Sitting in a poorly constructed or positioned seat can make poor posture while driving even more problematic. Lucky for you–the BackShield addresses the core issues that lead to chronic back pain.
Back pain. Believe it or not, back pain is one of the most common reasons for a person to visit a doctor’s office. In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, 8 of 10 people will experience some type of back pain over the course of their lifetime.
For truck drivers, living with back pain is as normal as you or I drinking a cup of coffee in the morning.
Truck drivers and back pain seem to go hand and hand. Why? Well, it isn’t a secret that driving a truck involves sitting for extended periods of time followed by heavy lifting.
It’s just the nature of the job.
Strict delivery deadlines also complicate trucker life; there just isn’t time to stop and stretch or move. All of these things are the perfect recipe for back pain.
Sitting for extended periods of time while driving encourages the body to slouch.
This position causes strain on the muscles in the neck and back. It can also reduce the circulation in the legs. Sitting in a poorly constructed or positioned seat can make poor posture while driving even more problematic.
Lucky for you–the BackShield addresses the core issues that lead to chronic back pain. The BackShield actually assists in supporting the natural curvature of the spine and works—unlike cushions, beads and other variations of back supports on the market.
Its unique design promotes good posture, assists with proper circulation, and provides pain relief to the lower back.
So, If you don’t have a BackShield yet, you’ve GOT to get one! It will save your back from a lot of pain in the first place. Get 10% off at checkout when you use my link!
Four Tips To Improve Lower Back Pain
- Pelvic Tilts
- Strengthen Your Core
- Roll Your Back Out
- Stretch Your Back Muscles
Pelvic tilts are an easy and very effective movement anyone and everyone can do, especially truck drivers when dealing with back pain. It is my #1 go-to move for just about anyone with lower back pain.
This simple exercise focuses on strengthening and stretching muscles of the core that are associated with discomfort in this area.
Pelvic tilts require you to tip the pelvis back and forward at varying degrees to help release tightness and also build resilience and strength in the pelvic area, lower back, and abdomen.
Although it is a simple movement, pelvic tilts can strengthen your abdominal’s, ease lower back tension and pain, and optimally position your pelvis.
To learn more about how to perform a proper pelvic tilt, read my blog on pelvic tilts for truckers.
Your core strength is vital in maintaining back support and reducing back pain, yet few really truly understand where their core is, how to access it and how to safely use it.
When you are in pain the last thing you want to do is hurt yourself again, so starting small is essential, but that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful.
Bracing is a position or movement that teaches us how to co-contract our core (contract our entire core muscles simultaneously), that does not require us to suck in our push out. Bracing give us the strength and a feeling for what it is like to use our core in everyday life, exactly what we need to do in the future to not end up here again.
Using a soft foam roller allows us to access various levels of tissues in our bodies. It is often said that by using a foam roller, one can reduce the tension and pain in several areas of the body.
Foam rolling allows us to release the “snag” and move the tissues (fascia, muscle, connective tissue) around in a way that will make it more pliable for movement and more user-friendly for stretching.
I have been working with individuals for nearly 20 years with all sorts of ailments.
Yoga is something that any truck driver, making long hauls day after day, could benefit from. While out on the road, movement can be limited and stress can be high.
Yoga can be a natural solution to both.
Time to decompress and breathe with Mother Trucker Yoga, all the while stretching and meeting some of the daily movement requirements of the body.
Yoga is a mind-body therapy that’s often recommended to treat not only back pain but the stress that accompanies it. More specifically, addressing your hip flexors through yoga is vital to getting to the bottom of lower back pain.
When our front butt is tight it can enable our back to go haywire.
Unlocking your hip flexors and psoas will not only help you feel relief in the lower back (and hip flexors) but also releasing your psoas– due to the nature of our psoas attaching into the diaphragm and ribs, is linked to better breathing as well.
These simple tips could be the changes you need in order to put back pain in your rearview mirror for good.
I challenge you to add them to your routine today!
Backshield / Hope Zvara from TnF Videos / Rachel Womack on Vimeo.
