Sam was sitting at this desk going over the proposed budget for the year and suddenly noticed his back was aching. He squirmed a few times and then settled back to complete the task he had been working on for two weeks. If the budget was not exact, he might not be able to implement all of his great ideas, so he had spent all day and half of each night carefully going over each figure. He had even taken the project home. The family had been pretty tolerant of his neglect. The report was due today, and the weekend was here, so he could make up for all of the time he had not spent with Randy, Seth and Alice.

Driving home, Sam let out a sigh of relief. He had done the best he could. Now it was up to his boss to decide if the funding would be available. "I'll change my clothes, get the lawn mowed in a hurry and maybe try jogging a couple of miles. I haven't done anything physical for so long! I guess I ought to throw the ball with the kids, too. Tomorrow I'll get the garage cleaned out. We have accumulated a lot of junk since we moved in, and I have been promising to do that for six months."

Sam had a nagging back pain; it was not serious, but noticeable. As he got out of his suit, he noticed his back was bothering him. He attributed it to inactivity, which was probably true.

Out in the yard, he tackled the first job on his list. The lawn wasn't large and the mower was powered, but he had to lean over to clip around the trees and the edge of the sidewalk. "Why don't I spend the money and buy an automatic edger? I'll do that next week!" he said to himself for the fiftieth time.

With the lawn under control and a little daylight left, he threw the football to the boys a few times. Then he decided to jog a quick mile to soothe his conscience because he had had no real exercise in several weeks. His back still ached, but it wasn't too bad, and a hot shower seemed to help. After dinner, he stretched out on the couch to watch TV and placed the heating pad behind him. It sure felt good.

Sam could hardly get out of bed the next morning. The nagging backache had turned into real aggravation! Back to the couch and the heating pad - the garage could wait one more week. But the boys couldn't. They had tryouts for the football team on Monday, and they needed to practice with "the expert." So there went Sam, out to the park, throwing and running. The pain was there; but tolerable - and practice with the boys was important. Before he realized it, they'd practiced for several hours.

He felt awful on Sunday morning and could barely creep around the house. Sam considered a trip to the local minor emergency clinic but decided that he really "hadn't done anything that should cause any serious damage." Resting all day would probably cure the problem. Back to the heating pad!

His back still hurt badly on Monday morning, but he had an important meeting on the budget proposal. He struggled to the shower, emerged feeling a little better and drove 40 minutes to the office. When he got to his desk and reached into the bottom file drawer for the reports - Bam! Wham! - he felt excruciating pain! Sam had just experienced an exertion injury.

It may comfort Sam to know that almost all back pain disappears eventually. However, those weeks of discomfort and disability could have been avoided entirely with a little preplanning. Sam forgot that the activities he wanted to do were athletic in nature, and his body had been used to sitting, not moving. You can't surprise your muscles and not expect them to react. Muscles can react rather violently and trigger pain.

Because Sam has a desk job, he might not be off from work for long. If he were a truck driver, welder or furniture mover, he might be off the job for six weeks. That is a long time to be out of work when you are the breadwinner.