How To Make Your Back Not Hate You For Camping

There’s nothing like camping for the outdoor enthusiast. Quality time with nature, far away from civilization, light pollution, and that incessant background noise that you never notice until it’s blissfully gone. The benefits that come from spending time in unadulterated wilderness outweigh the body pains you are likely to incur, but nonetheless, your spine may begin screaming at you after day one.

Whether you are loading up the necessities on your back and carrying it out into a remote, rustic site yourself, or camping near the security of your car, this activity can wreak havoc your back, and the older we get, the worse it seems to become.

I spent much of my twenties beating myself up to get the best Mother Nature had to offer and loving every second of it, despite the tight, screaming, downright annoying aches and pains I obtained in the process. An old compression fracture in my mid-back causes stiffness and mild immobility in my thoracic spine, or the middle section of my spine, and every time I sleep on a cold, hard ground, I’m reminded that it’s there. My neck is also sensitive due to a few car accidents during my teen years, and my makeshift daypack-and-hoodie camping pillow is an irritable instigator. Do I stop doing what I love just because I wake up with an ache where my human wings should be sprouting instead? Never.