COVID-19: Will You Be A Better Version Of Yourself Post Pandemic?

Welcome to the Back Pain Solutions Podcast – COVID-19: Will You Be A Better Version Of Yourself Post Pandemic?

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Listen To The Episode Below

Episode Introduction

The global pandemic has impacted us all across the globe in same way and had a detrimental impact on our back health and mental health as many people have had to adjust to working from home. Poor workstations, a lack of interaction, and uncertainty have all influenced our lives this year and had a negative impact on well-being. As we move forward, there is no doubt that many people will reflect back on this period. Can you honestly say that you’ve taken action to look after your health and your self-development? As Hippocrates once said…’A wise man ought to realise that health is his most important possession.

In this episode we’re checking in to see if you’re taking a proactive approach to the strange circumstances, we find ourselves in. do you have a healthy routine, are you eating a health diet, are you staying hydrated throughout the day? We hope to make you think, and to make you take some action on the back of podcast because you’re worth looking after.

Some of the things to consider:

Have you honestly taken action to do some daily exercise to support your back and mental health?
Could a proactive approach make you more resilient to future infections?
How important is movement to your back health?
Have you established a healthy morning routine to support your health and well-being?
Do you want to come out of this pandemic better than you were at the beginning?!

Episode Highlights

Setting a healthy daily routine, incorporated daily exercise, and eating well will have fundamental benefits on your back health, your mental health and your future resilience. Don’t wait to be unwell before you take action. Take a proactive, preventative approach to your health and you will be better placed to resist future illnesses and injury. Far too often we wait for problems to occur rather than looking to prevent them in the first place. Will you be someone who comes out of the pandemic a better person or will you be worse off for it? The choice is yours, but we believe you’re worth investing in.

Episode Transcription

Intro 0:00
When we’re young, we move with freedom and confidence with a great resilience to injury. But somewhere along the line, we develop poor habits and become more vulnerable to back pain, back pain solutions features evidence based and practical advice to help you take back control of your health and get back to the activities you love. This is your guide to better back health through movement. So join us as we demystify some of the commonly held beliefs about back pain and build your confidence to a stronger back the smartway.

Ben James 0:28
Welcome back to the back pain solutions podcast, Everybody with me, Ben James. And this is a short catch up session check in session, and hopefully a bit of a motivational session, we’re still facing a lot of uncertainty, a lot of the lockdown situations remain for a lot of people across across the globe. So depending on which country you’re in, you may currently be in a lockdown situation, you may have a little bit more freedom. But certainly we all face a little bit of uncertainty at this time. And for me, one of the things that really is within our control is to be looking after ourselves, and setting ourselves up each day for a healthier lifestyle, and optimizing that health so that we can better protect ourself against things like COVID-19, but certainly also poor back health, because we know and we talk about it a lot how important movement is to our back health, but also, it’s so important for our mental health studies for so long have demonstrated the positive effects that exercise can have on our mental health. And for those people that are alone and in lockdown, you know, this has had a fundamental impact on them. And this is an opportunity really to take some control of the situation and Look after yourselves. So my question to you today is, are you on a daily basis, setting yourself up for the day and look into to improve your health or certainly kind of look after yourself. During this situation, it’s too easy sometimes to to be lazy, and to be complacent. And maybe to just get up a little bit later. Or you can just roll over in bed, grab my laptop and start work from from lying in my bed and ask yourself the question, is that the right thing to do? Is it a healthy thing to do I understand why some people are doing it, because they can and it’s different. And you might be comfortable. it’s wintertime here in the UK. So it’s getting colder. So staying under those duvet covers is is perhaps considered to be the nicer place to be but what impact is that really having on your on your mental health and your physical health, we know that the incidence of back pain is increasing and has increased as a result of this, this COVID situation more people working from home poor workstations and no doubt poor choices on a daily basis, such as working in bed and then sitting up in bed and slouching in bed. And it will no doubt be having an impact on your mental health and you too important to be complacent, you know we, we owe it to ourselves to to look after ourselves and to protect ourselves. And so ask yourself the question, am I doing enough on a daily basis? And can I do more? Should I be doing more? And why am I not doing more and just some of the little things that we can do on a daily basis that will help us you know getting up in the morning and setting yourself a routine. Don’t stay in bed, get up as if you are going to work even if even if you’ve never done that and you always work from home. That is a healthy thing to get into the habit of doing Get up, take a walk maybe or certainly have a shower then get out and get some fresh air get back to nature a little bit. We’re also these days comfortable and warm in our houses in in offices previously that that perhaps we we aren’t doing ourselves any favors in in being so comfortable. You know, get out into the fresh air get out into the environment. If it’s raining, put a coat on. We don’t really have any excuses not to get out and get some fresh out on a daily basis. And walking particularly is so beneficial for back health. If you’re suffering from back pain, getting yourself out and walking early on in the day and starting that as your your your part of your daily routine would be a really valuable thing to do. Give yourself breaks throughout the day get up, maybe do a few press ups or have a walk or do some exercise. And we always have a good resource on the website for for some some of the exercises that you can consider for back health particularly, but just focus on doing something throughout the day that just gives you a little bit of a break from that laptop from that computer, to looking after yourself. Get it walk around on the phone when you’re taking phone calls. Don’t sit down, give yourself that break. Stay on hydrated drink plenty of water, so many people during this environment. So the evidence is telling us and the research is telling us that drinking far more alcohol eating far more sugary, unhealthy snacks. Yes, again, I understand people want a bit of enjoyment from the current environment. But think about your long term health and think about how it’s impacting you, even in the short term, in terms of your physical and mental health, Look after yourselves, get moving. And when we’re at this situation, you’re going to be far, far better for it. So my message to you is, your health is important. You owe it to yourselves, and you are important. So get moving, take that daily activity, think about your nutrition, and you will be far better for it and your back health will be better for it as well, because we’re seeing far more people get in touch, because of back issues and back pain. And a lot of that when we ask the questions is a result of not just the poor workstations, because let’s face it, sitting at a desk all day, whether in an office and having a better setup or being at home is not what we’re designed to do. But it certainly had more of a deleterious effect on on people throughout this year. But it’s just really, I guess, for us, and given us the realization, I guess that the repetitive nature of the work that we do can have such a fundamental impact and, and when we’re doing that with, with poor habits, then it’s having an even worse effect. So getting up and moving, doing some daily exercise is so so important. Don’t be complacent, don’t be lazy. And and think of yourselves and think of your health and the importance of that to your overall well being. And you’re going to be much better off as a result of that when we get out of this lockdown situation, you’ll get back to the activities you love, get back to doing the things that you enjoy meeting up with friends, but you’ll be a healthier version of yourself as a result of it. Don’t get out of this situation in a more unhealthy position than you went into it. Because there are no excuses because if anything, we’ve got more time than ever to be looking after ourselves and the situation. And the the evidence has told us that those that are healthier, are less vulnerable to this disease. So why wouldn’t we take action take a proactive approach take a preventative approach to our overall health, not just specifically related to back health. I think it’s clear that we should so just a bit of a update, not an update a, a kind of a check in I guess with everybody, and a question that are you doing enough? And can you do more for yourselves because you you’re important. And don’t forget that and as always we ask you to head on over to the website ask us any questions we really enjoy answering the questions and supporting your your back issues and your health issues. So feel free to get in touch we we enjoy communicating with people that that are reaching out to us via the website. And as always, you can contact us at www dot smart strong.co.uk happy to jump on a call with anybody that that wants to ask some questions directly. So get in touch via the contact form on the website. And as always, we ask you to head on over to the iTunes website and give us a rating give us a review. It helps share the show and get the message out to more and more people. We’ve got some great guests hopefully lined up in the next few weeks we’ll continue to share more content and more episodes to support your back health and get you back to the activities you love. Thanks for listening As always guys, Look after yourselves.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai