Nah man, people just out here 30-40lb overweight and pretending like it’s not the reason they feel like shit. Pretty much all my aches and pains have disappeared since returning to the gym, including Knee pain that was making me limp.
30 - 40 lbs overweight, while not super healthy, will not cause any back issues on its own.
It's 100% sedentary lifestyle causing problems like joint pain, etc. I'm 6'1", 170 lbs, with a desk job. If I don't do some kind of physical activity several times a week, I get all kinds of issues.
I’m not over weight and have a manual labor job, nothing too taxing but repetitive stuff. I have all types of soreness and hurting. I think it can go either way
People that haven’t worked any sort of manual labor have no concept of what it means. I’m a chef, and while people will acknowledge the stress and physicality of feeding hundreds of people a night, no one thinks about the thousands of pounds of all types of product that come in that have to be put away and processed. The last place I worked went through 1000 pounds of beef cheeks a week
Physical labor is wear and tear but it is not going to build up the sorts of strength and endurance that will prevent these issues. Go look at old construction workers it’s obvious
Do you know which exercises work your core? Every time I search Google, it gives me ab exercises. I have severe back pain due to a herniated disc, and it’s getting worse because I’ve gained so much weight due to the forced immobility that the back injury caused. I’m miserable, and I have no idea where to start in the gym.
This is a question for a doctor and whatever you do do it slowly and consistently. I have lower back issues because in over weight my doctor gave me some exercises. Alot of swimming because its super low impact. I started doing them im still over weight but my back pain has decreased immensely in the past month. Like i couldn't sit for 2 months without terrible pain. Now i can sit for hours if i want. I dont i stand up every 30 mins and walk around. But i could
I’m so sorry you know this pain. It makes life so much more difficult. I love to swim, but can’t afford a gym membership at a gym that has a pool. I’m so glad you’re feeling better, my friend! Thank you for the advice!
Do I know what actually works for your core? Yes.
And I highly recommend you do not do them with a herniated disc.
Just like what someone above just said, squats. I literally put 405 pounds on my back and squat down until my legs are lower than parallel, what some people call a deep squat, and then stand back up again straight.. I do that seven times and re-rack. Take a 3 minute break so my heart rate goes down and my blood pressure is equally and my breathing is normal, and then do it again until I've done it five times.
Absolutely if you can do that, you have to have a strong core. You have to keep your guts in while you have that weight over you and moving around you have to keep everything balanced you have to keep everything taken care of... Pretty much from your shoulders down excluding only your arms gets a good workout.
Over the years I figured out that even though I can do more weight, there's no point in going any higher. I don't know what my one rep max is anymore, it's probably lower than when I was in my twenties but it's going to be higher than what I normally lift by a good bit. I do think one of the secrets is just stopping when you're far enough ahead and don't keep going until you hurt yourself.
Because if you hurt yourself, you get back issues or other issues.
But if you have back issues, you can't do that. So now you're going to have to do something else that you can do but it will be less effective.
It will not hit everything... you'll have to do multiple different things because you need to work multiple different areas without damaging the part of you that has a problem.
What you need is specialist advice about exactly what you have wrong so you know what you can and can't do and then work from there.
Do not take random advice online. Because if you stress that part that is damaged, you will hurt it more instead of helping the areas around it.
I'm not buff I'm just that stupid dense muscle that doesn't show combined with long torso and shorter legs. So I get mechanical advantage. I would say it's good genes but honestly it would be a lot cooler if it would look like I actually lifted.
Better to ask on a workout sub but most ab exercises are going to naturally incorporate core work. With a herniated disc I would talk to a sports doctor and Pt
I really can’t recommend a PT enough, I had very debilitating sciatica for about a year and couldn’t do anything really but followed their protocol and it got me back to being mobile. Good luck with it all
When I threw my back out yoga and dead bugs was how I built it back up to a workable level and then proper squats. You dont want to go head first in the deep end with back problems lol
Yeah, I’m afraid to do much of anything. I hurt my back at work initially, but I recently threw it out by lifting my leg in the shower. My back hasn’t hurt like that since the initial injury. I’m scared, lol! Thank you for your advice! I’m so glad you’re doing better!
Well its better to do something even if its just stretching a light work with yoga and planks/deadbugs or itll never get any better. And really you dont have to do any more than that as deadbugs are progressive based on how you out your arms and legs it can be as easy or hard as you want and you can add weights as well to get a really good baseline of core stability back, but thank you hope yours gets better as well
When I was on the tools I was doing yoga 1-2 times a week in the evenings for a few years had no days off for any back pain that whole time. Did break my toes doing it though…
Repetitive stuff over stresses certain body parts. That’s one of the reasons you are supposed to diversify your workouts and not overdo it in one area. It’s just that jobs don’t care about that little detail
Me and all my siblings have back problems, nothing severe but I can’t remember a time in the past 5-6 years when 1 or more of us wasn’t in an out of the chiropractor for 1-2 months of the year.
I’m by no means a fitness guru, but I exercise and do more than most to avoid back issues.
But also my youngest and oldest sisters are legit health nuts and even they can’t escape it.
What’s funny is our dad had back issues all the time in his 30-40s and while he did become healthier in his 50s he somehow has less back problems than all of us now.
We sometimes joke that when our oldest sister (44) turns 50 she’ll be the first to find out if thats when it gets better.
Either that or we’ll all just slowly realize maybe our dad just consistently has back problems and just got tired of bringing it up after 20 years.
They’re saying the person you replied to is talking about going to the gym when they mention not being sedentary—working a full day is a bit different.
Nurse here. It is this. Sedentary lifestyle will cause way more aches and pains than being slightly obese, morbidly obese is another issue altogether. But staying active does wonders. Also if you're active you probably won't get morbidly obese, just normal (for Americans) obese.
Your Dutch coworker was kinda just being a dick. European obesity rates are falling in with America, they are just 5-10 years behind, depending on the area/country.
I workout all the time and have an active job, but I'm still pretty fat (6'1" @ 220). Always have been.
At my last annual my Dr reviewed my cholesterol counts with me. I guess there's a bad kind and a good kind? Anyway he said the only reason my levels could be as good as they are were genetics. And then he mumbled it again kind of annoyed. Same with why I'm generally in healthy but put on fat real fast.
There's a gene that actually causes your liver to produce more bad cholesterol and less good cholesterol. You can be tested for that gene. They are even beginning to come out with gene therapy that would swap out the bad gene for the good one. But diet can make a big difference here. Just means you have to work twice as hard just to maintain. Medications might help too.
Idk, I just got off a shift, do some research. look up an NIH paper probably titled "effects of sedentary lifestyle on joint mobility and inflammation" and compare it with something like "effects of obesity on joint mobility and inflammation." I'm a nurse, although there are a lot if dumbnurses out there. Anyways its well documented that sedentary lifestyle dramatically affects pain, inflammation, and joint mobility. What do you want my textbook from when I went to school? Memmler's the Human Bodyin Health and Disease, Cohen Hull. Knock yourself out.
2 nurses in my family and they say to not trust nurses because, as you said, many are dumb. You can’t provide a source and you are not a doctor so I’m not going to believe this.
You're not going to believe that a sedentary lifestyle causes increased inflammation, decreased joints mobility, and increased pain?
Edit: okay whatever took me like 45 seconds
Park, J. H., Moon, J. H., Kim, H. J., Kong, M. H., & Oh, Y. H. (2020). Sedentary Lifestyle: Overview of Updated Evidence of Potential Health Risks. Korean journal of family medicine, 41(6), 365–373. https://doi.org/10.4082/kjfm.20.0165
My original statement was that a sedentary lifestyle is bad for you and may be worse than just obesity, not morbid obesity though. Also moderate exercise has been shown to have positive effects on joint pain. I was just agreeing with the comment that was saying anecdotaly that they have less aches and pains with an active lifestyle despite being overweight.
I think you're discounting the massive portion of the population that works actually physically demanding jobs.
I don't need to move more. I need the soft tissue between my vertebrae to grow back. Wear a tool belt and other heavy PPE all day, throwing around thousands of pounds of material a week, day-after-day for years, and you will understand.
I’m on my feet all day everyday for work. My back still hurts. I do several thousand steps a day. Work near a hot grill and run myself ragged. Someone said it’s how the grill ops angle their necks on the grill.
Most active people dont end up 30-40lbs overweight. Not saying it impossible just saying staying active generally comes with other beneficial healthy habits like eating well.
On a side note are you pee that poops their pants or are you poop that owns pants pee? If the later why pants pee specifically and not just .... you know .... pee in general?
I'm not entirely sure. It came to me one day and I rolled with it. If I had to say, it's an action. It's going pee while you have poop pants. I'll think on it a while and get back to you if I come up with anything different.
No, its people not knowing the proper way to life heavy objects.
Think about it. Lifting big TVs, pieces of furniture, buckets of water, shovels full of snow... Everyone has lifted heavy things. And I'm willing to bet that the majority of people can think of at least a bunch of times they were maybe in a rush or just not feeling it and didn't bother to assume proper form for a lift (or didn't even know how to properly do the lift).
Living a sedentary lifestyle certainly doesn't help, and that can cause problems on its own. But I don't think it's the #1 cause of 35 year olds having back pain, mainly because I don't think completely sedentary lives are really all that common (so can't themselves explain very common back pain in mid life adults).
I work an office job but walk around the house whilst on meetings. I used to walk the dog lots most days but we lost him earlier in the year
I'm currently doing physio on my back and I'm 100% putting it down to sedentary lifestyle. I need to get back to walking/going to the gym more regularly. I feel as soon as I do that, a lot of the issues with my back will fuck off 😂
My back pain only started when I came off the tools into an office role. Sat slouched over all day weirdly gave me back problems. Who could've seen that coming
That's a bingo... I'm at least 30-40 pounds overweight but I walk and move all day most days. My back is fine save for when I'm playing around too much with my kid.
Can confirm I detail part time for a large rental car company so I'm on my feet for 5 ish hrs a day and I use every bit of 5hrs of exercise before that I was a heavy equipment operator..I am much limber now the I was then
Yeah, around 30-40 years of age you may have gotten to that middle management / work from home gig where you spend 6-10 hours a day minimum on calls, emails, and webinars and such.
30- 40lbs hanging over your belt is absolutely the biggest factor in why the spine on the other side of it hurts. There is no scenario where reducing the extra constant daily strain on your lower lumbar will not have positive results.
Being 40lbs overweight, aside from a small percentage of bodybuilders, and the sedentary lifestyle go hand in hand. Also being 40 lbs overweight for someone your height is much different than the significant percentage of the population 3-4 inches shorter than you.
Can confirm I’m similar height and weight (better than most my age) but also desk job. After second kid I have no time for the gym and creeping up to 40 I notice the knee and back stuff now more than ever.
I had a orthopedic surgeon the did work on a neck injury tell me that my back pain was mostly caused and getting worse because my front was to far from my back…said lose 25 lbs and move a little the back will feel much better…it does.
Mine was due to carrying a lot of weight in my chest. Got a reduction and magically the back pain was gone. For 3 years I thought it was just a sign of aging until I was at PT for a different ongoing issue and she mentioned the pain in my lower back might actually have a fix.
I’ve worked hard labor jobs since getting out of high school and am 34 with back pain regularly. I go to the gym for periods until I eventually get injured again then I have to stop going to the gym for a while. 5’10” 175 with low body fat.
I’m genuinely just fucked up from work but otherwise healthy
Yes, but to general apply back pain to an entire generation like these memes do implies a general cause, and generally Millennials are not exercising enough and weigh too much.
Yes while this comment excludes those with injuries and other medical problems, it's ridiculous how many people online i see acting like their bodies are inevitably falling apart in only their 30s or 40s. No, it's because they are lazy assed who haven't exercised with any regularity since high school gym class.
If your body is already cooked at 35 what do you think it's gonna be like at age 65 or 80? It's not natural aging to have totally fucked back and joints at age 35. It's because you aren't taking care of yourself. Again, excluding those with valid medical conditions and injuries that are an explanation for it. This is about people who don't have those problems and just are completely out of shape by choice.
For sure, I’m a nurse dude. I see what happens at the end of the line for a person who doesn’t exercise and if we’re being generous and say they still make it to 80, the last 15-20 years of their life are miserable with doctors chasing around health problems.
I'm still probably 50lbs overweight for my height, but I used to be 150lbs overweight. Back is a ton better, my knee problems are almost non-existent now despite picking up running and weight training. Physically I feel as good as I did in my early 20s. I think a lot of people don't realize how inactive they are, and how much sitting we do and it's messing us up
I’ll have you know I tore my MCL at 15 and broke my hip at the ripe old age of 16 so I’m entitled to my knee, hip, and back pain thanks. I still go to the gym daily, and it only makes me hurt more.
I was diagnosed a diabetic and honestly it was the best thing to happen to me
Doctor got me on Mounjaro. I’m down to 175 and can actually run with my pup on his walks. I don’t wheeze anymore going up stairs. I can swim long lengths in the pool at the apartment , I feel better
And omg no one tells you why it helps with depression
One way is clothes. Used to be I’d get sad because no one had my wide fat ass size
Now I can go into old navy and all the styles I can get what I want because now I went from a 44 to a 34 waist and it just makes me so happy
when i lost 140 pounds pretty much all my problems went away, even brain fog i used to have alot. gets real hard keeping it off tho once youre in your 30s.
I really see exercise as important to us as it is to astronauts in the space station. Our modern way of life is so alien to what our bodies were designed for that you need to push your body pretty hard just to make up the difference.
Literally, I have actual damage to my spine from falling during seizures over the years, three compression fractures on my L7, 9 and 10 I think, and I don't even have back issues to speak of, not that I'd complain about at least. I didn't even know they existed until I sneezed and threw my back out last year. Since then, I've done a ton of work to strengthen my back and now it's back to being it's old self, I also was exactly that much overweight too, I really think that was at play! I went from 190 to 142 from intermittent fasting and exercise and now I like almost got a six pack, for the first time ever, I am in better shape than I was in high school
44 here. Dropped 60 lbs about 6 years ago. Knee pain, shoulder pain, all that shit went the fuck away. It was either from being fat or from being weak and overcompensating. Losing weight and lifting weights made all the difference in the world.
eh, im 38 an my trap is absolutely effed for the rest of my life. went through PT and they're just like yeah its just bad. same with my left foot, i get to perceptually stretch it every morning just to walk. but im in the 2nd best shape of my life behind my late 20s so no, i don't think its being fat lol
Why do people make comments like this generalizing? Just because that was true for you doesn't mean all people have the same issue. And it's more likely that your back pain went away because you were lifting and strengthening the muscles supporting everything.
Lots of overweight people don't have back pain. Lots of healthy weight people have back pain. My friend has a herniated disc and she is nowhere close to overweight.
The post is a generalization. The guy I am talking to is asking if back pain at 36 is valid, and in the context of the meme it really isn’t. It should be obvious to anyone that a prior injury is a “valid” reason for back pain, but being 36 isn’t. Now, to whatever extent back pain can generally apply to millennials it is because millennials in general do not exercise enough.
For me it’s because I didn’t follow proper lifting and that’s why my back hurts .. it wasn’t my weight . It was my dumb brain and ticket agents not putting a heavy sticker on a small suitcase which are usually light 30lbs not this one it was full of what I can only imagine was cinder blocks and anchor chains .
People don’t talk about that enough. It’s not just that you’re aging, it’s also because you aren’t taking care of yourself. You can’t live the same way you did in your teens without repercussions.
I'm pretty sure for me it's the degenerative disc disease, 2 described as collapsed, another couple on their way out, and sciatica due to the nerve tunnel narrowing. And arthritis on my hip. Started in my early to mid 30s.
For real, when I get bogged at work and cant find time to get to the gym for like a week my back starts to wreck me, get back into routine and it goes back to feeling good.
Most people I know with back pain aren’t overweight. Statistically mechanical stress, age, and lifestyle (sedentary, smoking) are bigger risk factors than weight.
But your comment got 4 awards, so it must be true /s
- Another person with lower back pain who isn’t overweight
People are taking an intentionally general statement under a intentionally general meme like a thesis statement. Point I am making is that back pain doesn’t just happen at 36. If you aren’t injured you probably need to work out
I think suggesting fitness is a generally good message, but you are over-generalizing / projecting massively.
The point I’m making is that back pain does just happen for many people at 36.
I am extremely fit & lift 5x per week.
When I was younger, I lifted too often and too intensely without properly deloading… I vaped… and played music (asymmetrical load bearing, while standing for extremely long periods of time, lots of manual labor + insane sleep habits).
None of this constitutes an injury, but it all contributes to wear and tear. Staying fit just mitigates it from here.
I quit drinking and started hitting the gym in the morning and I immediately dropped 10 lbs, my skin cleared, and I lost all aches and pains. I feel like I'm 20 again, it's great. This is all it takes.
I’ve seen the comment on Reddit a thousand times that going to the gym cures your back pain and knee pain. Well no, probably only you’ve never exercised and have no muscle. You can still have pain if you work out, and working out can often cause pain also. Just the truth.
Bingo. I lost 40lbs last year and not only did it resolve most of my daily physical aches/pains, but it also helped lower my blood pressure and mitigate my sleep apnea.
I have some pretty bad neck and shoulder pains sometimes, including low back pain, I can manage it with the right exercises, but I also have mild scoliosis so i'm kinda fucked .. i'm in pretty good shape, i'm not over weight and i'm fairly strong but it took time to figure out what works for me and what doesn't. Not everyone can follow the same cookie cutter routines and have the same results.
I herniated my L4-L5 disc helping out at my parents farm last year. You haven't lived until you've felt random lightning bolts of pain shooting from your back to your shin
100000% My wife and I had our first child at 31 and I quit drinking. Over the next few years i gained like 90lbs. 30 or 40 wouldve been fine because i was crazy skinny (6' 150lbs up to 240) but 90 was far too much. Everything hurt, i was beginning to have sleep apnea. I felt like i was dying. I decided to do something about it, im back to 210 with 10 more to drop. I feel amazing. Better now than i did at 18. I feel strong, i wake up and im not tired throughout the day, my body doesnt hurt like it did. Take care of yourself, nobody else is going to.
Dude I am 35 and 40 lbs overweight right now and work out every day (new father). My back still doesn’t hurt - you just have to keep working out and not just sit on your ass all day.
Sometimes you be 27 and throw your back out due to CrossFit. 40 now and I have to do specific rotational and core workouts, plus swimming just to maintain.
Yeah I should have clarified the it’s the lack of exercise and the weight that’s the problem. Being fat as shit won’t be a problem for you until you’re maybe late 50s early sixties if you keep working out, but the bill comes due. Visceral fat is not good for you.
Redditors always say this but the type of work you do can have an impact too. I worked commercial fishing since I was 16 and I’m 36 now and my shit is pretty fucked up. Can barely close my hands because of broken fingers, knees are pretty fucked, shoulders hurt but weirdly my back is great. Things have improved since I switched careers but some of it seems pretty permanent. Being fat isn’t the only way people fuck up their bodies.
Yeah, I play soccer 3x a week and feel fine. I'll feel a little sore after a game sometimes. I noticed when I stop playing and working out is when I feel bad. I'm 39 and feel great. I think a lot of people are just out of shape. Congrats on getting over the knee pain. I used to have foot pain from surgery over a decade ago. For some reason when I started playing soccer by week 5 it was gone.
I had major knee issues from sports by the time I was 21. I was in great shape when they surfaced. Sometimes it has nothing to do with weight or what shape you're in.
Obviously, but in general Americans are too fat and too lazy. It’s a public health crisis. Just give it 30 years when the bill comes due on an entire generation of desk jockeys
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u/AugustusClaximus 8h ago
Nah man, people just out here 30-40lb overweight and pretending like it’s not the reason they feel like shit. Pretty much all my aches and pains have disappeared since returning to the gym, including Knee pain that was making me limp.