Fit Tip Thursday: How to Keep Your Back Healthy

The statistics are straightforward: Over eighty percent of people will experience low-back pain at some point in their lives. Back pain is the number one cause of job-related disability and one of the most common health complaints in the United States.

Here are a few simple exercises you can do at home to help "Bulletproof Your Back." All it takes is a few minutes a few times a week to keep you pain-free for many years to come:

One of the major causes of back-related pain is inactivity and our increasingly sedentary lifestyles. The etiology is simple: As the muscles that support the spine become weaker and weaker through disuse, our lower backs become increasingly susceptible to pain and injury. The worst part is that the more people experience back pain the less they move, therefore these muscles continue to get progressively weaker and the associated pain progressively greater.

The great news is that we can prevent low-back pain through these simple strengthening exercises. These are exercises that I say you will either do proactively while you are healthy, as "prehab," or reactively by doctor's orders in a rehabilitative manner. But you will do them. The choice is yours.

Like what you see? Watch more Fit Tip Thursdays for great tips to help enhance your workouts.