Lower Back Care

Protecting the lower back

From: Steve Maxwell
Subject: Fitness
Date/Time 2005-06-17 10:31:56
Remote IP: 68.163.18.158
Message

Peter,
The most frequent cause of injuries in strength/endurance exercise is the sudden increase in volume. This has been well documented in many population studies. So the most important thing to keep your back safe is to very gradually increase your volume of high rep work. The kettlebell snatch works the back muscles in a state of constant contraction. The spine remains in a constant tight arch statically while the glutes and hamstrings propell the bell upward. Any type of mobility work for the spine, including forward bending would be good therapy. Holding back bending postures and the shoulder bridge are redundant, unless of course you have tight hip flexors. You are already holding your back in extension for prolonged periods of time while doing high rep snatches. A very therapeutic and protective exercise that I work with my athletes is the 45' back hyper-extension. I use the wave style, where one allows the back to round or flex forward and then performs a slow extension one vertebrae at a time, in a wave like motion. This exercise strengthens the low back through the full range. Snatches tend to shorten the hamstrings, so do some PNF hamstring stretching at the end of each session. Shortened hamstrings are the frequent culprit in back problems. Keeping a strong abdominal structure is also very important as well as the rotational muscles. Exercises like janda situps, Russian twists and hanging leg raises are vital to a complete back program. Excess intra-abdominal fat also stress and puts undo strain on the lumbar spine. Getting rid of the pot belly is also very important. A spare tire is bad for ones health in other ways as well.
Steve Maxwell