ROUNDED BACK

ROUNDED BACK

You’ve probably been told that if you lift something with a rounded back you are going to get hurt.   So is it true? Sort of.

Everyone’s spine has a different curvature to some degree.  Some people’s upper back are more than rounded than others and some people’s lower backs arch more than others.  

The important thing to remember regarding your back when you are lifting (in the gym or in life) is that you should set your spine into it’s normal anatomical extension and keep it there while it’s under load.  In other words, it needs to stay rigid. 

When we hurt our backs lifting things it’s usually caused by one of two things.  The first is when our ability to keep our spine rigid fails, and we let it round (flex) under load.  This unevenly distributes the load onto our intervertebral discs which can cause them to bulge.

Another common way we hurt our backs is by twisting our spine while it’s under a load.  Think about picking up a bag off the ground and then twisting to put it in your car.  The spine is NOT meant to twist like this while loaded and you can easily end up in pain this way.  ALWAYS move your feet when turning under load vs twisting your body.

So there you have it.  Your back isn’t shaped exactly like mine and that’s ok.  Just be sure and keep it rigid while lifting.