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You Should Do This One Tabooed Back Movement Everyday
We’ve been believing a fitness myth for decades and it's only hurting us and our spines.
Throughout my days as a kinesiologist, I’ve noticed one very peculiar thing about the majority of my clients. Almost everyone is afraid of rounding at the back. It’s been drilled into us for decades to brace the core musculature, hinge the hips perfectly, and keep the spine stiff and rigid. This hasn’t just seeped into the fitness community, however, but it’s an integral part of workplace safety education as well. Don’t get me wrong, doing the whole ‘hinge at the hips and recruit those big leg muscles!’ thing is great for heavier lifts, but we must realize that there are serious drawbacks to teaching this as the only way to do things.
As a health professional, I see fear-avoidance behavior around bending the back all the time. As it’s commonly established that this movement isn’t safe or efficient, we’ve grown fearful of moving the spine in this way, even though it’s in an incredibly natural position. In the case of the deadlift, or lifting things off of the floor, spinal flexion has been so criminalized that it’s actually elevating our pain experience and worsening performance. Fortunately, this negative trend can be easily reversed if we expand our definition of safe lifting and…
