Standing up straight isn't as easy as it sounds. For a lot of desk workers you're going to have to fix your tight hamstrings, abnormal pelvic tilt, and weak abdominal muscles before it will be possible to stand up straight.
The author traveled around the world and looked through history to find out if we always had such terrible posture. It turns out that industrialized societies put a large emphasis on good posture up until the early 20th century. Even today, great posture can be found in less-industrialized cultures.
The Gokhale method has been a game-changer for many, even though it flies in the face of a lot of modern theories about designing furniture and "good" posture. I've personally met people with arthritis and lower back problems who were able to reduce pain and prevent further damage with this book.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-Should...
Some people jump straight to the big compounding lifts (because they are amazing for building strength) with no guidance from a trainer or much care for their form. You deadlift or squat heavy wrong and it's extremely easy to injure yourself or do more harm than good.
Yes, don’t start squatting and deadlifting without learning how to do it properly.
Yes, start light, you only have one spine and two knees.
No, it is not “extremely easy” to injure yourself if you show a modicum of good sense and avoid max lifting.
I agree with GP that squats and deadlifts will improve posture in a relatively short period of time. They are among the best exercises, period, for improving health and vitality, while being objectively less risky than, say, jogging.
But all it took was one day where I was probably too tired/stressed. It wasn't a serious injury, but that spot in my back is still tight and I haven't really been able to unlock it despite physio, massage etc
May have had pre-existing tension which made it more likely. Dunno. But injury can happen more easily than you think.
(Though jogging is still more injury prone, I think. I'm just saying: treat the lifts with caution.)
I severely injured my back, bulged disk, cause? Poor computer posture and near-total lack of exercise.
I'm fairly convinced that lifting has left me substantially less injury prone: I started when I noticed that I was experiencing knee pain when bending down to pick something up off the floor. That's been gone since about two months after starting training.
Definitely respect yourself and respect the weight. Best of luck with your recovery, I know how it is and it's a journey for sure.
All it takes is a lapse in concentration. In my case, my grip started to fail mid set. So I switched (from overhand to mixed), next rep that wasn't enough and, well, surely I can save this rep if I just engage my bi… Oh, snap! Surgery and a year later, mostly recovered, but still.
I'd just encourage the neophyte to be a bit cautious. Five minutes can lead to an injury that takes you out for a month, and leaves some persistent tension that will take work to get out.
And in particular I'd caution against going heavy if you're tired or stressed. I think my system in general became injury prone and tense during a period of stress. I've worked that out and feel better able to excercise compound lifts.
Of note, I'm not really functionally impaired by this tension. Like, I never say "my back, my back, I can't lift today". I just have some tense spots that reduce flexibility a little.
Is there a specific thing you should do after reading the book?
Your answer is a bit like the old joke: "Patient: doctor it hurts when I do this. Doctor: well, then don't do that".
The reality is that while these are great exercises, they are exercises that are easy to do badly, and that lot of people do badly without anyone ever pointing it out to them, because they think they know them and don't ask for help, and often people don't realize what the warning signs are.
To point out that there are risks with these exercises is sensible, and not FUD, because you can seriously harm both your back and your knees with them if you don't make sure you learn them properly, and a lot of people start out with insufficient flexibility to be able to do them properly.
I've done heavy compound lifts for 15+ years now, and my knees and back are stronger than they ever were before I lifted, but I also did manage to hurt my back when I first started, because I thought I'd learned how to do it properly but hadn't, and nobody corrected me, and I lacked the flexibility to even have a chance of doing them correctly. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself seriously, and took the opportunity to actually sort out the problems, but not everyone gets that lucky.
It's really quite rare that someone is deadlifting wrong the first time because they don't have the flexibility to do it properly compared to doing it wrong because they didn't ask for the right kind of help.
I wonder if lifting with a good coach would significantly reduce the risk of injuries.
Edit: grammar
I think the OP was making the point specifically that doing it wrong would make it extremely easy to injure yourself. Which it would be, and doing it wrong would also be extremely easy for a beginner to do.
Isn't that why they said it's easy to do if done improperly?
I'm fine now, but anytime I try to do squats again, my knees (patellar tendon) hurt.
It would be really nice to see the stats from an actual coach on every trainee of theirs, what their outcome was or why they stopped, with some before/after stats as well.
For my part it took months and hurting my back (thankfully not seriously) before I realized my entire posterior chain was basically too tight for me to be able to keep my back firm enough to do especially squats, but deadlifts too to a certain extent, safely at all but the very lightest weights.
Deadlifts and squats with low weight are good ways of seeing if you have sufficient flexibility, though. If you can't do them with good form even at low weights, then it's definitively a sign you need to do more stretches.
(I literally just got a massage where the bodyworker told me my hip was tilted majority, so it’s a stricking thing to read here...)
https://www.amazon.com/Steps-Pain-Free-Back-Solutions-Should...
A far, far better book is "The New Rules of Posture". [1] See my review at [2] which also briefly explains why "8 Steps" is bad.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Posture-Stand-Modern/dp/159...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2CVZCSXVLQ1EM