20 July 2013

The Lower Back is a Stupid Invention

That chair shouldn’t be there; I’ll just move it out of the wayyyaaaaaarrrgggh! Damn, damn, damn! I’ve done it again! I’ll just wait a bit, maybe it’ll settle down. I’ll take a small step. Electric jolts of pain! Yep, my back is stuffed again.

That was a month ago. I had three days off work, and it took at least two weeks for my back to be back to say 80%; it’s maybe 95% now. That was the second time I have injured my back, the first time was around three years ago. I really don’t want that experience of being reduced to an invalid, ever again, or at least not until I’m 92, so I have decided to be more proactive in looking after my back.

Front pocket wallet. In retrospect this is obvious: sitting on a butt brick all day is bound to put uneven pressure on your lower back, which can’t be good. Doing this on an oscillating bus seat to and from work, is probably even worse.

So I bought my self a new wallet, a Koyono X Slimmy Stealth, and started putting it the front right pocket of my jeans, instead of the back pocket. It is great! Definitely more comfortable. I still don’t know why I didn’t think to do this earlier.

Height adjustable, standing desk. I’m a software developer, and therefore I sit all day at work, and often for a bit at night too. Sitting too often is bad, and not just for your back. After a lot of research, only yesterday I ordered a GeekDesk v3 electric height adjustable desk from geekdesk.com in the US. I should receive it in about two weeks. The idea is to stand up as much as possible while I am at home, to compensate for sitting down at work all day. I’ll probably write some more about the desk after I have used it for a while.

Stretching and walking. I am doing a series of stretches targeting my lower back most days, and I’ll continue to aim to do a decent walk every day. We always have been pretty big walkers anyway.

That’s the plan so far.