100 Things You Can Do to Stay Fit and Healthy

67: Use Over-the-Counter Painkillers Sparingly

If you have a history of back problems, or if you’ve been idle for a while, such as first thing in the morning, use the above technique even when lifting lighter items.

These problems occur because the drugs are excreted through the kidneys rather than broken down by the liver or passed through your digestive tract.

Those are good reasons to take the drugs only as prescribed.

Here’s another: pain is your body’s signal that something is wrong.

Regularly masking that

pain treats the symptoms but not the underlying cause.

Your sciatic pain might stem from too much sitting and a weak backside.

You’ve no doubt seen a hand gripper, the two-handled device built for the sole purpose of strengthening your grip. A few sessions per day of squeezing it with each hand for twenty to thirty seconds at a time will give you more than enough grip strength for daily life. You can also build that aspect of grip strength, called crush grip, by performing the same action with a stress ball

65: Strengthen Your Grip