3 Steps to Fix Back Pain | Sit – Stand – Plank

Back pain. I have it, I hear about it from others, and just about every magazine around has some article on curing back pain forever. Here’s my three step method to fix back pain: sit-stand-plank.

The solution is three steps: sit, stand, and plank.

Step 1 to Fix Back Pain – Sit Right

I know what it is like, life is full of opportunities to sit. Here is one way to describe my days for more than 20 years:

• Wake up
• Sit Down for Breakfast
• Sit in the Car to drive to the Gym
• Exercise
• Sit in the car on the way to work
• Sit all day in the cubicle, or a conference room
• Sit in the car on the way home
• Sit for dinner
• Sit and relax with family
• Go to sleep

Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating and ignoring all the midday breaks I take to run across the building to talk to someone else. Maybe I didn’t include the after dinner walks, interval runs, or snowboarding adventures. Still an average day has plenty of hours spent sitting.

Sit. The verb is part of our life whether we like it or not. So accept it and focus on your posture when sitting.

If you missed the guest post from Sukie Baxter on 7 Little Known Ways to Get Back Pain Relief at Work, go back and check it out. She gives some great tips to Sit and sit right.

Step 2 to Fix Back Pain – Stand Up

Sitting can kill us, but as information-workers what choice do we have?

Try a sit-stand workstation.

After way too many weeks of waiting my sit-stand workstation finally arrived. Check it out.

While I wish I could point you to the manufacturer and tell you all the details about the exact model I have – I can not.

You must need a security clearance to access that information. I’ve asked multiple times to learn more about this station, even long before they showed up. Each request was either blatantly ignored, or it was met with curious comments to lead me nowhere. The engineers at Sandia Laboratories are just as protective about the details of their latest project.

All I can tell you is these took over 11 weeks to arrive and came from a secret supplier deep in Michigan. That’s it.

I don’t know if they are made from unobtainium, but it would explain the secrecy and long delays.

Regardless of the source or materials, this sit-stand workstation is great. It gives me options. See the counter has a small grip located on the right side that when squeezed releases the lock to allow the surface height to be changed.

Squeeze and raise, or squeeze and lower. Wonderful is all I have to say.

By having a sit-stand workstation it is possible to implement Sukie’s Tip #7 For Back Pain Relief without leaving my desk. Just change the height and your body is in a new position. Now I still enjoy hitting the stairs, or opting to skip an email to go visit a co-worker in another part of the building. But when you have to stay at the desk a sit-stand workstation gives your back a break.

Step 3 to Fix Back Pain – Plank

The third step to fix back pain is the simple plank. Now I’m not talking about planking, no this is something different. Leave it to iJustine (or iJustine if you’ve joined me on Google Plus) to explain planking better than anyone I’ve ever seen

So forget artistic laying down, to fix back pain you need to plank. The plank is a great exercise to build core strength and more importantly stability. To do this exercise:

1. Lay flat on the ground as if you were planking
2. Arch your back and slide your arms up in front of you to support yourself on your elbows.
3. Tense your core to raise your body off the ground. Now only your toes and elbows/forearms should be on the ground.
4. Hold firm

To build your core and offset the pain of sitting all day, work in 3 – 1 minute plank sessions each day. While it might sound like a little effort, those little plank sessions (not planking sessions) will help fix back pain.

Here is a video from Bret Contreras explaining the RKC Plank. It is a harder variation of the plank, but Bret does an excellent job explaining the details of form for the movement. The video not only lets you see the basics of form, but also shows how focusing on some isometric tension can crank up the intensity as well.

Sit – Stand – Plank to Cure Back Pain