How many times have you been in a situation where you’ve done a tremendous amount of work that seemingly went completely unnoticed? Maybe you prepared a big holiday feast for several family members with nary an acknowledgement, or felt hurt when that beautiful gift you took so much time to pick out and wrap never got a thank-you in return. Or maybe you feel unappreciated and overlooked every day at work! Your boss barely grunts when you turn in an assignment and doesn’t even seem to notice you at any other time.
If it’s easy to feel a bit hurt when your hard work is overlooked, imagine how your back must feel! The back muscles are the largest set of muscles in the body and they work all the time, every minute of the day, even when you’re asleep. Sure, you can get off your feet and give your leg muscles a break or soak in a tub and give those tired arms and shoulders some time off so to speak, but your back is working constantly. How so?
Here are some examples of how the back is always working, and some of these may surprise you!
For one thing, when you go to sit in a chair the back actually works to hold up the body, control the speed and movement as you attempt to sit, and to stop that movement once your body makes contact with the chair. Without the back muscles you would just fall into a heap like jelly every time you went to sit down.
The back is connected to the neck and helps to support the head. Anytime you move your head in any way, the upper back muscles are involved. This is why any sudden whiplash or jerky movement of the head can mean a stiff back.
Back muscles also help to support the internal organs as well. As an example, did you know that the lungs themselves actually have no muscles and don’t breathe on their own? They’re actually pushed in and out by muscles surrounding them; an injury to the back or side muscles can make breathing very painful as these muscles move every time a person breathes.
There are actually very few movements that a body makes that don’t involve the back. Your head and neck, shoulders, hips, and just about everything else is connected in some way to the back muscles. Internal organs are also supported and protected by the back muscles as well.
So realizing the job that your back does every day should make you understand why it’s so important to support it. You can’t send it a thank-you card, but you can protect it and treat it right so that it can do all these jobs without pain and discomfort.
