There's a story I heard about a special family pot roast recipe. And the recipe would include the type of meat required, the ingredients needed, how long to cook the meat and at what temperature. And one of the steps involved cutting six inches off the end of the roast before placing it in the roaster. Every family that had a copy of the recipe for this special meal would follow the instructions to a tee. It was such a delicious and memorable meal to enjoy that no one dared making any changes or substitutions. One year when the family had gathered for a holiday meal the question was posed to grandma, ' why do we cut six inches off the end of the roast?'. And grandma's answer was that otherwise the meat wouldn't fit into the roasting pan. There can be other things in life where what we've been told or always believed isn't actually the case. Or sometimes not even necessary. For example, think about what you've been told about low back pain. It used to be we were supposed to spend the day in bed and not move. And once we were able, we were then encouraged to do some stretches to prevent a future occurrence. Neither of these are the best plan to help with low back pain. More specifically, a number of people may have back pain in the morning. This can happen because we've been in bed for up to 8 hours and the vertebral discs are unloaded and not subjected to the same vertical force of gravity. Without the vertical loading on the discs while sleeping the discs can accumulate fluid and swell, increasing their size. A larger disc then has less physical space to the adjacent vertebrae. With less physical space between the...

This is the follow up to the post  Is Sitting Killing Your Back? A Few Quick Fixes.You provided some excellent questions and comments from that post so now as a reward I've got The Top 6 Tips to Save Your Back When Travelling. Some of these tips relate specifically to driving your vehicle and others have to do with air travel. Tip #1 - Set the Alignment Before You StartDo you think you feel better after travelling when you feel good before you start. And similarly don't you think you'd feel worse after travelling if you felt tight to begin with? Probably so.Before I get on a plane I make sure to do some foam rolling. I want to release any tension I'm carrying in my body and not put additional stress on joints. 15 minutes of foam rolling while watching tv is a small price to pay for the benefits is extends after a 5 hour flight to Hawaii.As soon as I arrive I want to make sure to target the areas that tightened up during travel and resume light activity as soon as I can.Tip #2 - Set Your Mirror Up HighOne of the most common ways we wreak havoc on our backs when sitting is by slouching. We slide forward in the chair. Our hips tuck under. Our pelvis tilts posteriorly and we round our low back. None of which is good.By setting your rear view mirror as high as possible, but still where you  can see traffic, you'll be forced to sit taller and minimize the potential for slouching.And when you can't see in the mirror anymore? Don't adjust the mirror down. Instead sit up or pull over and take a break.Tip #3 - Empty Your PocketsDo you remember what George Costanza's wallet looked like on Seinfeld?It was so jam-packed...