Protect Your Back Starting Today

By the time we reach a certain age, most of us have either experienced a back ailment of some kind, or know someone who has. In many cases the onset of back issues are just a matter of circumstance, while other injuries are the result of our own missteps. The resulting pain doesn’t care about the origin of the injury but the avoidable ones should be avoided, for they can have a devastating effect on everything we do from working to sleeping and yes, playing basketball. So take heed the next time a relative, friend, physician or even a perfect stranger advises you to protect your back starting today.

DEFERRED PAIN

When we’re teenagers, although our teachers may yell at us not to and even tell of of the potential long-term effects, we slouch in our chairs anyway as act of rebellion. Maybe we’ve hit a growth spurt early and don’t want to stand out in among friends, so the posture suffers. We play sports, get knocked down and jump right back up and continue playing regardless of how much it hurts, because at that age the worst thing in the world is to be considered “soft” by a jury of our contemporaries or even the coach.

When we’re in our twenties and as strong as we’ll ever be, we think we can lift apartment buildings with one hand and without using the proper technique. We help a friend move, and think we can clean and jerk a baby grand piano and carry it on our head up several flights of stairs without assistance. And we can show out at the gym.

During those years we don’t consider having to pay for these actions at that moment and certainly not later in life because, of course, we’re indestructible. And who wants to think that far ahead, anyway?

We got this.

TIME TO PAY UP

We reach our thirties and start feeling mild aches and pains that appear out of nowhere and for no apparent reason. We take some mild over-the-counter medication for a couple of days and keep moving Then in our forties and fifties the level of pain bring back memories of those reckless days when we didn’t care about consequences or just had a momentary lapse in judgement. The pain lingers, regardless of the type or severity of the injury, and the quality of life suffers.

We’ve watched professional athletes of all ages and in all sports develop back problems, and we’ve watched their performance suffer as a result. So mere mortal working stiffs like us who fancy ourselves as weekend warriors don’t stand a chance should it happen to us.

THE STRONGEST AMONG US

Former NBA star Larry Johnson came into the league with an already impressive resume. 1987 McDonald’s High School All-American, the best player on the 1990 NCAA Division 1 champion University of Nevada-Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels and first overall selection in the 1991 NBA Draft.

And what a physical specimen Johnson was. This was a guy with legitmate reason to feel indestructible. And during his first couple of NBA seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, he put up numbers that screamed “first ballot Hall of Famer” had he continued at that pace.

Then, in Johnson’s 3rd NBA season, the back happened.

Johnson did well to carve out a productive ten-year NBA career. After five seasons in Charlotte he was dealt to the New York Knicks. Johnson was versatile enough to remain a productive player after the back issues took over, but the fans in New York never got to see the early Charlotte version of Larry Johnson. Some in the media were killing LJ for not being Charlotte Larry, but once the back pain kicked in we were assured of never seeing that version of the player again. And as primarily an inside player, tussling under the basket with players much taller couldn’t have been the best thing for his back, either.

By age 32 and still in his prime basketball years, Larry Johnson’s career was over.

NBA great Larry Bird was durable for most of his 13 NBA seasons, and he suffered various nagging injuries as he entered his thirties. But it was ultimately a back injury that forced Bird to walk away from the court at age 35.

SOMETIMES IT DOESN’T WAIT

Second-year NBA player Michael Porter, Jr. of the Denver Nuggets was a 2017 McDonald’s All-American and a five-star recruit out of high school. As a freshman at the University of Missouri he missed all but three games of the 2017-18 season due to a back injury. He’d have surgery during the season—at age 19—and another one less than a year later, and less than a month after being drafted into the NBA.

With two back surgeries by the age of 21 and the prospect of having to chase the best athletes in the world around a hard surface for years, the prospects aren’t looking bright for Porter. He’s still rostered and gets light minutes with the Nuggets, but the back has a way of telling you who’s in charge. The good news is that Porter is young and still may have a solid NBA career ahead, nonetheless.

A REAL GAME CHANGER

No professional athlete in any sport is or has been as much of a game changer as a serious back ailment.

Everything we do requires a decision once the back is in disarray. We go from being carefree to worrying about the potential consequences of every move we make. Second-nature acts like getting dressed can become a chore. The only comfortable sleeping position is to hang from the ceiling sleeping upside down like Grandpa Munster did. Back pain can be all-consuming. And it doesn’t only affect the injured, it impacts everyone close to the individual.

Back pain is evil, lurking around in anticipation of a wrong bend or twist or even a sneeze, anything to give it the green light to strike. It’s painful to see these young cats around New York City loading stuff onto trucks without bending their knees, without a brace and without regard for their backs. Sometimes we simply forget, and the long-term penalty is the daily, painful reminder that we simply forgot.

My back specialist recently told me that his patients have gotten younger over time, probably the result of years of curling the upper extremities curled into the letter “c” while hovering over electronic gadgets. Surgery, pain management, grueling physical therapy, etc.—imagine having to start all that in your twenties and thirties. That ain’t living.

Don’t even mess with it. Don’t wait. Protect your back starting today.

Image by Alfred Derks from Pixabay