Don’t Ruin your Holiday!

Great news. The sun is shining, and it’s holiday time!

Most of us have been couped up for the best part of a year, probably getting a lot less exercise than normal and possibly desperately needing some treatment for pain. Every year we get a surge of clients who have put their back out and need urgent help to resolve back pain before their holiday. This year it’s likely to be a bigger surge due to the relatively low activity due to COVID dragging on.

We are here to help and we will no doubt be able to get you out of pain in time for your holiday. But it’s important to realise that in most cases we won’t have enough time to completely fix the problem, so you will need to be a bit careful on your much looked forward to holiday.

Here is some simple advice to help you avoid ruining your holiday

First, let’s understand pain a little. When we are in pain, it’s difficult to get it off our minds. But once it’s gone, you can’t remember it, can you? You can remember you didn’t like the pain, but you can’t recreate the pain in your mind. There lies the risk.

Once the pain is gone, it’s forgotten and we feel good.  Then we do stupid things and the pain comes back with a vengeance.  What is one of the main culprits? Suitcases.

If you think about basic health & safety when picking things up, the rule is bend your legs, not your back. It makes sense, but not easy to do when putting a heavy suitcase in the boot of the car, or fighting to get the suitcase off the conveyor at the airport.  Worse yet, one sure way of putting your back out is to lift and twist as the same time.  What do you do when you take a suitcase out of the boot?  You are in the way, so you twist and put the suitcase down! Ouch, home goal. Now for the Physiotherapy

Stop and think

Try two lighter suitcases instead of one heavy one. Bend your legs putting the suitcases in the boot, or even get two of you to do it. When you take a suitcase out of the boot, avoid twisting, instead rotate on your feet, like a robot.

Be extra careful with airport conveyors. They tend to be a free for all, and fighting to get a suitcase off before it goes past is a sure way to put excessive lifting and twisting loads on your back.

We have had many clients who ruined their holiday before it started. Don’t let that be you.