Top 5 Causes Of Back Pain At Work
If you’re regularly affected by back pain, you’re not alone. In fact, back pain is one of the most common medical problems in Malaysia!
Four out of five adults in Malaysia will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives!
While this can come from injury, activity, or a few medical conditions, back pain is often attributed to work — be it poor posture or improper use of force, there are plenty of causes of back pain that you really shouldn't ignore.
As back pain can affect people of any age, for different reasons, let's investigate what causes back pain and how work injury back pains can be treated by physiotherapists!
What Are The Most Common Causes Of Back Pain At Work?New Paragraph
There are three main factors or categories that you can classify back pain caused from work:
- Improper force
Exerting excessive force with your back muscles improperly. This is common when attempting to lift or move heavy objects
- Unhealthy repetition of motion
While they may not be particularly dangerous movements, repeating specific movements that involve twisting or rotating your spine can potentially trigger or worsen back pain
- Long periods of inactivity
This is the most common cause for office workers — a 9AM to 6PM (or more) desk job is particularly stressful for your back especially if paired with poor posture
With that, here are some common work tasks or conditions that are the main culprits of causing or worsening back pain:
- Lifting heavy or bulky loads
- Carrying loads awkwardly, possibly one-handed
- Pushing, pulling or dragging heavy loads
- Manual handling in awkward places, such as during delivery work
- Repetitive tasks, such as packing products
- Bending, crouching or stooping
- Stretching, twisting and reaching
- Being in one position for a long time
- Working beyond your capability or when physically overtired
- Working with display screen equipment (with poor posture)
- Driving long distances or over rough ground, especially if the seat is not, or cannot be, properly adjusted or operating heavy equipment
How Can Physiotherapy Help Treat And Prevent Back Pain From Work?
A physiotherapist will be able to take a look at the above factors and causes to help you to identify what's the main cause of your back pain!
Once it has been identified, you can get started with pain management as well as back pain recovery.
Your physiotherapy sessions will normally involve a range of muscle exercises, learning safe movement patterns and identifying unhealthy movements and habits from your everyday life that can contribute to back pain.
An example of this includes:
- Personalized exercise programs designed to improve your strength, range of motion, and function
- Therapeutic manual therapy
- Joint mobilization and manipulation to reduce pain and stiffness
- Hot and cold packs and modalities to relieve pain, reduce swelling, speed up the healing process, and improve movement and function
- Airway clearance methods to assist people with breathing difficulties
- Management of incontinence including pelvic floor re-education
- Functional activity and tolerance testing and training
- Work and occupational re-training and return to work planning
- Prescription, fabrication and application of assistive, adaptive, supportive and protective devices and equipment
What Are A Few Simple Steps You Can Take To Prevent Back Pain At Work?
Apart from physiotherapy, taking small but meaningful steps to prevent or reduce back pain from work includes:
- Pay attention to posture. Exercise good posture when sitting for long periods of time. This includes choosing a chair that supports your lower back and adjusting it so that its height allows your feet to rest flat on the floor.
- Lift heavy objects properly. When attempting to lift or carry heavy objects, follow the right procedure or method by bending your knees and tightening your stomach muscles to do so. Utilise your leg muscles in order to support your body as you push your body upwards. Lastly, if it is too heavy to be lifted safely, get assistance!
- Optimise your sitting posture and position. For those who work long hours at a computer, it is extremely helpful for things like monitors, keyboards, mousepads and chairs to be aligned and positioned in the right way.
- Listen to your body. If you must sit for a prolonged period, change your position often. Periodically walk around and gently stretch your muscles to relieve tension.
Choose Well Rehab as your preferred physiotherapy centre to treat back pain in Malaysia
Back pain can seriously affect your quality of everyday life. At Well Rehab, we can help you recover and prevent from experiencing back pain or injury in the future with professional physiotherapy treatments.
As Malaysia's leading provider of physiotherapy services, we are the preferred, qualified and certified professionals that are trusted nationwide.
For more information about our therapies or services in Malaysia, you may contact us at +60 12 512 8487 or email
wellrehabmanagement@gmail.com
