Fitness
Health Wellness: What if back pain didn’t have to follow you to 2026?
As the year winds down, many people take time to reflect on what has happened over the last 12 months. You might think about your accomplishments, the challenges you faced, the things you wish had gone differently, and the changes you hope to make in the coming year. It is a natural rhythm as the calendar turns over – and with it often comes the desire for a fresh start.
But one thing people rarely reflect on (or often ignore altogether) is their musculoskeletal health. We tend to focus on appearance, weight loss, and the goals we can measure on a scale or in a mirror. What often gets overlooked, however, are the subtle physical signals that something is not quite right.
Nagging back pain is a perfect example. It is easy to brush off – easy to label as normal – and even easier to assume it will go away on its own. Back pain can slowly become something you adapt to without realizing it. Suddenly you’re adjusting how you bend. You avoid certain activities. You modify how you sit or sleep. Back pain – if you’re not careful – can quickly blend into the backdrop of your daily life.
So if there’s one thing worth leaving behind as the year closes – it’s the back pain that has been following you around for months or even decades. Despite what you may have been told – you do not have to carry this year’s pain into the next one. And when you understand how back pain actually works – you may begin to see that addressing it is one of the most important steps you can take for your overall health as you move into a new year.
Back pain rarely arrives ‘out of nowhere’
Back pain might feel sudden, but there is almost always a history behind it. Most back problems develop gradually – from months or years of poor bending habits, long hours of sitting, repetitive strain, or small compensations your body has been making without your awareness.
Until one day you sneeze, lean forward, or twist just a little too far – and suddenly you’ve “hurt your back”. People often blame the moment – but the true cause is usually what has been building underneath the surface.
The holidays (and other busy seasons) tend to make all of this worse. There is more sitting while traveling, more lifting and preparing, and more time spent on soft couches or unfamiliar beds while visiting family. The body is already managing the stress of daily life, and the extra demands of this season push it beyond what it can comfortably tolerate.
The good news? Once you understand that back pain is rarely the result of a single event “out of nowhere” – but rather the conclusion of small, repetitive microhabits over time – you can start to correct these. Small adjustments in how you bend, sit, lift, and move can make a remarkable difference.
Before you know it – not only will you have less back pain – but you’ll have far more control over it. And that kind of control changes everything.
Back pain doesn’t just ‘go away’
It is easy to assume that once the holidays are over, life will settle down and so will your pain. But pain that lingers into the new year rarely behaves that way. When your back is aggravated from mechanical or movement problems – time alone does not fix it. Rest may help temporarily, but the root issue remains. Without addressing the way you move, sit, bend, or load your spine – the pain simply returns – and sometimes for the worse.
This is also why so many people begin January full of enthusiasm only to be sidelined by February or March. They unknowingly bring unresolved back pain into their new routines. Although exercise is one of the best medicines for back pain – it’s not quite that simple.
When you don’t have any back pain – exercise is excellent prevention. But when you’re already suffering – you need very specific exercises designed to correct underlying mechanical faults before jumping into generalized strengthening.
When your foundation is not solid – even the best fitness plan can falter. Back pain influences everything. It affects how you walk, lift, twist, and breathe. It interferes with sleep, dampens motivation, and makes you cautious without realizing why.
Don’t wait for back pain to “go away” on its own – and be cautious of quick-fix New Year’s programs where you risk layering new problems on top of old ones. Ignoring what your back is telling you now could leave you worse off in 2026 than you planned.
Most back pain has a mechanical cause and a natural fix
The encouraging news is that most back pain (80%) can be resolved naturally when you understand its mechanical origins. The spine is incredibly resilient. It is designed to move, adapt, and support you through decades of life – even with arthritis or bulging discs are part of the equation.
When pain appears, it is usually signaling that something about your movement pattern needs attention. The body gives clear clues. Certain movements will feel better, others worse. How your symptoms behave throughout the day tells a more accurate story than any X-ray or MRI ever could. And once your story is fully realized – meaningful change and lasting relief become possible.
A new year is the perfect time to leave old movement patterns behind. You do not have to accept stiffness when you wake up – brace every time you bend to put on shoes – or avoid activities you enjoy because you fear making your back worse.
Small, strategic changes can make a big difference. And you don’t have to go at it alone. If leaving back pain in 2025 is one of your goals for 2026 – consider consulting with a mechanical back pain specialist who can help you sort through everything you’ve just read here. Or reach out to me personally – I’m always happy to help my loyal readers.
Dr. Carrie Jose, Physical Therapy Specialist and Mechanical Pain Expert, owns CJ Physical Therapy & Pilates in Portsmouth and writes for Seacoast Media Group. For a copy of her free self-help guide for back pain – or to get in touch – visit www.cjphysicaltherapy.com or call 603-380-7902.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
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Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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