Lower back pain - ouch! If only you could just straighten up, gently and smoothly like most folks. All of those lucky people who don't suffer from persistent, nagging lower back pain. You can tell your fellow sufferers by that look of strain on their faces when they bend down to pick up something up off the floor. That wary, intense look of anticipating lower back pain as they straighten up. Is there anything that you can do, to overcome this state? Well yes there is and this article will give you one or two simple tips to improve your life.

Human beings are very different from apes because we stand up to walk on our two back legs. When we get tired, we do another unique thing - we sit down! These two simple acts put a terrible strain on the back and make it prone to many painful conditions, lower back pain, slipped disc, sciatica or just 'the backache'. Often these conditions are brought about by undertaking an activity like digging the garden on the first fine day of Spring. The next day the poor amateur gardener can't get out of bed without intense lower back pain. This brings about a period of enforced, painful rest and the condition eventually subsides. However, it leaves a weakness and a sudden movement, to retrieve a dropped item from the floor and ouch - that lower back pain returns!

Right let's tackle this problem - the lower back pain test! Don't move, not a muscle, observe your body position, just as it was when you were reading the opening words of this article. How are you sitting to work on your computer or laptop? Are you sitting up straight in a properly designed computer chair, with a good back support? Is the screen correctly positioned for easy reading? Wrist supports on the desk - oh you haven't got a desk? It's just balanced on your lap. Mm, you were sitting on a dining chair with your legs were crossed. How long have you sat there in that position? How long...? Because you have been concentrating on your work you have remained in a very unnatural position and your poor body has tried to adapt to it - you've reached step one in the recipe for lower back pain. You then realise the time that you've spent computing and rapidly jerk your body to attention and go to put the garbage out. Big sack of garbage today so you plant your feet firmly on either side of the bag and give it a good heave. Ouch! It's your lower back pain again.

Now you get the picture, here's the plan of action to prevent lower back pain and aches. Preventing lower back pain involves treating your body by making allowances for the way it's constructed. It's two-fold. First of all, I want you to learn how to minimise the strain you put your body under during regular day-to-day activities. When you stand up, stand tall, tuck in your chin and then tuck your tail in. Make your back into a straight line, and it is ergonomically better equipped to function. When you sit, to prevent lower back pain use a good back support; sit squared up to your activity and never cross your legs. This keeps the body correctly aligned and the flow of blood around the body is maximised.

Secondly, lower back pain prevention means you must think and plan before you carry out a tough task. This will minimise the stress you put upon your back and very much reduce the risk of episodes of lower back pain. When you lift, bend your knees. Doing this makes your big, strong thigh muscles take the strain, not the weak muscles in your back, that have to do the job if your legs are straight. When you are undertaking some unusual hard physical task that could trigger lower back pain - moving a small bush in the garden for example, the golden rule is don't do too much. It's human nature to want to complete the task but to prevent lower back pain make the job a two-day task, by digging the new hole one and digging up and transplanting the next day. This way you will avoid lower back pain and "The Ouch - I can't straighten up! "