Posture for a Healthy Back
my.clevelandclinic.org
my.clevelandclinic.org
By far the biggest benefit of going to the gym has been that my core muscles got stronger, which in turn has cured all back pains I had.
What exercises did you find most beneficial for strengthening?
On a related note -- I periodically do stretches where I stand on one leg and roll my hip & waist out to the side extending it behind me -- that helps alleviate tension in the side.
Similar - hanging on my forearms from chairs or those ab machines at the gym.
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Mine let me do a number of test exercises and then created a program to work on the weak points she noticed (while explaining everything clearly), and it worked really effectively.
For example, in my case I needed to work a bit extra on shoulder support muscles because I'm somewhat hypermobile. This helped with all kinds of other exercises, because the shoulder muscles were the weakest link "holding back" the other muscles.
there's also the external and financial accountability that a personal trainer brings. that's a huge factor for a lot of people including me. i've tried going to the gym at 6am without a person and a significant dollar figure attached to it - i can't do it.
Mark rippetoe's book on starting strength is a great read on how to execute compound barbell exercises like the deadlift, and also has some great information on things like progressive overload. I'd recommend it even if you don't plan on following the starting strength program.
Anecdotal data point: my lower back pain disappears when I squat regularly.
I do understand where you're coming from though. We often times see guys at the gym quarter squatting or pulling with a rounded back which is indeed doing more harm than good.
I think a compromise to your point (e.g. safer alternatives are better than deadlifting) is that advice to do heavy barbell lifts should come with the warning that injury can happen easily and be serious and/or permanent. Proper posture is best learned from someone who is experienced and that you trust your well being to.
Sorry, but this is utter insanity. The squat and the deadlift, properly performed, are the most important lifts _any_ human being – young or old, male or female – can do. And a person _does not_ need to go heavy on either of these to realize tremendous benefits in their day-to-day life. Spending 6 weeks to get up to a 135x5x1 deadlift (bar + big plates for 1 set of 5 reps) – and then just doing that once a week in perpetuity – would be single most efficient way the average human could improve their daily wellbeing.
I did the exercises facing the wall rather than crushing myself on the floor; the primary benefit was in awakening a few back muscles enough so that I would feel the soreness if I was sitting incorrectly.
beware the person who warns against it - they have an agenda. it's unquestionably good for you when done properly and within your limits of capability.
i've heard less of the "but i don't want to get huge and bulky like a bodybuilder" these days, probably because as resistance training increases in popularity, people are realizing how incredibly, ridiculously, ludicrously, unreasonably difficult it is to build and maintain muscle.
For a typical person without special circumstances deadlifting with proper posture is the most important exercise you need to be doing, IMO. Personally, I was amazed that my minor back aches were gone, my shoulders stayed back without effort, and I was more confident in my posture. Why didn't someone tell me to deadlift sooner in life?
If you have joint, neck, back or muscle issues, ask your instructor for modifications that will work better for you. If they're competent they'll help you get into a good pose that won't cause other problems later on. Think limping when you've got a sore or injured leg, it causes back and hip problems or problems in the other leg if you limp too much. The same thing can happen with a poor choice of a modified yoga pose.
Yoga has been a great help for me since I started. I used to just run, but doing yoga really helped with strengthening the core muscles and changing my posture (at work, while walking, etc.)
And to repeat what Jtsummers said, always do the exercics right, at your own level. Just like with any sport-like activity, you can injure yourself quite easily.
For the tech-minded reading here, this is doubly so, as the app is really top notch, you can basically install it on your phone and just do exactly what it tells you to do and be in better shape quickly if you have the discipline to stick to it.
I had something similar where neck- and shoulder tension was the cause of headaches. And a friend of mine suffered from what felt like a tooth-ache for weeks, which turned out to be caused by a cramped up jaw muscle (which nobody thought of at first, since they were focussing on where she felt the pain).
I recently switched to a standing desk at work, with a tall chair for the option to sit, and it has helped some, but I think what helped most was rowing and weight lifting.
The other thing I've been finding is how much emotions affect posture. When I'm feeling open and unafraid, my whole front side opens up and relaxes, and when feeling insecure, it all curls forward.
Swimming is good for building endurance and working the whole body.
Deadlifts will work your entire core better than most other exercises. make sure you research correct form beforehand.
He made the point throughout the book that a lot of "common sense" clinical wisdom regarding the low back has little basis in the scientific literature. Among these was that there really is no "correct" sitting posture. All sitting postures are damaging to the low back over long periods of time. Instead he recommends varying the sitting posture at least every ~10 minutes or so, and standing up for a few minutes at least once an hour. Acceptable sitting postures could be anything from sitting up straight as in the illustration in the article, leaning back, sitting cross-legged in the chair, or putting your feet up on the desk. All are fine as long as you change it up every now and again.
There were a few other bits of wisdom in the book. A few I remember off the top of my head:
- Don't do sit-ups under any circumstances. They are among the worst exercises you can do for your back. The traditional back extension exercise (e.g., http://lifestyle.beiruting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/su...) also puts the lower back under a huge amount of stress.
- Muscle strength is not well correlated with having a healthy back. Muscle endurance is much better correlated with back health.
- Don't do anything to exert your back within an hour or two after waking up (including stretching the back to extreme flexion by, for instance, trying to touch your toes). The hydrostatic pressure in the discs after rising from bed is much greater, which increases the risk of herniation. (This is why one is ~1/2 an inch taller in the morning than in the evening.)
- If the spine is flexed for a long period of time (e.g., one is sitting slouched over for twenty minutes), the ligaments become lax and remain lax for some time afterwards. Only 50% of the intervertebral joint stiffness remains two minutes later, and even 30 minutes later some residual laxity remained. So if you've been sitting slouched over, don't immediately go and exert your back by lifting a heavy object. Stand up for a few minutes before exertion.
- Squatting is not necessarily better than stooping when picking up an object. It's most important to keep the spine in a neutral posture.
- When picking up a light object, it's best to use the golfer's lift if possible (e.g., https://liftingtechniques.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/golf.p...)
1. Side bridge. Laying on your side, raise the hips up with your weight on your feet and elbow. Hold until failure. This improves the endurance of the lateral musculature.
2. This requires a box with an incline of ~55 degrees. Get in a sit-up position with the back against the incline and with the feet secured to the ground. Have someone pull the box back a few inches. Support yourself as long as possible until any part of your back touches the box. This improves endurance of the flexors.
3. The upper body is cantilevered over the end of a bench or table with the feet secured. The arms are held across the chest with the hands on the opposite shoulders. Failure occurs when the body drops below horizontal.
4. Bird-dog exercise. Starting on your hands and knees, raise one leg and the opposite arm out to horizontal and hold for ~10 seconds at a time.
5. Curl-up. NOT a sit-up. Lie on your back with one leg at 90 degrees and the other flat on the floor. With NO cervical or lumbar flexion, lift your head an inch or two off the floor and hold.
Face up or down?
Suppose an arch's keystone is pushed out of the place? The arch collapses, and can't support anything on top of it. The sacrum is that keystone.
For real progress towards fixing posture, have a look at the explanation presented by the Olympic athlete in this video.
Actually, yes. No sitting posture is one the body should be holding for extended time. We are supposed to move.
Which is really another way of staying that you should be moving and changing positions frequently. Sitting to standing, on a stool, one foot up, then the other, etc.
You can really run in to problems when you are sitting in the same horrible posture for hours on end. One side benefit of a standing desk is that it makes it a lot harder to stay in one position for hours because you can't slump back against a char. So you actively have to find ways to support your own weight, or at least you realize you are slumping forward in an awkward way onto the standing desk and you change position.
I have 2 blown lumbar disks, and for me at least, the 35% lean back, even if it means slouching on the couch, eliminates pain when I do have to sit for extended periods.
this is reality (if you are working with laptop or notebook or macbook): http://www.parkavenuespine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/iS...
https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/the-model-01-an-heir...
Mac keyboards, for example, use scissors switches or rubber dome, which aren't the best for your hands. Apple used to offer a mechanical switch with the Apple II: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard_II
Also, it seems to me that the old rule "top of monitor in the same height as your eyes" is actually a more personal "whatever works for you" thing. See discussion at http://superuser.com/questions/231377/whats-the-correct-moni...
The evidence is finally starting to accumulate in the west for why this cultural phenomenon has somehow stuck around for thousands of years, exciting!: http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2008/05/tai-chi-master...
I carry mine between my desk and car. Makes a big difference in how long I can drive
This was the first article that led me to the Cleveland Clinic website. I hope you find it worthwhile.
Every now and then you see nervous drivers sitting forwards in their seat with their face near the wheel. It's scary to think what would happen if the airbag were to deploy. Just don't be that person.
Also, be careful sitting too far away that you're not locking your elbows. You might cause serious injury to your arms in even a minor crash.
For my back, I practice rolling my hips forward (roll your groin towards the chair), which changes which muscles are use and can alleviate low back pain.
The longer you worked, it showed a different color for how fatigued you were. Taking regular breaks kept you at green, constantly typing made it go toward red.
I found that the program displayed the colors by just displaying different picture files of just that color. I changed those files to pictures of your character from Doom as he takes more damage. The longer I typed without a break, the bloodier the guys face got.
Oh, as for your question, no it didn't work. I just saw it as a distraction so removed the program (which I wasn't supposed to be able to do.)
She was a great physio -- afterwards I asked her to come back about another complaint (running injury) and she was the only physio (of 3) to improve that too. So it wasn't just "go swim more" but "do a bunch of things".
First she explained why I was getting RSI, which was due to overreaching caused by bad posture, laptop usage, etc. Gave me advice on how to stop it getting worse, which worked. I bought an ergonomic mouse, avoid some keyboard shortcuts, changed my chair.
Then she advised me to swim and walk (!) more. I had no expectations, just followed her instructions. I was particularly surprised to find that walking helped so much, but without doubt swimming was key. Swimming is so good because it works out so many muscle groups and stretches and expands your body. A colleague later told me that he'd had RSI and took up swimming to cure it.
My RSI is pretty much gone now, even working very long hours, but I've continued to swim every day. I'd recommend it, as it's much better than running for your joints and also avoids lifting weights, which I've never been keen on due to the competitive (slightly obsessive!) attitudes of those who attend crossfit, etc. Being able to swim well is a really useful skill.