Back pain sends more patients to doc­tors than any con­di­tion other than the com­mon cold.
It’s the fifth most com­mon rea­son for hos­pi­tal­iza­tions and third most com­mon cause of surgery. And 56% of peo­ple with lower-back aches say symp­toms dis­rupt their daily rou­tines, includ­ing sleep and sex. Talk about a pain in the…back.

There are many pos­si­ble causes of back pain, which means there are also many non-invasive solu­tions, accord­ing to Todd Sinett, a chi­ro­prac­tor and coau­thor of The Truth about Back Pain. “Back pain is rarely one cat­a­strophic event,” he says in the book, “but sev­eral sit­u­a­tions com­bin­ing to cre­ate pain.” And it turns out that some seem­ingly insignif­i­cant every­day habits can take a big toll on your back over time. Here, the top 14 mis­takes that may be caus­ing your aches and how to cor­rect them.

1. You’re Chained to Your Desk
Did you know that sit­ting puts 40% more pres­sure on your spine than stand­ing?
Let’s be hon­est: Main­tain­ing proper pos­ture is prob­a­bly the last thing you’re think­ing about when under a major work dead­line. And on a jam-packed day, reg­u­lar stretch­ing breaks may not seem like a wise way to spend your time. But skip­ping these habits may cause your back to suf­fer. That’s because back mus­cles will weaken if you don’t use them; inac­tive joints lose lubri­ca­tion and age more quickly.

Fix It: Sit­ting at a 135-degree angle can reduce com­pres­sion of the discs in the spine, so lean back slightly every now and then. Do it when you take a phone call or a coworker stops by to chat, Sinett rec­om­mends. Make sure your office chair sup­ports the curve of your spine, he says: Your lower back should be sup­ported, and your head should be straight—not lurch­ing forward—when you look at your com­puter screen. Get up and walk around for a cou­ple of min­utes every half hour—take trips to get water, use the bath­room, or grab papers off the printer.

2. You Have a Long Com­mute
Just like at your desk, hunch­ing over a steer­ing wheel can tighten chest mus­cles and cause your shoul­ders to round.
Slump­ing pos­ture can zap energy and make you look heav­ier, not to men­tion cause back and neck prob­lems. Back pain is the num­ber one com­plaint of the patients of Dar­ran W. Mar­low, DC, direc­tor of the chi­ro­prac­tic divi­sion at the Texas Back Insti­tute, and he advises them to first think about their dri­ving posture.

Fix it: “Be sure you sit at a 90-degree angle, close to the wheel so you don’t have to stretch,” he says. “Extend­ing your leg puts your back in a com­pro­mised posi­tion, but many peo­ple don’t even real­ize they’re doing it.”

3. You’ve Been Ditch­ing the Gym
Get mov­ing to alle­vi­ate aches and pains and fix back pain faster.
New research shows that 40% of peo­ple become less active after back pain strikes—a strat­egy that’s likely to delay heal­ing or even make their con­di­tion worse.

Fix it: In fact, most suf­fer­ers would ben­e­fit from more exercise—particularly fre­quent walks, which ease stiff­ness, says spine sur­geon Raj Rao, MD. For instant relief, he rec­om­mends stretch­ing your ham­strings and hips.

4. You Don’t Do Yoga
By improv­ing cir­cu­la­tion and low­er­ing stress, just about any kind of exer­cise pro­motes back pain recov­ery. But yoga may be best.
Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton researchers say yoga eases lower-back pain faster than con­ven­tional exer­cises. In a dif­fer­ent study, 101 patients were ran­domly assigned to one of three groups. The first group took weekly yoga classes and prac­ticed at home; the sec­ond group par­tic­i­pated in weekly exer­cise ses­sions devel­oped by a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist, plus prac­ticed at home; and the third group received a self-help back care book. After 3 months, the yoga group had bet­ter back-related func­tion­ing, com­pared with the other two groups. And after 6 months, patients who took yoga reported less back pain and bet­ter back-related func­tion­ing. Because it pro­motes deep breath­ing and relax­ation, as well as stretch­ing and strength, yoga may help with both emo­tional and struc­tural trig­gers of back pain.

Fix it: You can find yoga classes everywhere—at gyms, YMCAs, and local stu­dios. Make sure to tell the instruc­tor about your pain so she can help mod­ify cer­tain moves for you.

5. You’re Addicted to Crunches
Sit-ups and crunches may actu­ally cause more back pain than they pre­vent, accord­ing to Sinett.
We hear all the time how a strong core pro­tects your back, which is true. But crunches don’t work the ab mus­cles that sta­bi­lize your back. In fact, they can con­tribute to pain by caus­ing what Sinett calls core imbal­ance, “a con­di­tion of exces­sive com­pres­sion, which results in the spine curv­ing for­ward in a C-like shape.”

Fix it: You don’t have to ditch crunches entirely, but you should do them slowly and use proper form. Include them as part of a broader core work­out that also strength­ens your trans­verse abdomi­nus. This mus­cle is par­tic­u­larly impor­tant for a strong, steady core that sup­ports your back, and the best way to strengthen it is with (non­crunch!)

6. You’re Not the Health­i­est Eater
Research shows that eat­ing habits that are good for your heart, weight, and blood sugar are also good for your back.
Finnish research found that peo­ple who suf­fered from back pain were more likely to have clogged arter­ies to the spine than healthy con­trol sub­jects. Healthy cir­cu­la­tion brings nutri­ents to the spine and removes waste, says Sinett. If this doesn’t hap­pen, inflam­ma­tion can result, and inflam­ma­tory chem­i­cals in the back can trig­ger nerves to send pain sig­nals to the brain.

Fix it: A back-healthy diet is one that reduces inflam­ma­tion, accord­ing to the The Truth about Back Pain. The book’s plan advises avoid­ing excess caf­feine and processed foods (read ingre­di­ent labels for the fol­low­ing: hydro­genated or par­tially hydro­genated oils, enriched wheat flour, words end­ing in –ose, and addi­tives that end in –ates or –ites), and eat­ing more whole grains, soy, nuts and seeds, pro­tein (chicken, fish, lean meat), veg­eta­bles, and fruit.

7. You Carry Your Entire Life in Your Purse
A stuffed-to-the-gills hand­bag may cause back dam­age that’s com­pa­ra­ble to a sports injury!
When you tote a heavy bag, your shoul­ders become imbal­anced, says Sinett. Your body ele­vates the shoul­der car­ry­ing the bag, which throws your spine off-kilter. Doing this every day can cause back mus­cles to ache over time.

Fix it: First, carry the light­est bag pos­si­ble. (Some of today’s styles—with chains, studs, and other hardware—are heavy even when empty!) The Amer­i­can Chi­ro­prac­tic Asso­ci­a­tion rec­om­mends that your bag—when fully loaded—weighs no more than 10% of your body weight. Alter­nate which shoul­der you carry the bag with from day to day, and con­sider split­ting your stuff between two bags (one for each arm), which will pain-proof your load by dis­trib­ut­ing it more evenly.

8. Your Mat­tress Is from Another Decade
Can’t remem­ber the last time you replaced it? Your back may be in trou­ble.
A good mat­tress lasts 9 to 10 years, accord­ing to the National Sleep Foun­da­tion, but con­sider replac­ing yours every 5 to 7 years if you don’t sleep well or your back throbs. A study at Okla­homa State Uni­ver­sity found that most peo­ple who switched to new bed­ding after 5 years slept sig­nif­i­cantly bet­ter and had less back pain.

Fix it: When you do replace your mat­tress, take a Goldilocks approach: Pick one that’s not too squishy or too hard. Very firm mat­tresses can increase pres­sure on the spine and worsen pain, say Span­ish researchers. A study of 313 peo­ple revealed that those who caught Zzzs on medium-firm mat­tresses were more likely to report pain improve­ment than those on firmer ones. To help ease night­time dis­com­fort even more, tuck a pil­low under your knees if you sleep on your back, between your knees if you’re a side sleeper, or beneath your stom­ach and hips if you snooze on your belly.

9. You Have a Thing for High Heels
Or flip-flops. Both lead to foot insta­bil­ity, which can in turn affect your back.
High heels force you to arch your back, mak­ing your spinal mus­cles work harder. Back­less shoes like san­dals cause your feet to move from side to side, accord­ing to Sinett, which dis­trib­utes your body weight unevenly and can cause pain.

Fix it: You don’t have to forgo trendy footwear—just don’t walk long dis­tances in them. Com­mute in comfy flats or sup­port­ive sneak­ers, and con­sider adding cush­ion­ing inserts to uncomfy shoes. When Lehigh Uni­ver­sity researchers gave back-pain suf­fer­ers light­weight, flex­i­ble shoes with sim­ple cush­ions, 80% reported sig­nif­i­cant relief within a year.

10. You Ignore the Pain
Try­ing to block out pain could make it worse, finds research from the Ros­alind Franklin Uni­ver­sity of Med­i­cine and Sci­ence.
A bet­ter approach: Let your­self con­sciously expe­ri­ence the hurt. In a stan­dard pain test, psy­chol­o­gists had 68 back-pain suf­fer­ers plunge their hands or feet into ice water. When the vol­un­teers were instructed to sup­press the shock of the icy water, a key mus­cle in the back clenched. In con­trast, the mus­cle didn’t tense up when vol­un­teers thought only about the shock. Over time, an increase in mus­cle ten­sion inten­si­fies pain, says lead researcher John W. Burns, PhD.

Fix it: Accept­ing pain may be the best way to men­tally cope. “Try think­ing about the sen­sory details of the expe­ri­ence, not the neg­a­tive emo­tions,” says Burns. “If you have a back spasm, describe the pain to yourself—if it’s burn­ing or throbbing—and remind your­self that it will pass.”

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Note: Arti­cle was quoted from Pre­ven­tion Magazine