Take Breaks to Avoid Injuries
If you're like most people who rush to get tasks or jobs accomplished, there is a good chance you are increasing the risk for an injury.
These tasks can include everything from work related tasks at your place of employment, yard work, housework or even driving on your family vacation.
This is especially true if you have chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as low back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain or knee pain.
One of the simplest things we can do to help avoid an injury is to take a short break.
Without taking a short break, we are often pushing our bodies to the limit.
Remember, there's a fine line between soreness for an activity or task verses pain from overdoing it.
Usually we don't know where that fine line is between soreness and pain.
When we cross over to the pain side, the pain usually sticks around for a while.
Take for example somebody with chronic low back or neck issues who drives a lot.
This could be a sales person who often drives for extended distances or periods of time or a family that is driving to their next vacation.
For people who drive often or long distances, a good rule of thumb is to stop and stretch approximately every one and a half hours.
The vast majority of people ignore this simple rule because they just want to arrive at their destination.
They will say something to the effect; "If I stopped every one and a half hours, the trip will take me forever and we will never get there.
" This same concept holds true for activities such as weeding the garden or flower beds, raking leaves or cleaning out the garage or basement.
Most times people get on a roll and want to finish all at once because if they stop, they may not want to start again.
So they stay hunched over or in a crouched position for extended periods of time and can't get up from that position and then have a hard time getting out of bed the next morning.
Simply put, by not taking a short break to stretch or walk around from our work or tasks, increases our risk of straining our muscles and/or over stretching our joints.
This is especially important for people that perform repetitive motion type tasks.
Also, people with degeneration or arthritis (specifically osteoarthritis) in their joints can become irritate their condition by performing tasks without taking a break(s).
These tasks can include everything from work related tasks at your place of employment, yard work, housework or even driving on your family vacation.
This is especially true if you have chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as low back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain or knee pain.
One of the simplest things we can do to help avoid an injury is to take a short break.
Without taking a short break, we are often pushing our bodies to the limit.
Remember, there's a fine line between soreness for an activity or task verses pain from overdoing it.
Usually we don't know where that fine line is between soreness and pain.
When we cross over to the pain side, the pain usually sticks around for a while.
Take for example somebody with chronic low back or neck issues who drives a lot.
This could be a sales person who often drives for extended distances or periods of time or a family that is driving to their next vacation.
For people who drive often or long distances, a good rule of thumb is to stop and stretch approximately every one and a half hours.
The vast majority of people ignore this simple rule because they just want to arrive at their destination.
They will say something to the effect; "If I stopped every one and a half hours, the trip will take me forever and we will never get there.
" This same concept holds true for activities such as weeding the garden or flower beds, raking leaves or cleaning out the garage or basement.
Most times people get on a roll and want to finish all at once because if they stop, they may not want to start again.
So they stay hunched over or in a crouched position for extended periods of time and can't get up from that position and then have a hard time getting out of bed the next morning.
Simply put, by not taking a short break to stretch or walk around from our work or tasks, increases our risk of straining our muscles and/or over stretching our joints.
This is especially important for people that perform repetitive motion type tasks.
Also, people with degeneration or arthritis (specifically osteoarthritis) in their joints can become irritate their condition by performing tasks without taking a break(s).
