Eliminating Back Pain Talk At Pfizer

I can still recall some of those days when I was an ex-employee and kept complaining about back pain owing to long hours of seating at the desk and working at the PC.

Well, though those complaints are now long gone, but I know many office workers are facing what I used to face.

Blame it on our bad sitting posture. Blame it on the unnecessary stress placed on our shoulders. Blame it on the boss who keeps giving us unreasonable deadlines and more projects.

Whoever or whatever you want to start pointing finger to, remember you can never run away from back pain.

To put it simply, back pain can be generally classified into four segments – neck pain, upper back pain, lower back pain and tailbone pain. When the pain persists for more than 12 weeks, it’s called a chronic pain. If it comes and lasts for a short while, we name that acute pain. If it comes off and on, we term it intermittent pain.

Back pain is perhaps one of the most common grouses we hear our families, friends and colleagues complain. Well, this is not uncommon. Anyone standing, sitting or squatting in the same position for prolonged periods of time will and can be subjected to back pain.

This was what I shared with my audience at Pfizer Singapore together in my inaugural back pain talk. Largely an extension of my health and fitness workshop series, back pain is fast becoming a pet topic for many organizations which start to pay more attention to staff welfare and invest in ergonomical furniture for their employees.

As our back is one of the largest muscles of our bodies and especially since it is used to support our spine, it is of utmost importance to strengthen our back muscles.

Strengthening our back muscles can come in many forms, ranging from regular exercise to adopting a proper lifting posture when carrying heavy items.

No talk of mine is complete with any form of audience participation. Whether it is stretching backwards or touching one’s toes or massaging your colleague, it’s all in the name of good fun…while giving our back that stretch it so long deserves.

And responding to the popular requests from the audience, I demonstrated two floor body stretches which everyone can do anytime, anywhere…even in the comfort of your living room.

The first is the bridge, followed by superman fly. I chose these two as they are the most basic. Once you have mastered the two basic stretches, then we can move on to more intermediate ones. And please treat your back well 🙂