Why do lower back injuries never seem to heal?

It seems like once you injure your lower back, you always have a tendency to reinjure it or the pain just never goes away completely. When you injure your back at work, there is a good chance that you will have another injury or that you will not completely be able to heal unless you take time off work. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the most common causes of lower back pain are strains and sprains, which both require time to heal properly.

Many times, these injuries occur due to overstressing the muscles in the lower back. Twisting as part of your job or lifting are common reasons why you may experience back pain. These repetitive motions put a lot of wear on your muscles and ligaments in the back. When you do not stop doing these movements, it leads to chronic or long-term pain that does not seem to ever go away.

Rest and recovery

While you may think that the most effective way to fix your back pain is to rest for a long time, this is not true. Resting your back for a couple of days after the onset of pain is a good idea, but after that, you should get moving again. You do need to be mindful of your injury and make sure you avoid actions that could cause stress on the area.

Moving can help get the blood flowing, which will aid in recovery. Laying still and avoiding movement will make recovery take longer and could lead to the pain continuing for longer as well. Furthermore, when you stop being active, you could lose flexibility, gain weight and reduce muscle strength, which will all impact your back negatively.

Stopping the pain

What you do not do can be just as important as what you do when it comes to healing a back issue. When your problem is a strain or sprain, you need to avoid lying about and restricting movement after the first 48 hours. You want to be active and try to encourage healing while also being aware of anything that could aggravate your back, but this does not mean going back to work. Continuing the activities that led to the back injury is not going to help with healing. In addition, once you do go back to work, you need safeguards in place to prevent a reoccurrence.