Exercising Improperly Without Proper Training

My mom has experienced pretty severe back pains throughout her life. Right now, she is suffering from osteophytes all along her spine, and lamenting the fact that she didn't take proper care of her back, and wishing she could do it all over again. Seeing her, I've make a commitment to myself to avoid chronic back pain at all costs. To start, I've been educating myself when it comes to spinal health.
Three common ways people develop back problems are:
1 - Exercising improperly: Be it trying to hit a home run, or playing hockey, if you try to play hard when you haven't been training hard, that can put a lot of strain on your back. If your muscles haven't been conditioned, then you're potentially putting too much strain on them when you go to swing that golf club. To avoid this problem, the best solution is in fact to condition your body. Your abdominal muscles (especially the obliques, transversus, rectus and psoas) are very important in maintaining a balanced, stable back. Having a strong core centers and strengthens you, and helps your avoid back injury. One easy way to add core strengthening exercises to your everyday life is by using a large exercise ball instead of a chair to engage your abdominals while working. Also it's important to exercise antagonistic muscle groups, so, after an 'abs' circuit, it's a good idea to do equalize the forces on the spine by working opposite muscles (such as the quadratus lumborum and paraspinals in the back) with a simple exercise such as 'supermans'.
2 - Lifting improperly: This is the most common and most well known way to injure your back. If at all possible, you should not ever try and move something that weighs more than 20% of your body weight. You should make sure to bend with your knees, maintaining a straight back. Bending at the waist is a big no-no. Also, make sure to keep the object close to you, and not twist or turn while holding the object. Rather, you should point your feet at the object to be lifted and face it as you lift it and change direction with your feet not waist.
A lifting back injury may seem common enough to be unimportant, but in reality can lead to crippling chronic back pain.
3 - Staying at your desk too long: This is a crime that most everyone, from students to adult office workers commit. Not only does this detract from time that you could be exercising, it encourages bad posture and cuts off fluid supply to your spinal discs. Your discs are supposed to cushion your vertebrae, but too much time sitting deprives them of the nutrition they need. Leaning forward, hunched over a desk, is the worst position that your back could be in making you lock your pelvis and flex your spine, so much that you put pressure on the front of the vertebrae and therefore your discs. This pressure puts your discs at risk of rupture. Of course, sitting is never going to be fully eliminated from your life (nor should it be), but there are certain actions you can take to ensure that your studying and working does not lead you to chronic injury.
Getting up for a quick walk every 20 minutes or so could work wonders for you. Make sure that instead of the typical hunched position, you make sure to sit up straight, keeping your spine in alignment and the pressure off of your discs. The chair you choose is also very important as it should allow your feet to rest on the floor and support your lower back's arch (if it does not, consider putting a small pillow or roll to support your arch).
A chiropractor is essential in maintaining proper spinal health and also in treating injury once it has occurred. Three specific methods a chiropractor uses in treating back pain are:
1 - Physical Adjustment: This method involves physically manipulating the body to bring relief to sufferers of back pain. This usually involves the doctor using a controlled, sudden force with leverage direction and amplitude to improve range and quality of motion in specific joints. Some chiropractors use acupuncture or hot compresses to deliver relief to specific painful areas. This area also comprises orthotic support and rehabilitative exercise.
2 - An exercise treatment plant: A chiropractor is likely to give their patient stretching exercises to treat pain in certain areas so that the patient can become involved in their own treatment, and thus learn how to properly maintain their back and prevent re-injury.
3 - A lifestyle treatment plan: This includes advice on improving posture, breathing exercises and much more. Even those two simple facets of life - how you sit and how you breathe - have an enormous impact on the health of your spine. Chiropractors are well known for taking a more holistic stance when it comes to your healthcare. They treat the symptoms, but more than that they attempt to treat the root cause of the problem. It is a very thorough process that has been proven time and time again to truly show results when it comes to decreased pain and increased quality of life.
If my mom had known all of this information about back pain, or if she had gone to see a chiropractor before her pain became unbearable, I'm sure that her back would not be in the terrible state that it is. I'm glad that I, at such a young age, have already been exposed to these issues and now know some common ways of developing back problems, how to avoid them and who to see if anything does develop.