The stupid things we do to ourselves

Since December my lower back has been sore off and on. I’m fine when I get up in the morning usually, but come mid afternoon I become a hunch back. Same applies if I sit in front of the computer for too long. My back gets stiff and aches like crazy.

This morning I figured out why my back has been making such a pill of itself lately. It’s not because of the cats hogging the bed, or hurting myself while working out, it’s the way I’ve been sleeping.

This is hard to describe, but I’ll do my best. Imagine a normal spine, but near the tail bone it’s pointed in a upward/outward position and staying that way for 7-9 hours while sleeping.

The only thing I can figure is that my back is considerably more flexable than it used to be, so now I sleep in this really weird position. To rectify the problem, I went out and bought a back brace. It isn’t really comfortable, but it feels good to have my spine in the position that it’s supposed to be in versus the one it wants to be in.

They say you don’t want to keep your back in one position for too long. Ie, you probably don’t want to wear the brace all night–do some bracing, some old position, some deliberate sleep-differently.

And do (start lightly) some back-stretching and some strengthening exercises.

On all fours, cat-hunch then sway-back for instance. No straining, increase load very slowly over period of weeks or longer.

[/end free advice]

Dumb stuff? I’ve injured my back by doing the opposite of what I just wrote…twice.