It takes a lot of discipline and planning to carve time for any kind of physical activity daily. This is because the most common work position requires a person to sit eight hours on average. Sitting all day affects your back and can cause back pain. However, some back problems need to be mentioned, and they should be addressed. While some percentage of back pain can be due to a sedentary lifestyle, and it should be treated, there are also other dangers of ignoring back pain.
Try to mitigate the pain
Whether you’ve just been sitting more than moving over the past few days or pushed yourself over the limit at the gym, pain is still pain. If the first is the cause of pain, try to mitigate it by taking a break from sitting every hour. Then, incorporate light stretches when you wake up and before sleep. This will increase your flexibility, improves blood flow and reduces stiffness, thus reducing pain. When you can improve the range of movement, the pain will slowly reduce and go away.
If you’ve hit it hard at the gym, so you feel tightness in your back or pain, you should take some rest days, ice the area, and introduce light stretches in your routine. The key here is to assess previous behaviour that led to discomfort, back pain or stiffness.
It can easily become worse
The main danger of experiencing back pain, ignoring it, not trying to reduce it, fix it, slowing down with your workouts, moving more and stretching more is that it can easily worsen. Something you’ve ignored for too long, or just ignored as something that will go on its own, can easily become worse.
You would ignore the pain and continue with your daily behaviour, like sitting for extended periods or continuing with your regular workouts, which can add to your current state. The cumulative effect leads to the worsening of the issue. The alternative to ignoring the pain is to act and seek adequate help.
It may cause other health issues
Ignoring your back pain for too long can also worsen by causing other problems like fatigue, loss of strength, muscle weakness, muscle strain, numbness, nerve damage, throbbing pain, tingling sensation, spine injury, etc. But each can be avoided if you act when you realise that pain is not going away. Nonetheless, as soon as you identify the problem, you’ll be advised to get the appropriate treatment, physical exercise, rehab exercise or sometimes even surgery.
It can be more than just a consequence of too much sitting
Pain is always just a symptom of the problem. But, when you ignore the pain for too long, it can only amplify a problem. In such cases, a solution to a back problem can result in getting spine or brain surgery. In such cases, you will be advised to seek a solution to a problem by consulting with a brain surgeon in Brisbane or anywhere near you. That’s why it’s imperative never to ignore back pain, particularly if the quality of life deteriorates. If the answer to your problems is a neurosurgeon or orthopaedic spinal surgeon, it only means you’ve ignored the back pain for too long. So, don’t ignore the pain and seek the right medical help.
Lower quality of life
If your every move is painful, if you can’t bend down or reach to get something, if you’ve ignored the back pain for too long, now you have to rest, your quality of life will deteriorate. You might have trouble focusing because you feel pain or discomfort. You might need help doing basic things like tying your shoelaces, going to the bathroom or being efficient at work.
You might even miss out on travel, family gatherings or fun nights out with your friends because you can’t stand for too long or sit for extended periods, Either way, you look, there’s an immense danger of ignoring your health for too long. If you want to lead an optimal life, stay healthy and mobile, and act when you feel something is wrong with your body.
Change in posture
You need to look at your posture if you’re experiencing back pain. How do you usually sit while working or during your home leisure time? Bad posture can cause tension in your spine and be the reason behind your back problem. Maybe your back muscles are too weak, so the solution might be to get into corrective back exercises that will fix your posture and strengthen your musculature.
Work with a physiotherapist or a personal trainer to fix your posture. Also, don’t forget to assess your workstation. Is your chair the reason behind your poor posture? Can you get a new chair to support your back and spine health? If you can’t get a new chair at work because they don’t have a budget, try negotiating a hybrid work model. This way, you can get a new chair for your home office and learn how to mind your posture while at work. You can just bring a pillow so it helps you sit correctly.
A longer period of recovery
The fact that you’ve ignored back pain for longer than you should can prolong the recovery period. A minor issue might have become a herniated disc or reduced range of motion, stiffness, or nerve damage. In such a situation, the person in pain might have to go to physical therapy for an extended period of time. The goal is always to try to reduce the pain and obtain mobility and range of motion without heading to surgery right away.
Physical activity is the cure, as we’re meant to move, not just sit our entire day. Our bodies can do amazing things; we just need to treat them right, give them the right energy source and proper sleep and challenge them with physical exercise.
These seven hidden dangers of ignoring your back pain are enough to convince you to pay more attention to your habits, posture and how you treat your body. Learn how to stretch for short intervals during your workday to reduce tension caused by sitting and move more throughout your week. If you feel back pain, don’t ignore the signs and seek professional help.
