The majority of complaints I hear from people washing dishes is that their back hurts. Bending slightly forward to reach down into the sink for a long period of time (a really long period of time if you don’t have a dishwasher and you may or may not have put off doing the dishes from yesterday, too) can really tire out your back. When you’re bent slightly forward, your back muscles think it is their job to keep you from continuing to fall forward. Those hard working back muscles get tired and sore. But!…and this is key… it’s not their job to keep you from falling into the bubbles. It is actually the job of your abdominal muscles to keep your back supported. There are the six pack muscles, and the obliques – but there is also a belt shaped muscle that attaches to the front of your waist bones and stretches across your stomach and acts just like a back brace. So- to keep your back from hurting when you’re doing dishes, keep your stomach sucked in. hey- summer is coming, so why not. The other very effective thing you can do- is to change your stance. I’m tall, which means I have to bend over further to get all the way down into the sink. What i find to be helpful is to open my stance like this. It takes quite a few inches off of my height, so now I don’t have to bend forward as much. The other stance variation that you can try, is to put your foot up on the ledge of the lower cabinet. When you’re standing with both feet evenly, the tendency is, is to just bend forward from your back. When you’ve got one leg up a bit, it’s like you’ve shifted your weight back into your hips, so the bend comes more from the waist and hips, instead of your back. When I do the dishes, to make it seem a bit more enjoyable, I put on some music – taking dance breaks is a great way to give your back a break.