Relieve Low Back Pain | Reduce Low Back Pain | Canada's Leading Authority in Human Movement | Dev Chengkalath

With its blustery arrival “snowmaggedon” has descended upon us and in its fury, has wrought havoc upon our sidewalks and driveways complete with icy, crystalline snow flakes.

At least that’s what happening in Toronto, Canada right now. Car crashes, subway delays, gusting snow and treacherous conditions: these are the norm for today.

So what does that leave you with?

Piles and piles of snow to shovel. Usually quite wet and quite heavy.

I used to practice as a Physical Therapist in Victoria BC, out on the West coast of Canada. Each year we’d have only a couple snow days and in the two days following those two days of heavy snow, I’d see a significant spike in clients coming in to the clinic with fairly significant low back pain.

Sure enough, this phenomenon, which I’ll dub “shovel-back syndrome”, has everything to do with economy of motion.

The WRONG way of shoveling snow:

POP go the discs

• Lifting with the back
• Flexing through the back
• Twisting through the back
• Or any other method of using the back

Coupled with:

• Lifting large loads of snow with the shovel
• Throwing the snow from the end of the shovel