My wife and I are moving into our first home next week. New homeowners yaay! We have decided not to hire movers, so we will be doing the majority of the work by ourselves. Call me crazy, but I look forward to it. I see it as an opportunity to sweat, lift some heavy things and work toward a common goal while beginning the next step in out lives. Plus you are always supposed to have pizza and beer when you are finished right? This got me thinking about how many lower back injuries occur when people are moving big awkward objects.
Most of us at one point or another have experienced some type of lower back pain. In fact, research shows that at one point or another 80% of all Americans will experience low back pain during their lifetime. When I heard this statistic, it made sense to me to learn as much as possible about the spine and how it functions. Below are five things that you can implement in your training to reduce the likelihood of injury and keep you lifting heavy things for years to come.
1. Move More
Shocker right? As a society, we spend way too much time sitting or standing in one place. When you stay in one particular posture for more than 20 minutes at a time, muscle creep begins to set in. Creep is when muscle(s) adapt to a prolonged change in length, causing them to become shorter or longer. Think about what happens after a long car ride. When you get out of that car, you feel pretty stiff right? Now picture what happens when you sit at a desk, in a car, or on a plane all day every day for years on end. Needless to say, the long term implications on your posture aren't good. I call this the Quasimodo effect.
Making the effort to get out and simply move more is probably the easiest way to combat low back pain. If you have a desk job, set an alarm on your phone to get up every so often and move around for a few minutes.
2. Eliminate Flexion Based Exercise
According to research by Gordon et al., King, Callaghan and McGill, the spine has a finite amount of flexion cycles before it becomes susceptible to disc herniation. This means that the more we bend over, sit, or sit up, the more susceptible we are to a herniated disc. Given that we already spend a ton of time sitting, I think its safe to say we don't need to exacerbate the problem with doing more flexion based exercise like sit ups and crunches. A better alternative is to perform exercises that reinforce maintaining a relatively neutral spinal alignment. Examples these include:
- Plank variations
- Ab Wheel Rollouts/TRX Fallouts
- Stir the Pot
- TRX pikes and jackknives
- Pallof Press variations
3. Maintain Neutral Spine
I have described neutral spine before in my push up post, so I'll assume everyone knows what that means. Basically, when the spine is in a neutral position it is in its "happy place". A neutral spine position reduces the amount of shear placed on the intervertebral column, allows for a more efficient transmission of force and increases tolerance of compressive loads. When the spine is allowed to travel into excessive flexion or extension under load, you could be spending the weekend on your couch watching re-runs of One Tree Hill. Check out the illustration below for an example of what proper alignment vs. poor alignment looks like during a deadlift.
Make sure to maintain this alignment during exercises like squats, deadlifts, and ab work. One should always attempt to move from the hips while maintaining spinal alignment.
4. Check Your Ego at the Door
More often than not, a simple reduction in load can help. Lifting a heavy weight results in large amounts of compressive force on the spine. Compound this with improper technique and you have a recipe for disaster. You might not be in pain now, but if you keep going down that road its only a matter of time. If you have been doing squats and deadlifts forever with crappy technique, no wonder your back hurts! Reduce the amount of weight you are using and focus on developing better technique.
5. Use Single Leg Work
Lunge, step up, split squat, and single leg squat variations are excellent alternatives for those with lower back pain. Single leg training allows one to load up the legs while reducing the load placed on the spine. I have worked with a ton of individuals with back problems over the years and single leg work is always a staple in all of their programs. Check out this article by Ben Bruno for some ideas on how to implement single leg work into your program.
6. Spend Some Time on the Ground
More often than not, back problems are a result of poor mobility and stabilization patterns. As I have said before, one is always more stable when on the ground. Sometimes we need to back the truck up and re-groove these basic movement patterns we have lost somewhere along the way. Half and tall-kneeling exercises are a great place to start. These exercises can help build hip and core stability, as well as providing a good hip flexor stretch at the same time. As with single leg work, these exercises are regulars in any back pain program I write. Mike Robertson does a great job of describing how half and tall kneeling should be done in the video below.
Other exercises you can try in half and tall-kneeling include:
- Overhead presses
- Cable presses
- Cable rows
- Pallof presses
There is so much more to how the spine works and how to train it properly. The information I have presented above is just the tip of the iceberg. That being said, all of the above points should help you train in a safe, effective manner and reduce your chance of injury.
Have a great weekend!
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