Back school

Valeria Dahm is a freelance writer in the medical department. She studied medicine at the Technical University of Munich. It is particularly important to her to give the curious reader an insight into the exciting subject area of ​​medicine and at the same time to maintain the content.

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A back school is a holistic, active course program in which participants learn how to keep their back healthy themselves. The multimodal, multi-stage program is intended to help prevent or relieve back pain. Read everything you need to know about the back school!

Back school: Holistic course program

Pain (including back pain) is understood as a bio-psycho-social phenomenon - it develops through the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors. The back school does justice to this as a holistic (bio-psycho-social) course program that aims to promote the “back health” of the participants and to prevent existing back problems from becoming chronic. In addition, the back school teaches how to behave “back-friendly” in everyday life and at work and how risk factors for back problems can be avoided. Contents of the course program in detail are:

• adequate exercise and physical activity
• conscious awareness of one's own body
• positive handling of one's own body
• back-friendly posture and movement behavior (e.g. when sitting, standing or carrying loads)
• back-friendly design of the environment (e.g. office)
• Use of relaxation techniques

The ten rules of the back school

The back school is based on the following ten rules:

1. You should move.
2. Keep your back straight.
3. Crouch as you stoop.
4. Don't lift heavy loads.
5. While carrying, distribute the loads and keep them close to your body.
6. While sitting, keep your back straight and support your upper body.
7. Do not push your knees down when you stand.
8. Lie neither with a hollow back nor with a cat hump.
9. Exercise, preferably swimming, running, or cycling.
10. Exercise your spinal muscles daily.

Back school: training and exercise programs

Well trained back, abdominal and chest muscles (= core muscles) can prevent back pain. In the back school, the participants do exercises that train mobility, coordination, strength and endurance of the body and, above all, the core muscles. The individual posture and movement sequences in everyday life, work, leisure and sport are also taken into account.

Back school: imparting knowledge

Another pillar of the back school is the imparting of knowledge that is important for maintaining and restoring back health: For example, the participants learn how activity and sport have a positive effect on the body and well-being, the advantages and disadvantages of various forms exercise and which self-help measures are advisable for acute back problems.

In addition, important basic knowledge is imparted in the back school - such as how back pain develops, what stress the back is exposed to in everyday life, leisure, sport and work, how to handle everyday objects (such as office chairs, beds, bicycles) correctly from an ergonomic point of view and how to use aids (like baby carriers) correctly.

When does a back school make sense?

Attending a back school is advisable even before back pain occurs, as the content is primarily oriented towards prevention. But back training is also useful for existing complaints, as it helps to alleviate the complaints and prevent them from worsening. Since most people suffer from back pain at least once in their life, attending a back school is considered an important prevention and treatment measure.

Tags:  sports fitness womenshealth Diagnosis