How aware are you of your body’s movements? In your daily life, you are accustomed to taking many actions that may cause damage to your body. Here are eight such positions or activities that doctors suggest people avoid.
8 motions that can harm the body
1. Bending over to lift heavy objects
Bending over to lift heavy objects can easily injure the lumbar spine. When you bend over to lift something heavy, the pressure on your body’s lower back will be twice as much as when you are standing usually, which can result in lumbar spine injuries.
When moving heavy objects, you should bend your knees and squat down, keep your back straight, and keep the object as close as possible to your body. Use the legs to support the body, stand up slowly, and avoid sudden movements.
2. A sedentary lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle may trigger health problems such as shoulder, neck, and back pain. This can even include obesity, cancer, and other diseases.
When some people sit, they like to fold their legs. This incorrect posture will further increase the pressure on the lumbar and thoracic spines. The pressure will not only cause spinal distortion or lateral curvature, but also increase the risk of gynecological inflammation in women, which can easily cause infertility.
Stand up once every 30 minutes. You should also maintain the correct posture when you sit: back straight, shoulders naturally down. When using the keyboard and mouse, keeping your hands, wrists, and forearms straight, with elbows bent at right angles and placed on both sides of your body, is best.
3. Putting your head down to use a cell phone or sleep
Bowing the head to use a cell phone may cause about 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of heavy pressure on the neck muscles, equivalent to the weight of a 7 or 8-year-old child sitting on your neck. Over time, the muscles on your neck are overloaded from pulling your head forward. The curvature of the cervical vertebrae is destabilized, causing cervical spondylosis.
Sleeping at a desk or chair with your neck bent forward means you can’t relax the cervical spine and neck muscles. But with this posture, your neck is twisted, and spinal joints remain twisted; this is not conducive to maintaining the physiological curvature of the cervical spine and may lead to cervical problems. If you nap in this position for an extended period, you will likely experience dizziness and other symptoms. People with cervical spondylosis or neck pain should not sleep on their stomachs, as this will aggravate their condition.
Try to sleep flat on your back. If conditions do not permit, you can sit in a chair with a U-shaped pillow on your neck to avoid cervical discomfort caused by awkward angles. When using the cell phone, you should relax your neck, not bow your head, and raise it to your eye level.
4. Climbing the stairs as an exercise
For young people, climbing stairs is no problem at all. But for older people, this is not an ideal exercise for your body. That’s because, with more weight on the knee joints, there’s more chance of joint cartilage wear and tear.
You can occasionally climb stairs for exercise, but do not climb stairs daily. If your leg muscles aren’t strong enough, avoiding climbing stairs is better. In addition, avoid too much weight-loading in daily life.
5. Reclining too often
Half-lying on the bed or sofa to read books, watch TV, or play mobile games seems quite cozy, but this posture is highly unhealthy for your body’s lumbar spine.
When people are half lying, the lumbar spine will lack adequate support, resulting in a changed arc. The pressure on the intervertebral discs will continue to increase and cause injury to the lumbar spine. Over time, this may lead to muscle strain and scoliosis, or even lumbago, cervical spondylosis, and lumbar disc herniation.
Standing and sitting with proper posture looks good and benefits the body.
6. Forceful bowel movements
When you try to defecate by force, the relevant muscles in your body contract strongly. The pressure on your abdomen rises along with your blood pressure, so it is easy to induce rectal prolapse, anal fissures, hemorrhoids, and so on. In addition, straining to defecate is also one of the primary causes of cardiovascular disease in the elderly.
Don’t defecate deliberately when you don’t need to. If you are constipated, you can try to adjust your lifestyle by eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more water, and exercising. If there is no improvement, we recommend that you see a doctor.
7. Placing a landline phone between your head and shoulder
Some people are used to pressing a landline phone receiver between the shoulder and neck to take a call in the office. This action will overstress one side of the cervical spine, resulting in neck muscle spasms and excessive fatigue. As a result, neck pain and cervical spondylosis may occur.
It’s best to hand-hold the phone receiver when answering a call and change hands every few minutes to avoid excessive muscle tension on one side. Or sometimes, use headphones to listen to the phone to free your hands and protect your neck.
8. Putting on pants while standing
Data shows that falls are one of the leading causes of death for people over 65 years old. This is because when you get older, your joints age and become osteoporotic, and your balance also deteriorates. Therefore, you can fall very quickly if you try putting on pants while standing.
Older adults have fragile bones, and a fall can easily result in a fracture. Fractures are especially scary for older adults — especially hip fractures, with a mortality rate as high as 50 percent. If you also hit your head, the consequences of secondary injuries are also dire.
For older people, avoid balancing on one leg to put on pants; it’s safer to sit on a bed or chair to put on clothes.
