Pain Free Motion™ for your Lower Back
Culprits
Chapter 8:
9 Culprits:
Little Things you do everyday
To cause BIG Problems in your back.
1. Sit on your wallet. Bad idea. I know it’s a habit
… and your wife thinks it’s cool that you have a wallet
mark on the back pocket of your Levi’s … but your back
does not agree. There is no prize for having more receipts
stuffed in your wallet than George Castanza. Sitting on
your wallet, even if there’s no money in it, causes a shift
in every bone in your spine. Long term, it creates uneven
wear and tear on your back.
Good idea: Switch it to the front.
2. Crossing your legs. At the ankles, at the knee, on the
couch, leaning to the side, in standing, lying in bed, when
you are sitting … it does not matter how and when you
cross your legs. Long term doing it day after day, causes
stretching of ligaments which hold your pelvis together.
3. Standing with your weight shifted. If you are a long
time back pain sufferer, you have probably developed little
compensations you do throughout your day to minimize
your pain. One such error is putting more weight on the
other when you are standing. Keep it even.
62 Pain Free Motion™ for your Lower Back
Chapter 8 Culprits
Culprits
4. Poor lifting techniques. Bad advice: “Keep your
back straight and use your legs”. If you take this to mean:
You are in trouble. Better instruction is to think “Keep
your back arched, while using your hips and legs to lift.”
5. Lousy sitting posture. Hunch your shoulders and
keep your back arched. Tough to do both, right? Keeping
your shoulders back while you sit will help you keep the
slight arch in your lower back as well.
6. Sitting in a seat with your knees above your hips. If
your hips are slightly higher than your knees, it is easy to
keep a slight curve in your back. If your knees are higher
than your hips (which they usually are when you are riding
in a car), it is difficult to keep an arch in your back.
63
Putting It All Together Chapter 9
Putting It All
Together
Pain Free Motion™ for your Lower Back
7. Running a vacuum or shaving your legs with one
foot on a bench. Both of these movements “shear” you
pelvis. This means that half of your pelvis is rotating one
way while the other half is rotating the other way. Long
term this creates uneven wear and tear on your pelvis.
8. Sleeping on your stomach. Bad idea. It is best to
sleep on your back. Second best option is to sleep on your
side. Sleeping on your stomach speeds up the process
of developing lower back arthritis, stenosis and disc
degeneration.
9. Lifting and twisting. The combination of lifting
something and twisting at the same time puts stress on the
discs in your lower back. This is a good way to herniate a
disc in your back.

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