So, while having a beer at a local dining establishment, I decided to ask the bartender what physically hurts the most when she gets done with a shift. She shared that primarily it is her entire back and calves that hurt the most from constantly bending over (getting ice and cups) and picking up heavy boxes (such as boxes of liquors or heavy trays of cups from the back).
This is the beginning of this string of blogs. As Evie and I (Brandon) live our lives and visit people doing their jobs we will be trying to figure out what hurts them. We will then try and discuss massages and stretches that will help alleviate this pain.
With all of that being said, let’s get started. First, here are some videos from www.e-how.com (yes, we have been throwing them a lot of business lately – but hey! They are good).
-Calf Stretches
-Hamstring Stretches
-Lower Back Stretches
All of these stretches are great – and more importantly – they don’t take up a ton of time or space. Doing these types of stretches each day are great ways to elongate muscles and prevent tightness, injury and ongoing pain. Diving deeper into our back-burdened bartender, some of the other things that could help her is wearing the proper footwear, making sure she has correct posture, and lifting with her legs.
-For a job like this making sure that you have a shoe with a good arch support is important. A good arch support allows a person to keep weight distributed evenly and ultimately keeps your body aligned.
-Correct posture is one of the byproducts of a good arch support. Good posture is one of the physically easiest ways to relieve pain – but one of the harder things for most people to do. Standing straight, with weight evenly distributed with shoulders back and utilizing the balls of your feet helps. It is a learned process. Keep it up and you will be there soon.
-As many people already know, your legs are more prone to lifting than the lower back. In short, your legs have more muscles and thicker, stronger bones and therefore more sheer ability to lift vs. your vertebrae.
On to the massage portion – if a person were to come in with the issues that our bartending friend described they would always have a selection of what type of massage they wanted. It could be anywhere from deep tissue to thai, but we would most likely be looking at working on the entire back and legs to make sure that we adjust and loosen any of the muscles. With a steady regiment of massage and stretching even our hardest working bartender can end the evening pain free.
