” says a current AGR press release. "Those affected should reflect on their everyday lives themselves. They often become aware of where the pain could come from." A balanced amount of exercise is very important. It is therefore recommended that people in sedentary jobs take at least ten thousand steps a day: “Many don’t even get to half that,” is the experience of the back experts. Another cause of back pain can be “muscular imbalances”. "In order to carry out a movement, a muscle shortens and its counterpart stretches. If a muscle is permanently shortened, for example due to a lack of exercise or poor posture, this leads to pain." By sitting monotonously for hours every day Desk the back muscles atrophy and the sitting position causes the abdominal and leg muscles to atrophy.
The bottom line: When it comes to back pain, there is usually more to it. Obvious factors, such as physical deficits, are just as important as less obvious ones, namely psychological ones. This message appears to be more important, especially in the light of the prevailing opinion that psychological stress caused by constant stress, bullying or strokes of fate is at best a question of character. The conclusion must therefore be: when it comes to back health, the psyche is at least as important as the physical one. The solution: On the one hand, actively avoid stress and, on the other hand, create a counterbalance to daily inactivity through conscious activities.
Less stress, more exercise
While the topic of “stress” must be addressed individually (-> See also the article Ways to cope with stress), the matter of physical prophylaxis is a little simpler: It helps to make the topic of “exercise” a fixed date in the daily calendar madness and to help the body balance out regularly rather than overly physically active. The “Healthy Back Campaign” also helps. On the homepage www.agrcoach.de On Back Health Day, the association gives those interested the opportunity to attend one of the Pros free of charge and from home. designed back training. The club promises that anyone who registers for free on the homepage in March 2017 will receive comprehensive training videos and nutrition plans as well as the “5 minute back training” free of charge. The videos are taken from the book of the same name by health trainer Manuel Eckardt.
With one rule of thumb in mind, you can do a lot for your body without registering or using the internet. The “Ten Thousand Step Rule” already mentioned by the “Aktion Gesunder Back” association defines a daily exercise goal. It most likely originated in an office of Japanese advertising professionals who were supposed to market a pedometer in the 1960s. The number 10,000 should suggest a palatable goal - but the number is neither the result of a clinical examination nor of empirical values. Nevertheless, no doctor will deny that regular exercise has a positive effect on the body - and walking ten thousand steps a day is indeed an attractive goal. Some experts praise the positive effects of daily exercise in terms of preventing chronic diseases, the cardiovascular system and the musculoskeletal system - but even without an expert it is clear that daily exercise is healthy. Not just for the back.