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Doing Dishes With Back Pain: Strategies for Success

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For most of us, doing the dishes is not exactly the highlight of our day. For those of us with back pain, this chore can be daunting, uncomfortable, or even seem impossible. There are many strategies that can help this task become possible, manageable, or even easy. A lot of this comes down to our posture and movement patterns, our attitudes, and our willingness to break down the task into chunks.

Posture and Movement Patterns

How we hold ourselves can make a big difference in how our bodies feel. Being in a forward bent position for a long time puts extra strain on the back. Because the dishes are down and forward, it is easy to find yourself in this slumped position, but it is possible to do it differently!

  1. Position yourself for readiness:

The closer you place your body to the sink, the shorter the lever arm is that your body has to hold. In other words, if you’re holding a heavy pan far away from your body, this is a lot more work on your back than holding the pan close to yourself. Just wear an apron so your clothes don’t get wet! 

You could also bring the dishes closer to you by using two dish pans. One on the bottom, and the other one upside down which would bring everything up closer to you. This will allow you to wash the dishes a little higher, and not have to bend down as far to scrub dishes at the bottom of the sink. A long handled scrubber may also be helpful.

2. What’s under your feet?

Think about your feet, as you are holding your weight through your legs as you stand. Try standing on a soft cushy pad to help spread the forces coming up from the ground.

Another strategy is to have one foot placed on something, such as on a stool, or inside the cabinet that is in front of you. Every so often, switch which foot is elevated. This will both keep you more upright, and allow your legs to alternate sharing the load. However, the downside of using a stool is that it brings you further away from the sink. This makes it all the more important to elevate the dishes by using two dish pans, as described in #1 above. 

Notice that this individual in the left-hand picture does not need to be bending from the waist in order to see the dishes. This position causes the back to work harder than it needs to. This person should instead be looking down at the dishes by tipping just their head, not their whole back. 

3. Dishwasher strategy:

Use the automatic dishwasher as much as you can. Believe it or not, this actually saves water! However, loading and unloading the washer can be troublesome for many with back pain. At the Wellness Station, we can teach you how to optimize your body mechanics for success based on your individual characteristics.

Generally speaking, try to position yourself as close to where you are putting the dish as possible. In other words, don’t try to reach and crane to the far corner of the bottom rack holding a heavy plate! Walk around to the side, send your bottom back, and place each dish with ease. In other words, keep your center of mass (your pelvis) over your base of support (your feet) so that when you reach forward, you can counterbalance by sending your bottom back. This is something we can teach you to do effortlessly at the Wellness Station.

Attitude and Mindset

If we see dishes as a cumbersome chore, it will continue to be so. How can we change our attitude and mindset relative to this task to make the most out of it?

  1. Mindfulness:

Don’t have time to meditate? Make doing dishes your meditation. Pay full attention to your experience. Notice the sensory information coming from the splashing water. Notice your fine dexterity skills required to grasp and scrub. Relish in the small dopamine hit from each completed dish, and the sense of accomplishment from finishing the task. Feel gratitude for having food to eat, dishes to use, and modern technology to support the ability to feed yourself and your loved ones.

2. Bring the joy to the experience:

If mindfulness isn’t cutting it, what else can you bring to the experience? How about playing your favorite music and making it into a dance? Listening to your favorite podcast to educate yourself while you work? Or perhaps rewarding yourself upon completion with a tasty snack or self care routine. 

Breaking it down

Many of us can’t tolerate dishes because of the amount of time spent standing. If the above strategies are not helping as much as you would like, consider breaking down the task into chunks and taking movement breaks.

  1. Break into chunks:

Rather than trying to push through and finish dishes as quickly as possible at the expense of a sore back, how about breaking it into chunks? Unload the dishwasher, sit down. Load the top rack, sit down. Load the bottom rack, sit down. Wash the pots and pans, sit down. Remember the lesson of the tortoise and the hare! If sitting down is not necessary, or even preferable, consider moving about with other household responsibilities and coming back to washing dishes later. 

2. Movement breaks:

Try incorporating some gentle movement breaks into your dishwashing routine. It might be helpful to do movements that incorporate the opposite movement of your body. As doing the dishes involves some bending forward with your arms in front of you, how about some bending back with your arms behind you? Here is a movement break that are great for incorporating into your dishes routine: Hip and Shoulder Extension

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team