With the horrors of Halloween nearly upon us, many households will begin decorating their homes with pumpkins and spiders galore! This spooky season, BCA Member, Catherine Quinn, shares her top tips to avoid any spooky back scares – allowing you to have an accident-free Halloween.
Lazybones – When decorating your homes, avoid hurting your back by reaching for that awkwardly placed spider web or skull. Instead use a stool or ladder to get to those hard to reach places, or enlist the help of your friends or a family member. If you’re lifting heavy boxes of decorations, remember to bend your knees and stick your bottom out to share out the load and make lifting easier. This also applies for taking the decorations down!
Sole destroying footwear – Given how long a night of trick-or-treating can be, it’s important to make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes that give you the right amount of support. If you find walking around for hours brings on back pain, avoiding the killer heels and wearing a good pair of trainers will reduce the pressure on your back and hips. As the weather is often colder and wetter during this time of the year, consider lined shoes and thermal socks to keep your feet warm. These simple changes will make a big difference and your feet will thank you at the end of the night!
Keep hydrated! – Hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate some more! Halloween can be a busy night and drinking water may not be your priority with those treats on offer, leading to dehydration which can cause muscles to fatigue and even dizziness. Whether you are hitting the town with friends or taking the kids trick-or-treating, it’s a great idea to keep hydrated to avoid muscle fatigue and exhaustion throughout your festival night of celebrations.
When all hem breaks loose – If you’re planning to don a gory Halloween costume as well as decorate your home, check that your outfits and capes hems are short enough to stay out from under your feet and at a safe length – this will help to avoid any trip hazards for yourself and those around you. Falling can bring the risk of aggravating existing back pain or, even more frightening, cause a new one!
Stay ahead of the carve – Pumpkin carving is fun, so keep it enjoyable by covering the kitchen table with newspapers and do your pumpkin carving there. That way, you aren’t hunched over on the floor, and have a stable surface to be using sharp knives and tools while carving.
Watch your back – Back pain should be the farthest thing on your mind when picking pumpkins this Halloween season. So, to avoid it creeping in, when lifting, most people naturally bend forward, but this can put unnecessary stress make a conscious effort to bend your knees and hips if going for the biggest pumpkin on the patch! This will greatly reduce the pressure on your back, and your body will thank you for it later! Taking steps to protect your spine at the pumpkin patch will also make for a pleasant drive home and a back pain-free carving session later on.
About the British Chiropractic Association: The BCA is the largest and longest-standing association for chiropractors in the UK and has been named ‘Best Professional Body of the Year’ at the Memcom Excellence Awards 2022 for its Repositioning Project which has played a pivotal role in changing the healthcare landscape for the better. As well as promoting international standards of education and exemplary conduct, the BCA supports chiropractors to progress and develop to fulfil their professional ambitions with honour and integrity, at every step. The BCA is raising awareness about the rigour, relevance and evidence driving the profession and the association’s ambition for chiropractic to be more closely embedded within mainstream healthcare.
The BCA is the home for chiropractors who provide patient-centred, evidence-based care and offer full transparency to their patients. Through the Patient Charter BCA chiropractors provide reassurance to their patients and that they will empower them to make an informed decision about their treatment.
