Jul
I work as a buss boy at a restaurant. The buss pans are usually very heavy for me. At the end of the night, I have the ability to feel it in my back. It's not necessarily a pain, but my back becomes very exhausted. I was wondering if the action of lifting a shoulder-length-apart buss pan to my chest was building muscle or damaging my back. I don't want to have back problems when I get older.
If it is damaging, how can I successfully lift the pan?
Answer:
Anytime you lift something, heavy or not, you run the risk of back strain/injury. If you have to reach and stretch to get the pans, you will be causing damage. If you can't stand straight while carrying the pans, you will cause damage.
To avoid back pain later, strengthen your core NOW. Both the abs and the back need to be strengthened to keep the core strong. An exercise ball would be a good, low intensity way of getting this started. You can find them anywhere (Dick's, Sports Authority, Target, etc). If you can find one with instructional DVDs or cards, that would be even better.
Vic J
Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist (ACSM)
Answer:
It is probably helping your back, because it's making it stronger. Did you ever try to exercise and find out the next day that you pulled muscles? Then when you keep doing it the muscles don't pull? This is probably what's happening. After a while, your back shouldn't hurt as much. Hope I helped, and good luck!
Answer:
I had a similar problem. It could be the fact that you’re on your feet so much. I tried doing stretching exercises in the mornings when I woke up. Not exercises - stretching mostly. But stretching exercises is the term. Things that stretch out the back muscles. Just about 10 minutes worth each morning. And that worked. It took a month to realize the benefits, but it did indeed work. And the back fatigue and anguish went away