A number of conventional standardized fitness tests, surprisingly, are not accurate. They do not test what they claim to test. To get real answers that you can use, it is important to know if you are doing what you think you are doing.
An example of a test that does not test what it claims is the "Sit and Reach" test. Sit and Reach is assumed to test hamstring flexibility, but is more a measure of how much you can round your spine. Many people can pass the Sit and Reach with little hamstring flexibility and an unhealthful angle at the hip - tilted back (shown by shorts side seam) rather than vertical. The Sit and Reach is required testing for numerous military, corporate, and school fitness programs
Another standard fitness assessment uses crunches or sit ups, supposedly to test abdominal muscle function. Bending or curling forward does not give a predictive measure of how well you can use your abdominal muscles to adjust your spine position for spine health, for sports ability, to prevent back pain, in short, to move in healthy ways in real daily life and work where you need it most.
A test may be reliable, which means it gives the same answer each time you test the same thing. For example, a scale should measure the same item at the same weight each time. A reliable scale may not be accurate. That means, it may be wrong by the same amount each time. But it does give the same answer reliably. Having a reliable test does not mean it will be accurate. Accuracy and reliability are both necessary components of devising tests that are actually helpful.
I worked years researching more prognostic and beneficial tests for several common fitness measures. If your military or police division, school, or industry wants to hire me to train you in simple new reliable and accurate tests, let me know.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and send your own. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - how do abs help your back? Only when you use them to:
Abdominal muscles don't help your back by themselves. Support is not automatic. They don't fix your back pain by being stronger. Strengthening abdominal muscles doesn't make you hold neutral position (support you). Holding neutral strengthens your abs.
In the post Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank Reader David from Belgium showed changing the plank from overarched lower spine to neutral spine. He pushes up from the floor into an arched position, then fixes it. Readers asked to see how to push up from the floor (or from the bottom of a pushup) with neutral spine.
David made us another video. Click the > arrow to see the first 20 seconds show holding neutral - green check mark. Next 15 seconds repeat the same push up, but with over-arched spine, marked with a red X. Then he corrects spine angle until the end - green check again. Can you see the difference? Can you do the difference?
Letting your lower spine cave inward (hyperextend) under your body weight means you are not using core muscles to prevent it. Hyper-extension, is also called hyperlordosis (too much lordosis) and swayback. Hyperlordosis bangs and abrades the joints, called facets, of the spine. Hyperlordosis can also pinch a disc that is already degenerating or bulging, making disc pain worse.
Get the T-shirt - Abs only support your back when you use them to. Shows ab use for carrying load on the back, in front, and standing.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I'm bailing the ocean with a bucket. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Built in Upper Body and Core Exercise Carrying Children
Friday, May 29, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - get better exercise and stop aching back and shoulders when carrying children (or anything else) in backpack carriers or by piggyback:
Put on the carrier (and baby for a fun practice ride or use groceries, etc). Look sideways in a mirror.
See if you round your upper and or lower back forward. See if you lean your upper body backward under the weight. Notice if you increase your lower spine inward curve, are tilting the hip out in back to hold up the carrier.
Straighten upper and lower body segments. You will feel a strong pull on your abdominal muscles when you reduce overarching in the lower spine and prevent leaning the upper body backward. You will feel an upper back workout when you don't lean or round forward.
Use straighter positioning all you can:
It may be "natural" to try to offset loads by hunching and contorting your body, but it still hurts.
Overarching the lower spine makes carrying feel easier because it shifts weight to the spine joints (facets) and surrounding soft tissue, and off the ab muscles. Rounding forward feels easier as it shifts weight to the discs and off the back muscles.
Get more exercise and less joint trauma with neutral posture.
Looking downward with good neck dynamics: Holding healthful position does not mean never look up or down to see where you are going. It means to get natural, built-in upper body exercise, burn calories, and enjoy your time going places with the kids - Tax Preparation Health
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
RSS feeds are still going down - Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Straighten and Stretch Hip While Strengthening Core, Arms, Legs, and Balance
Friday, March 27, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Increase strength and muscular endurance of your body working as a whole, and learn to keep neutral spine and good hip position against resistance.
From a pushup position, turn to the side, raising one arm overhead, holding legs and body straight.
Raise your top leg. Notice if you increase the inward curve of your lower back (overarch to hyperlordosis) and if you bring the leg forward - demonstrated in the upper photo.
Instead, hold straight. To feel position, practice against a wall - demonstrated in the lower photo. Bring the back of the raised leg against the wall. Press your lower back closer toward the wall instead of letting it overarch from the weight of your leg pulling the spine.
The idea is to use the wall as a guide to learn positioning, then use your muscles and sense of positioning to hold straight without the wall from then onward.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
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Fast Friday - Oblique Core Strength and Balance on the Ball
Friday, March 20, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - develop strong side abdominal and back muscles, and train balance at the same time:
Put both hands on the floor and step one foot up onto an exercise ball of any size
Step the other foot up to the ball and turn sideways. Hold straight (upper photo). Hold and feel all abdominal and back muscles working strongly to hold yourself straight.
Work up to raising one arm.
Don't let body sag (lower photo). The idea is to train your muscles to be able to hold straight against the resistance of your own body weight during daily life when walking and everything you do. If your muscles don't have the strength or endurance to hold you, then you will sag onto your joints.
At first, you may need help to steady the ball. Practice until you can steady it with your own muscles, balance, and stability.
Instead of sitting on an exercise ball, remember that you might already sit much of the day. Get up and use an exercise ball for more functional, active, and healthful things.
Send in your photos of your fun successes using the ball in ways that train function. Exercise ball success story already in progress from Robert Davis. See his first story - Fixed Injuries, Got Strong, With Functional Exercise.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
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Fast Fitness - Even More Core With No Forward Bending
Friday, March 13, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - build on a previous Fast Fitness for increased strength of body and core. Strengthen almost everything with this fun move.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Read inspiring success stories of these methods and send your own.For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. For personal evaluation take a Class. For top students, certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Hold a straight pushup position. Extend one leg 90 degrees out to the side. Your foot and knee point straight to the front.
Keep that leg and foot parallel to ground, not sagging downward to the floor.
Do pushups keeping the leg held straight out to the side and off the floor.
Keep your back straight (demonstrated center) in neutral spine. Don't allow lower spine or neck to droop under your weight, to prevent compressive spine sagging (gray t-shirt right foreground). See how in Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank.
Readers - send in your mpeg movies of doing this and all your other successes.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. LimitedClass spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply for certification -DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more with Dr. Bookspan's Books,
Fixed Injuries, Got Strong, With Functional Exercise - Real Life
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
This fun note and great story came in from Robert Davis:
" I have tried to find a way to contact you for a while now!
"I have a story I thought I would share and I am so glad I had found your books and website.
" I had injured myself via weight lifting in late October. I had felt the warning signs before this, however I ignored them and continued to train full out. The result was I had hurt my lower back very badly. The pain was unbearable.
" Sitting hurt. Getting up and walking hurt. To top all this off, I was so adamant that one's "back" health is determined by how well you can stretch forward bending! So this became a discouraging struggle as the more I tested that, the worse I hurt! I had many bad habits besides that and will go into that in a moment.
" I kept training "thru" the pain and bad movement thru to about November 24th. I kept aggravating the area thru bad habits (while doing these exercises. Arched back, rounding etc). I finally went to the doctor and he just made me do some simple movements and the typical straight leg lift. He had decided for now that it was not something all that bad and said that we would do a MRI (or was it CAT scan?) if it did not get better.
I struggled for the next few weeks as I was told to simply rest. I realize the fallacy in this because "just taking it easy" had lead to muscle weakness. It was now a double edged sword by Christmas. I hurt in my back, but when I tried to exercise it it was so weak it hurt more.
I finally ran across your website just after Christmas and before the new year. I started to play around with the ideas at first. I was still stuck though on "better" meant no more pain bending forward. So for a week or two more I played back and forth with these ideas.
" Finally around the 15th or so after the new year I decided "what the heck" I will order some of your books. They seemed more promising then anything I had looked at and I realized in an "aha" moment that it was a form of exercise, which I so very much craved at the time as I simply love to exercise. This "resting" was driving me nuts..
I was watching a show on TV one night on beaches and shell collecting of all things and the biggest "aha" came to me in the form of a little girl. I watched adults picking things up and they bend right over without thought. This went on for a while. Then I saw a child pick up shells. She squatted every time! I said to myself "jeez these books are absolutely right, I am basing everything on bad habits!"..
" I immediately started becoming aware of everything I did during and after exercise. I took your book "fix your own pain" and have almost memorized every chapter and decided if I am going to do this I am going to balance my whole body.
" So after weeks of this (trial and error). I slowly got better. Things I learned along the way are this.. Bending over to pick stuff up is not healthy nor is it natural (that child in the show!).. I learned even after doing weight training for 2 years that my legs were still not as strong as I thought. I learned I had developed bad leg positions from unhealthy squatting (on the knee joints instead of behind). I had further learned that I was holding my feet outward and I think this had come from doing leg pressed with feet slightly out to try to target certain areas.
" I learned to strengthen my core much more effectively and better thru the ab revolution and fix your own pain. I was a 500 crunch type person. I am no longer doing sit ups crunches or whatnot. The stuff in your ab revolution is much more difficult to do and healthier.
I learned to strengthen my body thru its own weight, destroying the myth that you need "weights" for gains as I found these exercises to be just as challenging, if not more in some cases because of the added balance and flexibility required.
" I am now sitting here writing this and I tell you that compared to the initial injury and repeated re-injury (doing the same exercises with bad habits) to now, I am close to 100 percent.
" The funny thing is, I no longer have the desire to go back to weight training, which is odd because that was my life! I have discovered a whole new world of fitness with body weight alone. I am trying more challenging things by the day and I have realized that this is actually more fun the weight training for health and I am getting the same, and often better results (since I am not a body builder, just love exercise and looking fit). I had gone and bought a few things like pull up bars and planche devices and am currently working on mastering some very difficult moves that require body strength alone, but at the same time a mindful awareness of how I am doing it by using your techniques (keeping the back straight with slight tilt etc, no arching).
" It is fun working up to one arm pull-ups in good form. Jeez, to think you could bench press close to 300 a few months ago but doing a few of these exercises in your book were hard! I was surprised I could not do very many pull ups or hold these planks and whatnot.. I am set on a new adventure and I love it because it feels so "free" and balancing. I don't have to spend a huge fee to go to the gym. My gym is my body and functional movement.
" Thank you for your knowledge. Having my back back (sorry for that funny saying!) is great. I intend to keep it healthy now and have begun the correction process of all my body, all the way to my feet!
" I don't look at my injury as a mistake anymore. I look at it as a life changing experience and a chance to explore more functional and fun ways of living. I have passed this site and your books on (not my personal copies!) to a lot of friends into fitness. Some are already reporting healing knees and what not and even re-considering how they live and workout!
" PS I have also changed to a Vegan diet just to see what happens. I was very intrigued by the 72 year old body builder who is vegan.
"You are a godsend. Robert Davis"
Great work Mr. Davis! Robert has been sending me many insightful updates with photos, to be posted with his ongoing success stories. His next story starts here: Cardiovascular Cleanup.
Junk food can be vegan and vegetarian with unhealthful additives, dyes, refined processed sugar and flour. Click the label "Nutrition" under this post for all posts on how to get healthy fun sports food and Healthier Fitness by clicking the label "Green Fitness."
Weightlifting and Weightbearing With Lower Spine Overarching (Sticking out too much in back) Compresses Vertebral Facet Joints:
Read success stories of these methods and send in your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
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Here is Friday Fast Fitness - learn how to use your abdominal muscles for what they need to do in real life - hold your spine in neutral position, even against resistance:
Lie flat, face up. Legs out straight, as if standing up. Hold a weight a few inches above the floor with arms outstretched, elbows by your ears.
Lift the weight a few inches up and down, using your abdominal muscles to prevent your ribs from lifting up and to keep your back from leaving neutral position.
Keep your lower back close to the floor. This is the key to making this into an effective and functional abdominal retraining exercise. Also prevent the weight from touching the floor (don't drop baby on head).
This video was made by David from Belgium with his baby Aiko, born one year ago today, Feb 27th 2008. Happy Birthday Aiko!
Click the arrow to run. If the video does not load, here is the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k4zDwce7bE
Watch how David bends well with heels down and upright body to pick up baby Aiko, and gets up again without using hands.
Press your lower back toward the floor and feel your abdominal muscles working strongly. The point of this retraining drill is to have fun learning to hold your spine stable against resistance, learn how to reduce an overly large lower back arch using the floor as a guide, then transfer that knowledge to standing and lifting overhead. This is how your abs are supposed to work in daily life when standing - to prevent the spine from overarching (overextending backward).
For more on using neutral spine in real life see the third expanded edition of The Ab Revolution™.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Partner 1 (white uniform) does biceps curls and other lifts using partner 2's weight.
Partner 2 uses core and whole body strength and endurance to hold straight positioning. Partner 2 can face up, down or sideways, in each case using appropriate muscles to maintain straight position. Breathe normally.
This Fast Fitness can be done with willing friends, children, pets, and furniture.
Partner 1 uses core and abdominal muscles to stand with neutral spine rather than leaning backward, and whole body strength to support weight of partner 2.
It is a myth that you must lean back to offset a carried load. You get intense and functional abdominal muscle workout by using them to pull you forward to neutral standing position.
I once used this exercise of holding straight horizontal position (partner 2's part) while helping out a friend who is a stage magician. I filled in for his absent assistant for the floating lady illusion. I was too tall for the apparatus. It usually holds your body out flat using struts reaching from head to thigh. It reached only to my midback. I wound up holding my weight myself, from hips to feet - high above the stage - while trying to look hypnotized. More on this, someday, in another post.
I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Fast Friday - Functional Oblique Abdominal Muscle Practice - Holding Straight
Friday, February 06, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - use your oblique abdominal muscles functionally - to hold yourself straight against resistance:
Stretch out on the floor. Turn to the side, standing on one hand and one foot
Hold straight as long as you can. Don't sag. Feel how to hold yourself straight and relaxed.
For more, raise the top leg. Keep body straight, instead of bending forward at the hip. Don't increase the inward curve at the lower spine when you raise the leg. Keep neutral spine.
Photo is of one of my students, Dr. Hanley Owen, a physician from Fairbanks Alaska, who took a workshop with me at the Wilderness Medical Society meeting 2008. Check my web site CLASS page for workshops this summer - DrBookspan.com/classes.
Instead of curling forward and sideways to exercise abdominal muscles, this drill retrains oblique abdominal the way you need them in real life - to keep you straight instead of slouching to the front or side when carrying shoulder bags and other loads, including yourself.
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Fast Fitness - How Abdominal Muscles Prevent Hyperlordosis When Carrying
Friday, January 09, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - How to use your abdominal muscles to maintain neutral spine when carrying babies, and other things held and carried.
When you hold loads in front, notice if you lean your upper body backward - right-hand photo marked with red X. Leaning backward from the waist increases lumbar lordosis (hyperlordosis) which pinches the lower spine, causing aching after long standing.
Instead, stand upright - middle and left photo. The muscles that pull your spine forward to straight position against the load are your abdominal muscles. Upper spine angle will be a little more upright than pictured (center).
It is a myth that you must lean back to offset a carried load. You get a free abdominal muscle workout and increase abdominal muscles endurance by using them (not tightening) to change from painful to healthful standing position. Breathe normally.
David from Belgium is pictured at left. David has made many contributions to Fitness Fixer through photos, movies, success stories fixing his own pain and of his yoga students, translated many of my articles into Dutch, and has developed a healthier yoga style which he premiered at a world yoga congress last year
He did all this during the time he and wife (pictured center and right above) were expecting their first baby, arriving early last February. Thank you David and family from all of us.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
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Fast Fitness - High Core Strength For The New Year
Friday, January 02, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a quick fun one to fulfill New Year's Resolutions for increased strength of body and core. Strengthen almost everything with this fun move that my students affectionately call "peeing dog" -
Hold a straight pushup position. Keep elbows slightly bent, not locked.
Lift one leg straight out to the side, as if over a bicycle. Hold as long as you can. Jump to switch other leg out to the other side.
Hold neutral spine throughout (pictured at center). Don't let lower spine or neck droop under your weight (gray shirt second from right). This post shows how - Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank.
Send your photos or short movies of your successes doing this. Coming soon - an even more fun and challenging maneuver once you can do this one.
Photo is from my workshop at the 2007 International Black Belt Hall of Fame.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer -Click "updates via e-mail" - (trumpet icon) upper right.
How Much Inward Curve Space Should There Be In The Lower Back?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Carina asked a good question on the post Prevent Back Surgery about how much space there should be in the lower back inward curve. Comments were not accepted by the Blogger software for several weeks, and I could not reply in the comments. Her question is so good, it was chosen for this Fitness Fixer post.
Carina writes:
"Hello Jolie, "Your information is so wonderful. Thanks for this stuff it's priceless.
I have been using the wall trick during the day when my back hurts (How to Feel Change to Neutral Spine). Wow it feels great. Only thing I can't STAY and walk like this. My knees are STUCK bent (or I go back to the big arch). I'd seriously look very odd walking around with bent knees. So here are my questions
"1) How much of my hand should go through when I am standing against the wall??? When I stand at the wall and do it naturally I can stick my whole arm to my elbow behind the arch.
"2) Besides these links you provided from a previous question Fast Fitness - Quick Relaxing Hip and http://windowsxp-privacy.net/?id=198760105 " (Note - the above link didn't come through in Carina's comment; I don't know which it is.)
"is there anything that helps me walk in neutral spine and not looking silly? "Thanks for caring about our backs, Carina"
Carina, great work. You have found that simply changing spinal angle (wall "trick") to reduce overarching works right away to reduce cause of pain. Next, here is how to retrain neutral spine into a normal natural stance:
1) Don't worry about "How much hand fits." It doesn't indicate amount of overarching. Lower spinal angle is what matters. Body proportions change the distance from wall - independent of spinal angle.
If you have too much tilt to the pelvis or you lean the upper body backward, lower spinal angle increases. To reduce an arch that is large, press the lower back closer to the wall.
The post Neutral Spine or Not? shows how to tell if your hip (pelvis) is tilted or straight, and/or if overarching (hyperlordosis/swayback) is coming from the upper body (leaning back). The wall maneuver shows you how to reduce the overarch. Don't press flat against the wall or you'll round like a beetle :-)
While standing at the wall, see if you can do a small "crunch" movement without rounding your upper body forward, to reduce the overly large arch. Movement is just from the hip and mid-torso. Hopefully, you will feel that you easily move the body without bending your knees. That should produce reduced lower back arch. Send some photos if you like and I will take a look.
2) Next, you need to make it possible and comfortable:
Check how you are standing. Don't try to touch the back of the legs to the wall. Just heels, backside, upper back, back of head.
Thank you for already checking the other links and finding the relaxing-hip-stretch. I couldn't tell which other stretch you wrote, but most stretches that lengthen a tight front hip can help. One that is functional for daily bending that you need to do anyway is Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs.
Hope to hear more about your successes. Send photos and I can post your continuing success in Readers Inspiring Stories.
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Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
Mr. Jim Morris is the 1973 AAU Mr. America and 1996 Mr. Olympia Masters Over 60. He is now 72. Mr. Morris is a vegan bodybuilder who reminds people that body building involves selflessly looking outward to do good, rather than focusing only on appearance and commercialism. He urges real nutrition through healthy food, rather than artificial chemically produced supplements, and healthy movement rather than harming yourself to gain physical looks or heavier lifts.
Mr. Morris looked over my Ab Revolution book, and wrote to me that he wanted to order several copies for his clients. He wrote, "You are the first person I know of to finally get it right."
Later, after reading Health and Fitness in Plain English Third edition, he wrote, "I have a copy of "Health and Fitness in Plain English" I just received and every page I open to, I say, 'I wish I said that,' and then add, 'I have been saying it for years.' Glad someone finally put it all into print and in one volume. Thanks, Jim Morris."
Fast Fitness - Fixing Your Handstand to Neutral Spine
Friday, May 16, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Last week's Fast Fitness showed a movie of how to step up into an easy handstand and get back down. This week shows a common pitfall - letting your lower spine sag under gravity - and how to fix it and hold neutral spine.
My student Dennis, Olympic medalist in wrestling, demonstrates:
Step your foot up behind you high onto a wall, then the other.
For the first 5 seconds of the movie, Dennis allows the lower spine to overarch (increase the inward curve) under the pull of gravity, a bad posture called hyperlordosis. It is not the normal inward curve, it is an easily changed bad posture.
At second 5 he changes the tilt of the hip and lower spine back to neutral spine. The action is like doing an abdominal crunch to bring the spine and torso just forward enough to be straight.
This technique practices the muscles and positioning for straight standing, making it better than just a handstand. If you want to gain abdominal strength, using neutral spine uses those muscles. An important difference in Fitness Fixer exercises is that they are not only exercises alone. All the techniques I developed are supposed to be used to train muscle function and positioning for when you stand up and walk away.
Use neutral spine, not only for handstands, but all you do. Examples are in Prevent Back Surgery.
The post Spotting Back Pain During Running and Walking - What Do Abs Have To Do With It? showed the common and painful bad posture of standing with too much inward curve in the lower back, called swayback and hyperlordosis. A reader mailed me an article about gluteal muscles and asked what gluteal muscles have to do with it. The article shows one kind of hyperlordosis, with the hip pushed forward. The drawing at right shows that hip-forward hyperlordosis position (right figure) compared to neutral spine (left figure). The article stated that the hip-forward posture was due to weak gluteal muscles, and that strengthening the muscles would fix the bad posture. The article gave a strengthening exercise of lying on your back and squeezing the "cheeks" of the backside together as if squeezing a coin between them.
Knowing muscle action will help you know why it doesn't work that way:
Your gluteal muscles are muscles of your backside. One function is to pull your upper leg backward, for example, when walking, to pull each leg behind you. The distance between the back of your hip and the back of your upper leg shortens.
If you use your gluteal muscles while standing (not tighten them, just use them to bring about movement) your hip will push forward. That is the opposite of correcting a hip that is forward in bad posture.
Squeezing the "cheeks" of the gluteal muscles together is training a different movement direction than either pushing your hip and leg forward or back.
Another fallacy is that tight gluteal muscles pull the hip so that it pushes forward into bad posture. It is true that tight hip muscles in front will change the tilt of your hip. People with anterior tightness cannot easily bring the leg behind them, which hurts stance and gait. Gluteal muscles cannot get that tight unless you have tetanus. Gluteal tight enough to push the hip forward a few inches would be so tight that you would not be able to sit down. You would tear your backside like splitting your pants.
The key point is that strengthening a muscle does not make it move your body or change your position. If you strengthen your arm, for example, your arm does not automatically wave around or raise over your head. Your arm only moves when you make it move. Strengthening your gluteal muscles will not move your hip for you. Even if strengthening did make any body part move on its own, gluteal muscles would cause a forward hip, not correct it.
Think of asking a dog to shake hands with you. If you want the dog to move his paw up to shake your hand, you do not strengthen his leg and paw. You train the movement and the voluntary desire to bring about the action.
Standing, walking, and running in hyperlordosis is a major cause of lower back pain. Some people stick the backside out in back and others tilt the upper body back with the hip thrust forward. Both increase the inward curve of the lower back and painfully pinch the lower back structures. Although some fitness information and advertisements represent overarching as attractive, even something to deliberately do, it is an unhealthy and weak posture, making it unattractive and undesirable.
Strengthening muscles is good and helpful and fun and healthy, and so on. Strengthening gluteal muscles or any other muscles will not automatically make you stand in healthful position. Stronger muscles do not make you move. You can change to healthful position right now without strengthening. These posts show how:
When you hear that you need various strengthening exercises to correct posture, think of shaking a dog's paw.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Stronger Arms and Chest, and Core, Hip, and Leg Stability With A Friend
Friday, March 14, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - strengthen inner legs, thighs, arms, and core, while practicing neutral spine with a friend. More exercise than putting hands up on a bench or exercise ball.
My students Johanna (1) and Diana (2) demonstrate the beginning of this move. Description of how to progress follows the photos:
Partner 1 lies face up with bent knees
Partner 2 does pushups on Partner 1's knees while holding neutral spine, not letting the lower back sag and arch downward. Partner 1 gets entry-level exercise hip and core exercise by holding legs stable and does not let knees wobble. Higher-level exercise is described below the photos.
To increase core and hip stabilization training for both partners, Partner 1 tilts knees slightly to each side while Partner 2 continues pushups. Try both moving continuously side to side, and holding legs stable at an angle. Do not twist your spine.
Spotting Back Pain During Running and Walking - What Do Abs Have To Do With It?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The post Innovation in Abdominal Muscles showed one of the most common, yet most overlooked cause of lower back pain during long standing walking, and running.
Readers sent excited letters stating they could finally see and feel why they had back pain, and could immediately feel the difference when they stopped standing with too much inward curve in the lower spine, and began standing and moving in neutral spine.
Neutral spine at left. The line from the top of the leg up to the middle of the hip is vertical. The beltline (line from front to back through the crest of the hipbone) is horizontal.
Middle drawing shows tilting the hip forward in front and out in back.
Right drawing shows tilting the hip forward, and also leaning the upper body backward.
Readers asked for more photos so that they can see the difference between overarching (hyperlordosis) and neutral spine (normal lordosis) during running and walking. They wanted to see the overarch in action and what running in neutral spine looked like.
The two photos above show allowing hyperlordosis, or too much inward curve (arch) in the lower spine. It is not a normal curve. The angle increases where the back of the vertebrae come together. It does not look fit or healthy.
In both photos, the hip tilts forward in front (and out in back) instead of holding vertical. The abdomen rounds outward.
Note the red stripe on the runner's pants in the photo at left. The stripe tilts forward from the top of the leg to the middle of the hip. Compare to the red vertical line in the middle and right-hand drawing. The beltline tips downward in front. Compare to the red lines tilting downward in the drawings.
The walker in the photo at right tilts the hip forward in front (and out in back), beltline tips downward. The upper body leans and sags backward.
Neutral spine.
The muscles that shorten to prevent the upper body tilting back and the hip tilting forward are your abdominal muscles. The abdominal muscles are too long when you allow overarching. Keep this in mind when you hear about exercise programs that claim to lengthen your abs.
Moving your spine to neutral spine for all daily life is how abdominal muscles help prevent back pain. It is not strengthening them that does this, and it is not tightening. Crunches and other forward bending exercises do not train you how to use your abs to hold neutral spine and they increase herniating pressure on your discs - click Good Life Works Better Than Bad Ab Exercise. Use your abdominal muscles, without tightening them, to position your lower spine during all you do, just like using any other muscles to move any other part the way you want. It is a free ab workout all day, and you will stop a major cause of back pain during standing, walking, and running.
Click Prevent Back Surgery to see why overarching can be so damaging to the joints of the vertebrae.
Click my web site books page www.DrBookspan.com/books to see the training manual The Ab Revolution™. It shows several techniques to learn neutral spine as a normal habit, and how to use it to stop back pain from hyperlordosis, even if you don't exercise (Part 1) and how to use it for better core training if you want to incorporate it into exercises (Part 2), from simple to the hardest you can get.
My student Leslie is 67 years old. She has been working with me for several years. Click the arrow of this 30 second movie to watch her knock off 30 pushups.
At around the 25 second mark of this short movie, enjoy the reaction of the student who will appear at right.
Leslie holds straight neutral spine position. She does not let her lower spine sag, or her head and neck sag downward. To see a movie to practice how to change overarched hyperlordotic sagging spine to neutral spine for pushups, click Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank.
Leslie says hello to all the readers and that she is strong with such great positioning due to my classes and emphasis on being able to hold up your own body weight in healthful positioning for regular daily life. I hope to post more of Leslie's and other students' happiness and strength.
Bookmark this post. Open it every day and do your 30 pushups with Leslie.
Fast Fitness - Plyometric Partner Bench Press for Valentine's Week
Friday, February 15, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Have fun together as you strengthen arms, shoulders, chest, back, wrists, and core, while practicing neutral spine, speed, teamwork, and cooperation in a fun plyometric partner bench press.
Lie face up with both arms held upward (white karate uniform) to support partner (black karate uniform).
Partner (black uniform) rests shoulders on your hands and holds straight body position on toes. Partner (black uniform) uses abdominal muscles to hold neutral spine without letting the lower back sag.
Push your partner up and down with your hands in a bench press motion. To add plyometric training, push partner strongly and quickly into the air (right). Catch them lightly, bending your elbows upon contact. Switch places and repeat.
Use common sense and springy light touch to reduce unhealthful impact in both partners. You can improve strength and speed without hurting joints and connective tissue. I will post more on plyometrics in articles to come.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Fast Fitness - Prevent Wrist Pain During Pushups and Cooking
Friday, February 08, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Learn to use strength and good joint positioning instead of compressing the wrist joint during activities that put weight on a bent wrist.
Good positioning and strength is more effective than splinting wrists straight and restricting activity:
While sitting or standing, press your right wrist and hand backward strongly using your left hand. Feel the right wrist compress under the weight of the other hand.
Now use your right hand and forearm muscles to press forward against the left hand. You should feel the compression come off the right wrist.
Hold a pushup position. Use this technique so that, regardless of your weight, instead of letting your weight compress your wrists, you use your hand and forearm muscles. Keep weight distributed across your hand, not just on the heel of the hand.
Use this whenever you use your wrists - for weightlifting, for standing on your hands, for typing, driving, biking, playing piano, and during cooking and cleaning.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Lower back pain is a common problem for golf players. Pain is sometimes attributed to twisting the torso during the swing. The "twisting theory" seemed reasonable, since that is when many people feel the pain. However, the main problem is not twisting. Beside the bad forward bending that is common for picking up golf shots and equipment, a major overlooked source of lower back pain is overarching the spine during the swing.
If you increase the inward curve in the lower back, you increase normal lordosis to hyperlordosis. When you do this during the swing while letting your upper body weight press down on the area, it compresses the facet joints and surrounding soft tissue. It is the same pain that occurs from overarching during walking and running.
A golf pro attended my last workshop on fixing back, neck, and hip pain. I was able to check with her to make sure that what I found to stop lower back pain with golf would not interfere with a good swing.
She stated:
"I do not think arching is essential, but I can imagine the older golfers and what their swings might look like...there are some ugly ones that would arch WAY too much and that is the source of many problems on the score card, as well as the back!"
In the following photo examples, look for too much inward curve in the lower back. Too much curve is not a normal lordosis, it is overarching, called hyperlordosis. Overarching is the reason for much unidentified pain during standing activities.
In the next two drawings, the lower spine is overarched (hyperlordotic) on the left and neutral on the right. Neutral spine keeps a small inward curve, but not a large one:
In these photos, see how the lower back is overarched:
These photos show the lower spine from the back:
In these three photos, see how the lower back is held in neutral spine: Preventing overarching and holding neutral spine does not mean that you do not get a full or strong swing. It is not the case that the only way to get full range of motion is by pivoting from the lower spine joints. By holding neutral spine you will shift the effort of the swing onto your abdominal muscles, giving you a more powerful swing.
To understand how bad forward bending (opposite problem from hyperlordosis) contributes to back pain click The Cause of Disc and Back Pain.
Golf cartoons by subscription to Clipart.com Golf arched 1 photo by jarrod job Golf arched 2 photo by subscription to ClipArt.com Golf arched 3 photo by MattFM Arched swing from the back photo by digital_image_fan Neutral swing from the back photo by mahalie Golf neutral 1 photo by dospaz Golf neutral 2 photo by minds-eye Golf neutral 3 photo by Jayel Aheram
Fast Fitness - Core Hip & Body, Posture Strength & Balance
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - training and challenging abdominal muscles to hold neutral spine. Use this, not as an exercise to "do," but to use to retrain neutral spine. Reader Mike, who did a A Whole Big Fix sent this photo to illustrate:
Hold a plank.
Lift one arm straight in front.
Figure out which is the opposite leg and lift that one. Keep straight spine
Mike writes:
"Here's some more feedback on your exercises: it seems the more planks I do with opposite arm/leg extended, the less my hip pops, so I'm doing those every morning for about 4 sets of 10 sec. holds on each side, along with the side planks. Those seem to set my posture off right for the rest of the day. I'm using my hand and wrist muscles to take weight off the bones, as you've said, and my wrists, are getting stronger.
"BTW: my daughter's badminton coach has a PhD in exercise physiology and she's also a big fan of your site."
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - fixing painful swayback to neutral spine.
If you have lower back pain after standing, walking, or running, or feel that you need to bend forward or lift one leg to relieve lower back pain, you may stand with too large an inward curve in your lower back (hyperlordosis).
Stand with hands on hips, thumbs in back
Roll hip under so that thumbs and the back of the hip come downward (not forward)
Use the neutral spine position for normal posture.
Reader David from Belgium made us this short video of correcting overarching (hyperlordosis). At first he is standing with the front of the hip tilted forward and the upper body leaning backward. Both actions increase the lower back curve. Then he tucks the bottom of the hip under to neutral position, correcting the hyperlordosis.
Don't tighten your abs to do this. Just use them to move your lower spine out of unhealthful arching to neutral spine. Breathe.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - fix your plank (hold pushup position) to strengthen core and wrists, and train standing neutral spine posture. In yoga the plank is done in high and low positions called chaturunga.
A sagging inward curve to the lower back is not the normal curve, it is too much curve - pictured at the start of the MPEG movie below. Holding a plank with a sagging (overarched, hyperlordotic) lower spine "hammocks" body weight onto your spine joints called facets, adding to lower back pain, and does not use your core muscles. It is counterproductive as an exercise. Instead:
Hold a pushup position
Change sagging lower back to neutral by tucking the hip. Head up, neck as straight as standing.
Don't flop all weight on wrists. Press with hand and fingers, and use forearm muscles to reduce wrist compression and shift weight to surrounding muscles - see Stronger Pain-Free Wrists When Biking for ideas.
Reader David D. from Belgium sent this excellent movie. He pushes up into plank. You can also can start on hands and feet without pushing up. He first demonstrates badly overarched lower back, then changes to neutral spine in seconds 8-11 of the movie, then holds. When you do this you will immediately feel the effort shift to your abs. Use this instead of crunches for functional core training. If you push up from the floor, hold tucked neutral spine, not lifting upper body first.
(The exercise is not to do overarching and change to neutral - it is to hold neutral throughout.)
Fast Fitness - Strength, Abs, Balance, and Ankle and Leg Stabilization
Friday, November 09, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quickly increase functional stabilization of the knee, leg, and ankle while increasing overall strength and balance.
Anyone can lift weights, but can you do it balancing on a basketball? Get started by standing on one foot:
Do your regular lifts, curls, presses while standing on one foot (and then the other). Breathe.
Notice the leg you stand on. Don't let the arch of your foot flatten toward the floor, or knee roll inward toward the other leg. Hold knee, ankle, arch inline, using your muscles. See Arch Support Is Not From Shoes.
It reduces exercise to sit, even on a fitness ball. It is more exercise, more functional, and better balance training to stand on one foot than to sit. You sit all day already.
Be safe, be excited about having fun doing functional movement, be happy.
Farm Work, Lifestyle Exercise, and Preventing Overuse Pain
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Ivy from New Zealand wrote me that she was house-sitting for friends on their farm. When you read her note, remember that Ivy is a great-grandmother,
"You were very much on my mind yesterday. My friends had arranged for someone to come onto the property to feed the stock. By 5pm no one had turned up so I decided that I would have to do it myself.
"Picture me pushing wheelbarrow loads of hay - carrying buckets of water to fill the troughs and so the list goes on. The paddocks were muddy so had to wear gumboots. I was terrified of falling over. Chickens to be fed, eggs to fetch, pony to be fed plus the sheep and cows. Two of the water troughs had to be filled by hand hence the buckets. I tried to crawl (yes crawl) through the bush to get the hose through to no avail. I can laugh now, however, it wasn't funny at the time.
"This is where you come in - I kept repeating these words to myself the whole time "Now do what Dr Jolie has taught you, use your abs, tuck your hip" (to neutral spine so that the lower spine does not overarch) - "Squat, Ivy, squat - don't bend over."
"The whole thing took me 2 hours - I really thought I would have back ache and that the sciatica would rear its ugly head, but no, I am fine (Jolie's note: Ivy stopped previous sciatica using these healthy techniques). My evening meal consisted of a slice of bread and some fruit - I was too tired to even think of cooking. After a hot shower, I fell into bed exhausted and slept through until 6.30am. I don't have any aches or pain.
"That was my day."
I mailed Ivy a few days later to check how she was feeling. Ivy was still great and wrote,
"The neighbours arrived to check the sheep which are ready to drop their lambs. Needless to say Dr Jolie, I am hoping that they hold off until Harriet and family arrive back home on Monday."
We will see if there will be a post about Ivy using good bending and sitting mechanics to tend birthing sheep and baby lambs.
Related Fitness Fixer articles to learn the skills Ivy used:
Readers have asked for posts on wrist strength and stopping wrist pain with use and exercise. It is in the works. I am also still working on the post I started with, where Ivy wrote of success doing a hip stretch, coming soon.
Readers, feel inspired, get out of the gym and have some fun lifestyle exercise, have fun taking photos, and send in your own success stories.
It is not true that back pain and weakness is normal with aging. It is not true that to stop the cause of back pain you must do special exercises to strengthen one specific muscle or group such as the multifidus or abdominal muscles. It is not true that you need to rest or cut back activity to stop back pain, or use special devices.
Doing specific exercises does not stop the cause of back pain. Consider the number of people who do their back exercises, then bend wrong to put down their exercise equipment and pick up their things, then spend their day sitting, walking, and bending in the injurious body mechanics that created the pain in the first place. Examples and what to do instead are in the posts: Leg Exercise That Helps Your Back and Prevent Back Surgery.
Last year, Ivy, a Fitness Fixer reader from New Zealand stopped a long disabling bout of sciatica by stopping the cause in her daily life and the exercises she was doing - Inspirational Ivy. Ivy was not sedentary. She faithfully exercised, so was surprised to wind up with sciatica so serious that she lost partial use of her leg. One of the positive changes she made was to stop doing crunches. Ivy wrote:
"I was one of these people who for years did 100 crunches a day thinking that they would strengthen my back and take away the pain. Not so. I have been following your Better Abdominal Muscles advice for a year now, it just being part of my every day life....the bonus being no more back pain."
Problems with crunches:
Most people already know that sitting rounded over the desk is unhealthy. Spinal discs are strong and withstand compression, but asymmetrical loading from chronic forward bending degenerates disc in front and bulges them outward, among other problems. The same problems occur with forward bending exercises like crunches, also called curl-ups, partial sit up, and abdominal flexes, among other names.
Crunches and other forward bending exercises do not work your abdominal muscles in the way they need to work in real life.
If you have tendency to a rounded upper back posture, have tight neck muscles, or already sit, bend, and walk around with your spine bent forward, adding to that with crunches is counterproductive.
Ivy did not have thinning bones, but for someone with osteoporosis, forward bending exercises add the possibility of promoting further kyphosis (upper back rounding) and crush fractures.
Ivy wrote me last week:
"Over that eleven-month period that it took to find your web site, I must have opened every web site there was that mentioned the word sciatica, some of which I took aboard and wondered why there was no improvement. I can smile now when I recall how a few days after following your advice, the pain had disappeared and I attended my great granddaughter's first birthday where I sat too terrified to move in case the pain resurrected its ugly head."
Ivy is a great-grandmother, and she is fitter now than when she started. She changed the way she exercised to make it functional instead of a list of arbitrary motions that did not relate to healthy movement in real life.
If you want to make one positive change for your health, stop doing abdominal crunches and use functional abdominal movement instead.
A standard recommendation for back pain is to stand with one foot up, or in front of the other. Why? Pubs often have a foot rail to put your foot up. Why? This post shows 1. A major missed cause of the pain, 2. An innovative relief, 3. The missing link of what abdominal muscles actually do.
1. The Cause If you stand with your behind tilted out in back (middle) and/or lean the upper body backward (right), you increase the normal inward arch in the lower spine.
Overarching produces a mystery ache after long standing, walking, running, and lifting overhead. People who do this feel they must bend forward or sit to relieve this pain, or put one foot up. These movements reduce the painful arch. The pain reduces, and may later return when the person returns to injurious bad slouching (standing in hyperlordosis).
Often no injury shows on x-rays or scans. The person may be told nothing is wrong. Or that they have a back "condition." They many be told to strengthen their muscles, or improve endurance, or given pain suppressing medicine. Those do not stop the source of the injury. Over years, the facet joints (joints of the vertebrae) may finally wear out. Sometimes other things show on x-rays and the patient is treated for the scan results, the pain masked with drugs or returning mysteriously because this cause went unaddressed. Injections and surgery are frequently prescribed, but not necessary. Why not?
2. The Relief The latest "buzz-phrase" in fitness is that back and abdominal muscle endurance, more than strength, is important in solving back pain. However, that still leaves out the key - improving endurance with conventional core training does not train you to stand without overarching. It is not automatic.
The innovation is not a new pill, device, or footrest, or to improve strength or endurance with crunches (not good for your back anyway), or to work on one particular muscle, for example the overrated multifidus. The innovation is to stop the source of the pain then and there, by reducing the over-arch to normal, small inward curve called neutral spine, with simple spine repositioning.
The left photo shows overarching. It is not the normal curve to the lower spine. The silhouette of the lower back is hidden by the arm, but you can see the beltline tilted downward in front and the hip tilted forward in front and out in back. The length of the abs is roughly marked by distance between the hands.
The right photo shows reducing hyperlordosis to neutral spine. Try it yourself by standing with your hands on the bottom of your ribs and center hipbone. Straighten your torso, as if doing a slight crunch standing up. Hands draw closer. The belt line levels. This is normal, straight, relaxed standing position.
The post Prevent Back Surgery showed overarching in action, and gave another quick method to learn neutral spine.
3. How Abs "Support" The muscles that you happen to use to tuck the hip under until you reach neutral spine are your abdominal muscles, including obliques. That is the innovation. You stop the source of pain and get free built-in abdominal muscle exercise at the same time. No tightening, just functional use as a lifestyle. That is what abdominal muscles do. They prevent overarching - but only when you use them.
To direct treatment to fixing the source of pain, and to replace conventional core training with something that applies better to real life, I developed an innovative technique that specifically trains core muscles functionally - which means maintaining healthy spine during daily use. It is called The Ab Revolution™ and has two parts. The first details how to get comfortable neutral spine to stop pain during daily life, no special or strenuous exercises needed. The second part is for people who want healthier exercise. Exercises range from simple to high. Students using the book asked for more illustrations, so Part I of the newest edition has 49 illustrations. Part II on functional strengthening has 65 illustrations, both with step-by-step instructions. If you use the book, use the newest third edition, expanded. Here is the link to my BOOKS page to see it - www.DrBookspan.com/books.
I received an invitation to take a course to learn a new back surgery for damage to the facets. Facets are the joints at the back of each vertebrae (spine bone). The surgery was advertised as a good revenue producer.
In the surgery, the facet joint is cut off and replaced by "lumbar position preservation hardware" rigidly attached so that the area can no longer bend or arch backward. At right is an X-ray of the lower spine with surgically implanted hardware. The person is standing sideways facing to the right. Surgical facet rigid fixation surgery is considered innovative because it replaces the more drastic spine fusion. It also replaces repeated injections into the painful area. The seminar would teach me the surgery with a cocktail reception following.
Why does the surgery want to prevent arching the lower spine? The facets are in the back of the vertebrae. Chronically letting your spine arch (too much inward curve) squashes the facets in back. According to work I've done over years in the lab, the overarching, called hyperlordosis (or slouching backward), is a chief factor in damage and pain to the facets and surrounding soft tissue. That means that you can stop this yourself without the surgery.
Notice if you allow overarching when carrying things in back (1. left) and in front (2. right). The pictured overarching is not the normal curve of the spine. It is too much:
The drawing at right is from Back Pain in Pregnancy - and Why Men Can Get It. Imagine lifting your baby overhead (or any weight) and allowing your spine to pinch backward on the facet joints instead of standing upright and holding neutral spine.
You can stop overarching, thereby preventing crushing force on the facets, and instead, distribute the weight through the core muscles. It is a simple positional adjustment that takes seconds (shown below). It is a healthier approach than surgery over both the short and long term.
Following rigid fixation surgery, you will no longer be able to stretch your lower spine as far backward, even when you want to stretch for range of motion and better disc health. You will still be able to slouch your body weight backward - onto the implants. They may eventually wear, along with adjacent bone, from the chronic crushing. Because the surgically fixed area can no longer overarch, increased forces occur on the joints above and below which have to bend more. If you thought the spine in the x-ray above still looked overly arched, not neutral, you are right. The areas above and below the implanted devices are over-arching backward, and the backside is tilting out in back (hip axis is tilted anteriorly). After years, those facets may be next to break down. It is no surprise "when the pain comes back." The cause of the pain was never removed.
Instead of allowing your spine to be pulled into damaging position, use your muscles to hold neutral spine. Here is one easy way to learn to feel it:
Stand with your back against a wall. Touch heels, backside, shoulders, and head. Do you feel a large arch in the lower back making a large space?
Put your hands on your hips. Thumbs in back. Fingers in front.
Roll your hip so that thumbs roll down in back.
The large space between lower back and wall becomes a smaller space. Do not flatten against the wall or round your back. Just feel the strain come off the lower back. Use the new neutral for daily positioning. Simple. Check the photo at right (spine positioning is shown standing sideways, not with back to wall). Left is arching. Right is neutral. A small inward curve remains with neutral spine (right). Neutral spine does not mean rounding the back (which pressures the discs). Make the belt line level, not tilting down in front. The photo is from the post Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine. Click for additional ideas.
The muscles used to maintain neutral spine are your abdominal and core muscles. It is not strengthening ab muscles that stops pain or teaches you neutral spine. It is using them to prevent damaging spine position. You get built-in core muscle exercise through the same repositioning technique that allows you to avoid back surgery.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
The cheerleaders in the photo at right are letting their lower spine overarch.
Their hip tilts forward in front and sticks out in back.
It is an unhealthy, pain-producing spine position.
Can you see it?
Can you see it better now with arrows showing the tilt of the hip?
Sticking the hip out in back creates a higher angle than normal in the normal inward curve of the lower spine.
It is an unhealthy spinal position called hyperlordosis, swayback, and overarching, among other terms.
Letting the lower spine overly-arch presses the weight of the upper body, plus the weight being lifted, downward onto the lower back, folding it backward and compressing it unevenly. Over years, the joints of the vertebrae, called facets, can degenerate under the compression. The surrounding soft tissue aches. The photographer of the photo labeled it "Ouch" in the Creative Commons collection where I found it.
Overarching and sticking out in back is unhealthy for the spine, and is a major overlooked cause of ongoing lower back pain after long standing and ambulating (walking and running, for example).
If the cheerleaders were standing in neutral spine, the yellow arrows would be vertical. In the drawing at right, the left drawing shows neutral spine, the right shows tilting the hip so that it sticks out in back.
Tucking the hip until neutral spine does not mean curling the spine forward (rounding the back), which can pressure the discs. In neutral spine, a small inward curve remains in the lower back, but not a big one, and the hip does not tilt outward in back.
Some exercisers are accustomed to stick far out in back when lifting weight overhead. It is now known that it is healthier over the long run to maintain neutral spine, not sticking out in back, when lifting overhead.
Another bonus of neutral spine is that the muscles that pull the spine away from overly arched position and into neutral position, are the abdominal muscles. Keeping neutral spine is a free, built-in abdominal exercise. There is no tightening of the abdomen to hold neutral spine - you should be able to inhale easily. It should be no great effort to move your spine from unhealthy to healthy position. Just move the spine, the same as moving your arm to scratch your head.
Click the label "neutral spine" below this post for all related posts. Neutral spine is fun, and looks healthier, stronger, and fitter. Enjoy.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Today is Independence Day in the United States. The Declaration of Independence was drafted in June of 1776. Signing began by July. The paper itself didn't grant independence - work continued until independence came a few years later. After getting the idea to do something, the next thing is to take action. Here are ideas for a life free from things that are unhealthy - pain, unhealthful food, and exercises that reinforce bad habits:
Freedom from junk food:
Instead of soda, put a red sweet pepper in a food grinder. Cut about an inch of fresh ginger root and add through the grinder. In about 30 seconds preparation time you will have a sweet, cool, red, slushy drink with an exotic tang of ginger. Healthy and good tasting.
Instead of refined sugar sports drinks, put a peeled whole cucumber into the food grinder or low speed blender with a whole kiwi fruit. It will make a sweet, cool, slushy, green drink.
Instead of processed peanut butter and refined sugar jelly, put fresh raw nuts and apple slices into a grinder, mill, or chopper. In less than a minute of preparation time, you have a sweet nut butter that you can spread on fruit slices, carrots, and other good foods. Try walnuts, almonds, other fresh raw nuts, and experiment with different fruit combination to make different sweet creamy fresh nut butters.
Masses of products crowding store shelves claim to fix this and cure that. Millions of dollars are spent. The products seem dazzling, but much is hype and many produce unhealthy effects. Then more dollars are spent on more pills and products for the new problems caused by the medicines. Many prescribed medicines cause new problems that can be avoided. Stop the cycle and save yourself time, money, and unhappiness. If it is not healthy, it is not health care: Teen Dies After Using Muscle Soreness Rub Human Growth Hormone Is Your Health Food Unhealthful? Stomach Acid Drugs Increase Osteoporosis and Hip Fractures
Freedom from physical pain and injuries:
At the Special Operations Medical Association conference two years ago, it was released that 62% of our American injuries in Iraq are "Disease Non-Battle Injuries"(DNBI) - not from combat or supporting operations, but occurring in the gym. At the ACSM conference last month, a research study reported that their American military units had 17% DNBI injuries. I asked them how they kept their numbers so low. They replied that the number was for evacuations - injuries so serious they required removal from the base. Some of the most common exercise and stretching practices are not healthy. It is not that they are not good for some people or that they are overuse or done "wrong" - they are inherently bad movements. The same high injury rate is happening to fitness and yoga and Pilates instructors and students. I wrote about this in Welcome to the Fitness Fixer. Here are some specifics on why and what to do instead: Why So Many Aerobics Injuries? The Stretch You Need The Least Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch Safer Overhead Military Press Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
Abdominal crunches are a popular exercise, but they are not healthy. This is new and different information, I know. Crunches "work" your abdominal muscles, but not in a healthful or beneficial way, whether done sitting or standing or using a machine. Crunches also train rounded bad posture that you know is unneeded and unhealthy when sitting or standing that way in real life.
The idea that strengthening the abdominal muscles stops back pain is a myth. Many muscular people have pain. They do their crunches, then stand and move in the overly-arched spinal posture that is the hallmark sign that the abs are not even being used, and which creates one major kind of chronic pain: Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain
The simple act of standing and doing all your activities and exercise without letting your lower spine overly arch, and instead keeping neutral spine, uses more abdominal muscle involvement than doing crunches:Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine.
The book No More Crunches No More Back Pain The Ab Revolution explains a healthier better way to use and exercise your abs (114 illustrations 124 pages). I have a number of copies of the new 3rd edition expanded to give to military personnel as gifts. Contact me to send one (free) to someone you know, to keep our guys healthy.
Independence is Healthy: This post included links to a few past posts about being free of unhealthy things. Click the labels below each post for more related posts. Keep the things you do, eat, and think healthy. If a medicine is not healthy, it is not health care. If an exercise trains injurious body mechanics, use the time for healthier exercises that are more fun. There are better, healthier ways. Be free.
Get Fit in Colorado at the Wilderness Medical Society Meeting
Friday, June 29, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Check your calendar for a healthy trip to Colorado. The Wilderness Medicine Conference and Annual Meeting will run July 21-25, 2007, in Snowmass, not far from Aspen.
I will teach two fun workshops at the meeting on July 24. You don't have to be a member of the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) to attend the conference, and you don't have to attend the meeting to take my workshops, although it's a great meeting with several days of fun, interesting lectures with good people in a great location. The WMS calls it "Education, inspiration, recreation, relaxation, renewal, and community."
I'll be teaching The Ab Revolution™ Core Training method, and Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier, both on Tuesday July 24th. You can take either or both, one after the next. The Ab Revolution™ retrains your core muscles with no forward bending which promotes disc trouble, neck pain, tight posture, and other troubles. It can provide more ab exercise than conventional abdominal exercise, and shows you how to keep your spine position healthy during any ordinary daily life, even when not exercising. You'll also learn to fix one major source of back pain right there on the spot. The Stretch workshop is packed with new, fun techniques that work better, faster, and don't hurt. You will learn how to not get stiff and sore in the first place. Fitness is healthiest when it is fun movement that trains good body mechanics in the way your body needs to do real life activity.
The rest of the conference will have interesting lectures on lightning, altitude sickness, hiking and expedition injuries, diving medicine, aerospace, heat, new research, and favorite wilderness topics of parasites and diarrhea (some medical conferences have whole day seminars on diarrhea which is a serious world health issue, especially in babies and children). Healthline blogger and wilderness expert Paul Auerbach will lecture on marine envenomations. There will be workshops in photography, GPS, survival, and other fun hands-on opportunities along with my two fast-moving workshops. Snowmass is at a moderate elevation. The yearly Run for Research leaves you more breathless than usual.
Class info about both workshops is on my web site page CLASSES. To register, contact the WMS - Wilderness Medical Society by e-mail or phone (800) 627-0629. Workshops are filling up fast.
If you can't make my workshops this time, find the books with complete text and illustrations of everything we will do on my BOOKS page.
Pack a bag. Come get healthy out in some clean air and sunshine.
The new expanded third edition is now available of the training manual, The Ab Revolution™ No More Crunches No More Back Pain.
The Ab Revolution™ is a groundbreaking core training method. It has two components. The first is to learn how to consciously use your core to reposition your spine away from injurious positioning and into healthful position for back pain control during everything you do. The second component uses the new healthy positioning during innovative exercises for fun, healthy, exercise that works your muscles more than conventional core training and works them in functional ways - training them in the way they need to work in real life.
The Ab Revolution™ uses no forward bending which pressures discs and reinforces the rounded upper spine that contributes to pain syndromes.
I rearched the method over many years in the lab and in real life with several thousands of students, patients, and participants, testing combinations of established and proven sports medicine rehabilitation techniques and physical training methods, then integrating them into real activities. I will present some of the research next week at the meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The Ab Revolution™ is in use around the world at top spine centers and by athletes and military. SEAL teams say, "We use it - (we can't tell you our names, we'd have to kill you with our bare abs)."
A small inward curve belongs in your lower back (left-hand figure of the three in the drawing). You can slouch your spine in a few ways to increase the small inward curve resulting in over-arching, also called hyper-lordosis (two ways shown in the middle and right figures). Hyperlordosis can pinch and compress the lower spine joints called facet joints, and surrounding soft tissue.
I have done several studies trying to see why hyperlordosis hurts. One study that I will present at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting this May, identified and measured three kinds of hyperlordosis and their relation to lower back injury. It turns out that, historically, it has been tricky to measure overly-arched spinal angles in relation to the hip (middle drawing). It is even more demanding to figure how the lower spine angle relates to the upper body in hyperlordosis (right drawing). The middle drawing above, and left figure in the photo at right, show one kind of lordosis from tilting the hip downward in front so that the backside sticks out in back, explained in the previous post What is Neutral Spine and Why Does Sticking Out In Back Harm? An earlier post introduced how this kind of overarching can injure - Aren't You Supposed To Stick Your Behind Out to Sit Down or Do Squats?
The right-hand figure in both the drawing and photo show a second kind of hyperlordosis. The hip may be fine and level, but if you slouch and lean your upper body backward, you overarch the lower spine and pinch it under your upper body weight. Watch for this kind of overarching when standing, lifting arms overhead, and carrying loads in front.
The muscles that hold your torso and hip straight are your abdominal muscles. But abs do not do this automatically - you have to voluntarily, consciously use them, the same as moving your arm or leg. If you don't deliberately use abs to position your spine, you may fall into whatever bad positioning habit you are used to - sticking out in back, or leaning upper body back, or both at once.
Strengthening abs and tightening them through conventional exercises also does not automatically make your abs do anything to position your spine - Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine. That is why I spent more years in the lab to develop exercises that do train your abs to hold your spine right while you go about your daily life and while you exercise. We named the new system The Ab Revolution because it is a different way of understanding and using abs, and because we couldn't think of a better name. Ideas welcome.
I will be giving a fast, fun, workshop on The Ab Revolution™ in downtown Philadelphia in May. If you can't make it, follow this blog or try the book The Ab Revolution™. It tells all about fixing the pain of hyperlordosis and how to get effective abdominal exercise.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
What is Neutral Spine and Why Does Sticking Out In Back Harm?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
"Neutral spine" is an often-used phrase in exercise and back pain rehab. What does your spine have to do to be neutral? What does it matter?
In general, (this interesting topic can be involved) think of a line through the crest of your hipbone from back to front. The line from the top bump in back (medical abbreviation is PSIS) to the top bump in front (ASIS) should be approximately horizontal (left-hand figure in the drawing).
If you let your spine slouch so that the front of the hip (ASIS) drops downward and the back of the hip tilts outward in back, the small normal inward curve of the lower back increases (drawn figure on right). The spine is no longer neutral. It is over-arched.
Another way to see the anterior hip tilt when the spine is over-arched is to check the line from the ASIS to where the pelvic bones meet in front, called the symphysis pubis (PS). When you hold your spine in neutral, the line from ASIS to PS will be vertical (left drawing). When the ASIS tilts forward and the behind sticks out in back (right drawing and photo), this is an anterior tilt to the hip. The spine is no longer neutral. It is arched - hyperlordotic. The anterior tilt is easy to see when people stand arched. It is a little harder to measure. Since some experimental subjects are disconcerted to have measuring devices put on their symphysis pubis (PS), the line can, instead, be drawn from the top of the leg bone to the center of the crest of the hipbone. The blue line in the left drawing is vertical, showing the hip is straight and level. When this line tilts forward in front and back at the bottom, that is an anterior tilt to the hip. Note the arrow drawn onto the photo showing the abdomen sticking out in front and the behind pushed out in back. The photo shows standing with pronounced hyperlordosis - too much arch or inward curve to the lower back.
In my laboratory work, I have identified three ways the spine can become hyperlordotic. The anterior hip tilt is one. Hyperlordosis pinches and compresses the lower spine. By any name - overarching, anterior hip tilt, swayback, hollowback, sticking out in back - hyperlordosis is a common contributor to lower back pain. The area may ache after long standing, walking, running, or lifting overhead. Eventually, (over years) overarching can damage the spine joints called facets and nearby structures.
Holding the hip and spine in neutral and not letting the hip tilt forward happens to use a particular set of muscles - your abdominal muscles. Strengthening the abs does not automatically keep the spine neutral. Tightening the abs also does not move the spine to neutral. Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine explains more of why. Simply moving your own spine on purpose and holding healthful position as you go about your activities is how you keep your spine neutral and not sinking into injurious overarching.
Hyperlordosis during daily movement and exercise, and how to prevent the injuries it causes, have been an area of my laboratory investigations for years. I have done several interesting experimental studies (interesting to me, anyway). Upcoming posts will tell a bit about them.
Book:
Fixing the pain of hyperlordosis and how to get more effective abdominal exercise - The Ab Revolution™
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Limited Class space for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.
On April 1st, I covered some fun fitness myths and how to change myth into healthier exercise. Today continues with more fun ways to get more exercise and reduce injury at the same time:
Heart Health
Myth - Anger has no health effects. Instead, turn contempt and anger for others to healthy dialog with: Healthier Heart.
Understanding How "Sticking Out in Back" Isn't Neutral Spine:
Then try Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine to visualize how you simply tuck enough to make the belt line level when standing, not tilted. A small inward curve in the lower back remains when you shift to neutral spine, but not large enough to cause degenerative pinching on the facet joints, the joints of the lower spine.
Myth - Pressing navel inwards to tighten abs is the way to strengthen your abs or fix your posture. Fact - tightening will not move your spine out of unhealthy position and it impedes normal fluid motion: Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine.
Exercise Injuries
Myth - Exercise injuries are usually overuse and aging. Fact - Simple misuse is easily fixed: Why So Many Aerobics Injuries? and What is "Fitness as a Lifestyle?" A recent injury survey by US military revealed that 62% of American injuries in Iraq are occurring in the gym. Welcome to the Fitness Fixer tells more. Some top docs say the military press should be avoided. I think it is a functional exercise and can be done in ways without upper body injury: Safer Overhead Military Press.
Myth - surgery is necessary to avoid later problems. Fact - Studies have now found that is it not true that you necessarily risk future consequences if you do not have surgery. Surgery itself can be a source of later trouble: Fix Disc Pain Without Surgery and Studies Say Back Surgery Not Needed.
Myth - Vertebral discs just go bad without warning, from small provocations like a sneeze or reaching or from aging, so it doesn't matter what you do. The good news is that discs are not soft "jelly donuts" as often described. They are tough like truck tires. It takes years of the same, specific, problem to break them down and move them out of place. See the mechanism: Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix
Myth - knocks to the head are funny and harmless. In reality, long-term damage may be common and serious. This has far reaching implication for law enforcement, domestic violence, full contact sports, and extreme entertainment: Rocky IV and Head Injury.
Sitting and Back Pain:
It made headlines when researchers seemed to say that sitting up straight was wrong. Here is what they really meant: Don't Fall for "Don't Sit Up Straight."
Aren't You Supposed To Stick Your Behind Out to Sit Down or Do Squats?
Monday, March 12, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
A commonly repeated phrase in fitness training and programs is "neutral spine" and "tuck the tail" for healthier lower spine posture. Many people know this, repeat this, teach this, write articles about it, then jut their hip too far out in back and overly-arch their lower spine, doing just the opposite, when they squat, bend to pick things up, sit in a chair, and exercise (photo at left).
Tilting the hip too far outward in back overly-arches and hyperextends the lower spine - photo at left and left drawing below.
Hyperextrending the spine, creating too much lordosis (hyperlordosis) can result in unhealthful compression on the spine joints called facets, and on surrounding soft tissue.
Overarching shifts your body weight onto the spine joints and compresses them in a bent-backward position, eventually increasing back pain and joint damage.
Another issue is that if you cannot squat without sticking out in back or leaning your upper body far forward, it is a sign that your thighs are weak, your Achilles tendons are tight, you are not using your ab muscles, your balance is poor, or all four.
Why do so many programs teach to stick far out in back? It is well known that the opposite problem of tucking too much and rounding forward (lumbar flexion) contributes to back pain. People hear this and assume that the opposite, over-arching backward, will counteract that. They exaggerate the arch.
Overarching often initially seems to "work" because you can lift more since you shift some of the work from the muscles onto the lower spine (and sometimes knees).
The muscles do less, so it seems easier. Competition lifters use it to lift more, regardless of the pain and injuries it causes later on.
It is trend-breaking news to say don't stick your backside out too much to squat, and instead use neutral spine, shown in the right-hand drawing. I know. It goes against what fitness organizations and pop-science exercise books teach. I know. Try this to see for yourself:
Stand upright with feet side-by-side, comfortably apart.
Face both feet in the same direction as your knees.
Bend both knees, keeping both heels down on the floor and over your feet, not sinking inward or bowing outward.
Look down and see if your knees cover the sight of your toes.
If you can't see your toes because your knees are forward blocking the view, pull your knees back (keeping them bent) until you are still squatting but can see your toes.
Keep your upper body as upright as you can.
Now, here is the point about the lower back - notice if you tilt too far out in back, pinching your lower spine backward like a straw. Overarching may be habit, or that you don't have the leg strength or balance, or your Achilles tendon is so tight that your heels come up from the floor. Instead, tuck the bottom of the hip under, just enough to bring the spine to "neutral." A small inward curve remains when you have neutral spine, but not a large one - Right-hand drawing.
Raise your upper body to be more vertical, while staying in the squat.
Notice how you have to use far more leg and hip muscle, and the pressure of holding your body weight comes off the lower back and knee joints.
Use healthy bending for all bending. Neutral spine helps squats for exercise, to pick up clothes from the floor, to get pet dishes, look in the refrigerator, get the laundry, pick up the kids, to sit down in a chair, and so on. You will get a far better workout for your thighs, keep weight off the joints of your knees and spine. It is healthier to squat upright than bending over forward to pick things up. It is not healthier to cause the opposite problem by overly-arching and pinching the spine back (increasing swayback).
Another point in spine health and exercise is not to "tighten" or clench your abdominal muscles to squat or lift. It is not healthy or useful to tighten muscles for movement. It is trend-breaking news to say "don't tighten." I know. It goes against what fitness organizations and pop-science exercise books have been teaching. I know. Tightening is not what supports your back. Moving your spine out of unhealthy over-arched position, explained in this post, to a more neutral position is what "supports" (you hold your spine in place) preventing pain and injury. Using the muscles to stop unhealthy position, and hold healthful position is how you support your back - not by tightening.
Have fun being part of this big and healthy change in fitness.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Tighten your neck! Sound comfortable? Tighten your legs and walk around! Sound sensible? Yet, many popular exercise programs have insisted on the erroneous practice of tightening abs. I have written articles, posts, and books on why this is not beneficial and what works your abs better. At last, it is making headline news. The biggest name in spine research, Dr. Stuart McGill, has published that "drawing in" the abdominal muscles, also described as "press the navel to spine" is detrimental to health of the lower back, and that tightening the abs impedes normal movement. In Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2007 Jan;88(1):54-62, authors Grenier and McGill conclude, "There seems to be no mechanical rationale for using an abdominal hollow, or the transversus abdominis, to enhance stability."
This week the headline news of British newspaper "The Daily Mail" followed up with inquiry into the incidence of back pain and injuries using the "drawing in" technique: Is Pilates bad for your back? (A minor note - they accompanied the otherwise good article with an incorrect photo depicting the opposite concept of back extension, not the unnecessary contracted abdominal tightening, which was the point of the article.) Pressing and tightening the abdominals has been an incorrect assumption made into ritual in the fitness industry for many years. However it is not the way your abdominal muscles work to do anything helpful to you.
When you bend your arm, you don't tighten your muscles to do it. In fact, you shouldn't want to. You just move your arm bones using your arm muscles. Abdominal muscles work the same way. You use them to move the body parts they attach to. Voluntarily. Strengthening or tightening won't make them move automatically. You may have a strong arm, but it isn't held up in the air automatically - only when you move it there. Strong, or even tight, abs will not automatically support your back. Moving your spine into healthful position will:
Abs attach from hips to ribs. When you don't use your abs, your ribs lift up and the front of your hip sinks down increasing the inward curve or arch in your lower spine (left-hand photo of the pair). This inward curve is called lordosis and also hyperlordosis and swayback.
Note how the belt line tips down in front (left-hand photo).
The lower back aches after long standing because you are letting the weight of your upper body slump down on your lower back. People with the bad habit of overarching often feel they need to lean over forward or sit to relieve the pain.
Instead, to correct the source of the pain, tuck the hip under (not push it forward) to lift up the beltline in front (right-hand photo). Lower the ribs to level. The action is like a thrust or pelvic tilt or crunch standing up just enough to straighten, not round forward.
The muscles that move the ribs and hip to healthier position happen to be your abdominal muscles. Standing properly (right drawing) gives a free built-in ab workout, with no tightening and no forward bending; just functional use of the abs to hold your spine in position during all you do.
Using your abdominal muscles to move your spine out of injurious over-arched position and hold healthy neutral position during ordinary daily life and during all the exercise you do is good exercise - without tightening. The book that started the sea-change in understanding abdominal use and functional exercise is The Ab Revolution™, No More Crunches No More Back Pain.
-- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels, links and replies in the articles, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
What Does It Look Like to Not Use Abdominal Muscles?
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Healthline
Readers have been e-mailing asking for more photos of what "the plank" and other exercises, or even daily life looks like if done in a way that doesn’t use the abdominal muscles as intended.
In the top photo at left, you can see the badly arched lower back at the junction of the t-shirt and beltline. Her back is sagging and "hammocking" under body weight. The hip tilts up in back. If she used her abdominal muscles to tilt her hip under, the spine would be held straight and prevented from sagging. The lower back would no longer pinch backward and compress under her weight. The joints that hold the vertebrae (spine) together are called the facet joints. They get hurt from overarching. Injections are not the answer. To stop the cause of the injury, you simply stop bashing your facet joints together by preventing overarching.
The lower photo shows not using abdominal muscles while standing and reaching overhead to learn how to twirl fire sticks, a common beach activity here in Southeast Asia. The lower arrow over the hip shows how the hip is tilting instead of straight. The hip tilts down in front and up in back.
Another way to understand the movement of tilting the hip under (pelvic tilt or tuck) to bring the spine into healthy straight position is to try this:
Stand with your heels, backside, shoulders, and the back of your head against a wall. Gently try to press the space in the lower back toward the wall.
You don't have to touch the wall, in fact, that is too much tilt. Just learn how to move the hip with a slight curl-under, so that the arch lessens until your hip is straight and no longer tilted forward and down in front.
Don't bring your head forward away from the wall.
Gently hold the tilt as you walk away from the wall.
Keep breathing. Don't tighten your abs. That is not how to use them for real life. Just use your muscles to reposition your spine, like moving your arm or leg - simply and easily and in relaxed manner.
The tilt is not an exercise to do 10 times. It is something you do once, the use, for better health, better use of abs, and better looks. Send in your own photos of your own successes. Have fun.
Read inspiring success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Abdominal Muscle Exercise - Better, Different, Not What You Think
Friday, January 19, 2007
Healthline
Many medical fitness programs, health and exercise classes, and kickboxing and martial arts practices have a complicated and ritualized belief structure that the abdominal muscles have some magic or central function. They try to fix back pain or improve posture through abdominal strengthening programs. Usually these strengthening programs use the same unhealthful rounding forward motions that cause high pressure on your lumbar discs, practice unhealthful bent-forward posture, and perpetuate several common pain syndromes.
Here in Thailand, the Muay Thai kick-boxers and training camps do not have any beliefs about the torng, or abdomen. Even so, the Thai boxers are among the world's best-conditioned fighters. You can swing a bat at their abdomen and it would not faze them. In fact, that is part of training in many training camps. Today I have an abdominal muscle training exercise for you that is more fun than that:
The post Change Common Exercises to Get Better Ab Exercise and Stop Back Pain showed how the pushup, or just holding a pushup position, called The Plank is often done allowing the lower back to overly arch and sag under body weight, as in the upper photo at left. This extra arching, called hyper-lordosis, pressures the lower back and means that you are not getting exercise because you are just resting your body weight on the joints of your lower back instead of holding up your body weight in a straighter, healthier position, shown in the lower photo. Try this:
As soon as you tuck the hip, you will immediately feel the load shift off your lower back and onto your abdominal muscles.
Once you can hold a good flat plank position, add lifting one arm as shown in the lower photo. Do not allow your lower back to sag, shown in the upper photo. Do not hunch or round your upper body, also shown in the upper photo. Rounding the upper body will get in the way of your shoulder joint being able to lift your arm.
"Unround" your upper back and lift your chest to straighten your back. This makes room for your shoulder to allow your arm to straighten in line with your body.
Once you can lift your arm, also lift your opposite leg (not the leg on the same side but the other one). You will feel your abdominal muscles working strongly.
Hold as long as you can.
Keep relaxed but straight, and keep breathing.
Work up to being able to jump to switch the arm and leg that is lifted.
This fun abdominal exercise trains you how to hold your body in the same straight neutral spine position you need for standing and walking and reaching overhead without arching the lower back. That means it is functional abdominal exercise. Many people who do hundreds of crunches a day cannot do this exercise at all because they have never trained their abdominal muscles in the way they really need to work – to hold your spine straight without sagging inward (overly arching).
Crunches are not functional, and train unhealthful, forward-bent posture, which you don't need after a day of sitting at your desk or over the steering wheel.
Instead of crunches, this is one of many fun abdominal-building exercise. You will get better more effective abdominal exercise in the way your body, and abs, work for real.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Healthier Carrying - Get Free Ab Exercise and Stop Pain
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Healthline
Do you overly arch your lower back when you carry things in front of you, as in the photo at left? Arching your lower back and leaning back to carry anterior loads is common source of pressure and loading on your lower back, whether you are carrying a dog, a chair, a baby in arms, a child on your hip, packages, or grocery bags. It is the same contributor to the mystery back pain from carrying backpacks, explained in the previous post, and after long standing, walking, and running explained in Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain.
Look at the photo, at left.
1. The upper arrow shows how her upper body is tilting backward instead of being straight and upright from mid-hip to shoulder.
2. The lower arrow shows how the hip is tilting forward in front and sticking out in back, instead of being vertical from mid-hip to the top of the leg bone.
3. Between the two arrows, her lower back is overly-arched and pinched. There is supposed to be a small inward curve, not a large one, pinched back like bending a drinking straw.
Leaning back offsets the weight and makes things easier to carry. The reason it is easier is that you shift the weight from your arm and torso muscles onto your lower back. This squashes your lower back under the weight of your upper body and the things you carry. It is a common source of lower back pain that keeps coming back, even after pills and treatments. The reason the pain keeps coming back is that you haven't stopped the cause.
Leaning the upper body backward to hold something in front of you is common during standing, walking, running, reaching and carrying around the house, and while exercising. To stop the pain:
To feel reducing the lower spine arch and getting the upper body more upright, stand with your back against a wall. Touch heels, backside, and upper back to the wall. See if you have a large space between lower back and the wall, or if you have to increase the space to bring your shoulders and head to straight position. Press the lower back space lightly, gently, toward (not touching) the wall to feel how to reduce a too-large arch. Pain should stop right then.
Click the label "neutral spine" (and other labels that interest you) for more on each topic.
The muscles that straighten your spine are your abdominal muscles. You get free, built-in exercise for your abdominal and back muscles in the way they are supposed to work for real life. That is called functional exercise.
Standing without overarching the lower back when carrying things, whether in front or back, is better, healthier, and more functional exercise than lying on the floor and rounding your back to do crunches.
Use the arch-reducing technique in this post to learn neutral spine for a healthier back and built-in back and abdominal muscle exercise all the time during everything you do.
Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Healthline
Frequent news items report that wearing backpacks causes back pain in children and adults. Some of the usual theories proposed for why backpacks cause pain is "overstuffing them" or carrying them too high or low. Complicated and expensive packs are developed as remedies. Another of the often-repeated theories is that carrying things on your back makes you arch your back. However, none of these are the reason for back pain when carrying packs. It is not the pack that causes the pain or the arching. It is a very simple matter of allowing your back to arch and slouch backward instead of standing straight against the load.
In the photo, above left, of the backpacker, the upper arrow shows his upper body tilting backward instead of straight from mid-hip to shoulder. The lower arrow shows the lower body (the hip) tilting forward in front and out in back, instead of straight from mid-hip to the top of the leg bone. Between the two arrows, his lower back is overly arched and pinched (not neutral spine, but overly arched). The other hiker without the backpack standing near the sign is also overly arching the lower back.
The weight of his upper back plus the weight of his pack is pressing downward on the joints and soft tissue of the lower back (left drawing of x-ray image). This is how overarching causes lower back pain. It is not the backpack, but the body position while carrying it.
Lower back arching (hyperlordosis) when standing may seem "natural" but it is not healthy. Wetting your pants is natural too, but you have to learn to control it.
To reduce unhealthy overarching (hyperlordosis), use your muscles to move your spine to neutral. Try this:
To feel the problem of overarching, stand, lift your ribs, allow your upper body to lean backward. Allow your hip to tilt down in front and out in back. You may feel a familiar pressure in the lower back (left drawing).
Straighten your upper body by bringing ribs back down to level. Do not slouch or round forward; just stand straight without lifting your ribs.
Straighten your lower spine by bringing your "tailbone" under you until your hip is straight from the top of the upper leg bone to the middle of the crest of the hip bone, not tilted.
The motion of tucking the hip and pulling the upper body straight is like doing an abdominal crunch standing up.
The too-large inward curve of the lower back becomes the small inward curve of neutral spine (right x-ray drawing).
Whenever you carry a backpack, stand, walk, run, or exercise, use the same hip tilt to normalize your spine position and prevent overarching. Overarching is not healthy and is poor body ergonomics to walk around or exercise with your behind stuck out in back. The muscles you use to hold your spine from overarching are your abdominal muscles. You get free built-in abdominal muscle exercise just by standing in healthful position.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Many people are taking down Christmas trees even as the Russian and other Eastern Orthodox families are putting theirs up for Christmas, coming this Saturday Jan 6th. The Russian Snow Girl (Snegurushka), and DedushMoros (Father Frost) have already come to visit. S nastupaiushchim Novym godom i s Rozhdestvom Khristovym - Happy New Year!
Here are two lifestyle strengtheners (and a free Achilles tendon stretch) to build into your fitness as a lifestyle for 2007:
If you would like to get strong legs for the New Year, don't bend over wrong to lift things (upper drawing, left). From now on, make all your bending the way that strengthens your thighs and at the same time prevents back and knee pain (upper drawing, right). Keep your upper body upright and bend your knees. Prevent knee pain and get better use of your leg muscles by keeping both knees down and back over your heels. Each time you keep both heels down while doing healthy bending, you will also get a built-in Achilles tendon stretch. The post How Often Should You Be Healthy? tells more on good bending.
If you want to stop "mystery" lower back pain for the New Year, check to see if you lean backward when you reach upward (lower drawing, left), carry things, or when you are just standing. Leaning back creates overarching of the lower back called hyperlordosis, which pinches and pressures the soft tissue and joints of your spine. People with this kind of pain feel they need to lean over forward or sit to relieve the pain. Instead of doing remedies for pain, it is smarter and healthier to stop the cause of the pain.
The "hip tuck" or "pelvic tilt" to reduce overarching and straighten the spine (lower drawing, right) is described in the post Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique. The muscles you use to move your spine out of unhealthy overly arched position and into straighter position are your abdominal muscles. By simply standing and moving with a healthier spine position, you get free exercise for your abdominal muscles. "Tightening" the abs is not what exercises the abs or prevents back pain. Tightening also does not let you breath or move properly. Tightening is not how to have healthy abdominal function. Instead, use the abdominal muscles to stop overarching and maintain healthy position while going about your daily life and exercise. The post, If Better Abdominal Muscles Are Your New Year's Resolution, Try This, shows how.
If your New Year's Resolution is to have a healthier low back, Achilles tendons, and abdominal muscles, you can do that all at once during your regular daily activities.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
If Better Abdominal Muscles Are Your New Year's Resolution, Try This
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Healthline
Readers have been writing to ask about the conflicting reports in fitness magazines on how often you should work your abs. Some sources cite research studies saying you should rest between resistance training. Other articles say to exercise them every day.
It's common to debate fiber type and fatigue and conclude whether to schedule your abs daily or intermittently. Then people "do" abdominal exercise based on that, and completely neglect what abdominal muscles really do when you stand up and go about your daily life.
Abdominal muscles have their main function when you are standing. They do not automatically do anything to support your back or prevent lower back pain. The 'support' comes from how you stand. It has nothing to do with strengthening or tightening. Those are common fallacies.
Abdominal muscles attach from your hips to your ribs. When you use abdominal muscles, you prevent the distance between ribs and hip from lengthening, which bends the lower back, pinching it back like a soda straw. The post Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain shows how this works. Abdominal muscles are like a guy wire attached to the front of a tree, keeping the tree from bending backward. Your abdominal muscles do not prevent leaning backward automatically. If you are not using your abs when you stand, your upper body will lean backward and/or your hip will tilt downward in front. This is called slouching. Your lower back overly curves inward too much, and pinches and pressures the joints and soft tissue of your lower back. People who overly arch the lower back (hyperlordosis) usually notice their back pain after long standing, walking, and running. They feel they need to lean forward or sit to relieve it. The leaning forward is not a "fix" but it feels good at the moment because you stop the pinching backward that causes the pain. You can prevent the pain in the first place by not slouching backward. Then you will get built-in use of abs, and not need a temporary palliative stop-gap measure of bending over forward, or picking up one leg.
Using your abs doesn't mean sucking them in or making them "tight," it means not letting your lower back overly-arch. When you tilt or tuck your hip under you to straighten your lower spine and straighten your upper body so that it does not lean backward, the muscles that straighten your spine from overly arching are your abdominal muscles. That is how abdominal muscles support your back - only when you deliberately use them to stop slouching.
Plenty of people have 6-pack abs and have terrible posture and continuing back pain. In my practice, I treat patients with bulging muscles who hurt their back opening windows because they overly arch the lower back when they reach upward and lift overhead.
If "abs" are part of your New Year's Resolution, here is how to get functional healthy abdominal exercise:
Stop doing crunches. They are not functional, not healthy, and don't train your abs the way you really need them to work in real life.
Stand properly without overarching. That gives built-in abdominal muscles exercise all the time. Do not suck in or tighten. Just position your spine away from unhealthy overarching.
If you "worked" your abs all day all the time by controlling your spine and lower back positioning, you wouldn't need to go to a gym to do funny little crunches - neither every day, nor every few days.
Read inspiring success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
I often hear from trainers, and read in exercise books, that you cannot get stronger without lifting weights. They say that body weight is not enough. Then I watch the trainers and read what the exercise books say to do to strengthen. Often the weights they teach to lift are far lighter than the resistance your muscles get from moving your own body during a real life activity.
I see women in exercise classes lifting little two and five pound hand weights, then bend over wrong to put the weights down and bend over wrong again to hoist up their 20-pound handbag. I see knee pain patients in rehab centers with two and three-pound weights strapped on their ankle, sitting down to do little leg raises. Or, they pull stretchy bands with their leg. Then they get up and walk away with injurious body mechanics, letting their knees and ankles sag inward because they are not using their leg muscles to stop it. The unhealthy sagging grinds away joint cartilage and prevents full use of the leg muscles. They don't understand why their knees, ankles, and feet still hurt even when they "Do their exercises."
Your body weight is the most important thing you need to lift. Following are things to start with, to strengthen without a gym or equipment. The main idea of these activities is not to "do" them as an exercise 10 times, but to use them to retrain your muscles how to hold your body in healthy position, then use that healthy positioning for all daily life:
1. Hold a pushup position, called the plank, described in the post Change Common Exercises to Get Better Ab Exercise and Stop Back Pain. Understand that the point of the plank is to learn how to hold your spine straight without sagging under your body weight. I see people doing the plank all the time in gyms and fitness classes, with their bottom hiked up in the air and their low back looking like a hammock, sinking under their body weight. That is not the normal lower back curve. It is injurious overarching. Done poorly this way, the plank does little to strengthen and just pressures your lower back. Done well, the plank is excellent to strengthen your wrist. The wrist is neglected in fitness, and the resulting weakness is a common source of injury. I will post more about wrists. Do the plank every day - that is how helpful and important it is. If you can't even hold up your own body weight, you may have serious weakness.
2. Use the squat for daily bending, described in the post How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending. The point is to use this healthy bending all the time instead of bending wrong. In posts to come, I will show another way for healthy bending using a lunge position with one leg in front and the other in back.
3. If you can't sit and rise from the floor without your hands, you are too weak and tight for ordinary daily life. Try Quick and Easy Strength and Balance Exercise. Also practice getting up from your chair (safely) without using your hands or leaning forward.
5. Hang from a chining bar, a branch, a pipe, a doorjamb, or any secure overhead. Don't worry if you cannot do full pull-ups, just hold on and hang. When you can do that, hang for as long as you can from a bent-arm position, and begin trying to raise yourself (do a pull-up). Maybe you will need to start by stepping up on a box to help raise yourself, and letting yourself slowly lower without using the box. Work up to full pull-ups. If that is easy, use fewer fingers to hold on.
When the above body weight activities become too easy, do them carrying functional weight, such packages, children, books, and other common things. It is crucial to health and independence to be able to lift and move your own body weight. In posts to come I will show you how to do more with these body weight activities for more strength and fun being active. Until then, do these every day and send your photos and stories of how you got stronger and happier.
Make it your New Year's Resolutions to be strong for real life in real ways.
Upper body strength is important for health, making daily activities easier, and other benefits including preventing osteoporosis of the upper back and wrist, two major sites of bone loss in both men and women. It is often said in gyms and fitness articles that body weight is not enough to strengthen, and that you need weights and equipment. Fortunately, that is not true.
Here is a quick, fun, upper body strengthener using your own body weight. It has the added advantages of also strengthening core muscles plus training a fair amount of balance. It also gives many benefits of a tilt table or inversion machine. You can use this fun exercise anywhere you have even a small wall space. It is fun and not as hard as it looks. Be brave, and (safely, carefully) try this:
Stand with your back about a foot in front of a wall (face away from the wall).
Crouch down and put both hands on the floor - drawing #1 at right.
Put the bottom of one foot high on the wall - drawing #2.
Lift your other leg to the wall so that you are standing on your hands with both feet up on the wall - drawing #3.
Hold as long as you can. Keep breathing.
When you want to come down, just step one, then both feet back down to the floor the way you started in drawing #1.
Avoid this one if you have uncontrolled high blood pressure or problems with pressure in your eyes or brain. To keep this exercise fun and safe, when you are upside down standing on your hands, don't let your lower back sag into an arch. Keep your hip tucked to straighten your back and you will get free core strengthening while you do this. Don't let your body weight pressure your shoulders. Use your upper body muscles to maintain shoulder position instead of letting your shoulder joints grind under your weight. Don't fall down on your face. Use your arm strength and hold yourself up. Keep breathing and don't tighten and strain, which increases blood pressure.
Don't think of this as an extreme exercise. It can be simple; don't be afraid to try it daily. My Grandmother "downgraded" to this one in her 90's from full handstands (without the wall), because it is easier and safer.
When this exercise becomes too easy, rock side to side so that you stand with weight first on one hand, then the other, as if walking on your hands. Keep your feet against the wall for balance, at first. When this becomes too easy, stand only on one hand for increasing periods. Start doing small dips, like upside-down pushups. Increase until you can dip your head almost to the floor, then push back up to a handstand again. Work until you no longer need the wall.
You do not need to lift big weights in a gym to strengthen. Your body weight provides fun, effective strengthening, with no machines, gyms, or extra weights needed.
Reader Tries This and Shows How To Get Started, Even if You Think You Can't:
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your questions are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
The purpose of the quadriceps stretch is to lengthen the front hip muscles. It is often done in ways that do not stretch the front muscles. The standing quadriceps is done by bending one knee to clasp the foot in your hand behind you (or rest it on a chair if you can't reach). If you increase the lower back arch and keep the leg bent forward at the front of the hip (top drawing at left), not much stretch occurs, and the purpose of the stretch is lost.
Instead of "doing" a stretch, get the purpose of the stretch. Try this:
Look at the top drawing, then the second drawing at left.
Stand and begin the stretch.
Tuck your hip under to reduce the lower back arch, as if you are starting an "abdominal crunch."
Don't curl your upper body forward; just tuck the lower body at the hip.
When you tuck the hip correctly, you will immediately feel the stretch move to your thigh.
Straighten your arm away from your body and push your knee downward and backward.
Allow your lower back to arch again, and you will immediately notice the stretch will lesson or stop.
Tuck your hip under again and you will feel the stretch return to the front of your thigh.
I have seen a poster hanging in various gyms of "dos and don'ts for exercise and stretch." The poster shows this quadriceps stretch and says you should not pull your foot away from your body in back because that makes you arch your back. However, it is not pulling your foot away that makes you arch. You allow the arching if you do not tuck your hip - using your muscles to straighten your spine. The post Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique shows how to reposition your spine using the tucking technique. Then you can pull your foot away to increase the stretch all you want. You can control whether you arch or not.
Many people start this stretch by lifting their leg forward at the hip, bending over forward to reach their foot, then pulling the foot behind them. The point of the stretch is to lengthen the front of your hip, not bend it. Instead of bending forward to reach your foot, stand straight, lift your foot behind you, and reach back. If you are too tight to reach your foot, place it on a chair or bench behind you. Work up from there. If your balance is too poor to do this stretch, stand near something for safety, but do not hold on. You will quickly improve balance by simply practicing it. You will not improve balance by holding on.
Remember - don't "do a stretch" - do the purpose of the stretch. Use this stretch with your upper body upright and straight. Keep your hip tucked under, your shoulders down, and get a nice stretch and balance exercise in one.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Fitness and Health as a Lifestyle for Thanksgiving
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Healthline
If you think you won't have time to exercise over the Thanksgiving holiday, here is good news. This post will show you how to move in healthy ways so that you have healthy exercise built-in to all the cooking, shopping, furniture moving, and social interactions. Here is more good news. You don't have to go to a gym to work off the stress and eating too much of the Thanksgiving holiday. Life is not supposed to be a poison that you deliberately take, then need an antidote to offset.
Here are four of the healthiest, quickest ways to make your Thanksgiving into fitness and health as a lifestyle:
To pick up chairs, babies, and grocery bags, to move furniture, and for lifting things from the floor, bend your knees, keeping your weight back toward your heels, and your body upright.
To carry chairs, babies, grocery bags, furniture, and any loads in front of you, don't lean back. It is a common bad habit to lean the upper body backward, increasing the lower back arch. Leaning backward shifts the weight of the load off your core and arm muscles and onto your lower spine. Get free, built-in exercise for your abs and arms and save your back by standing straight. Don't lean and arch backward to carry things.
Notice all the times you round and hang forward over things that you can easily reach by standing upright. Check your upper back positioning when standing over counters, sinks, grocery bins, vacuum cleaners, cribs and baby-changing tables, and when setting food tables. Don't let your body weight hang over and forward. Stand upright, chin in, and just tilt your head downward in relaxed manner to see what you are doing. Relax shoulders downward. Smile. Breathe.
Preparations and family interactions are no excuse to do unhealthy behaviors out of habit like smoking, overeating, and arguing, then blame it on stress. The bad habits are even more stress on body and mind. If something is wrong, see about fixing it in a good way. Don't suffer in silence with people telling you that you have to be happy just because of a holiday. Make your home healthy for yourself. There is no place it matters more:
Get exercise cleaning the house of junk and clutter. Take the extra clothing, toys, and household items to a shelter. Carry the bags with healthy positioning to the people who need it.
Make a healthy meal with family or alone, without television or phone. Carry the meals to shut-ins and isolated elderly in your neighborhood, and the homeless on the street.
Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Do grocery shopping, cooking, and vacuuming for those who are too sick or disabled or alone to do it for themselves. If you think you don't have time because you have young children, take them with you to help carry things and to teach them healthy ideals, and how thankful they can be for the home you provide.
Don't smoke, drink soda (diet soda is just as unhealthy) eat junk food (even if it has marketing words like "organic" on the label), or undo the health benefits of fruit and vegetables by junking them with cream, sugar, and cornstarch. Add up all you spend on cigarettes and junk food that take a healthy body and give it health problems. Take the money and give to the poor. With what you save on prescriptions and treatments for all the pain and jitters you cause yourself, you can feed a village and still take a vacation.
When you eat the Thanksgiving meal, say thankful things. Taste your food. Turn down seconds. Breathe. Smile. Help clean up. Shoulders back. Enjoy the roof over your head. That is health as a lifestyle.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Carrying Schoolbooks Is Not the Cause of Back Pain
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Healthline
A recent BBC news article echoed the common idea that children are getting back pain from carrying their books. However, carrying books is not the cause of the pain.
The article continued how children often require "physiotherapy" for their pain. Common programs in physical therapy involve strengthening. An important thing to understand is that carrying your own things would be more strengthening than lifting little weights that often weigh less than the books.
The article mentioned how one of the schools is trying to raise money for more lockers so that children will not have to carry their books between home and school. While physical educations programs are being increasingly cut, and children are getting less exercise, fewer physical skills, and are gaining weight, people still think it is too much exercise for children to carry books.
It is not the backpacks that hurt the back. It is carrying them with poor positioning that pressures the spine. Carrying books, even heavy books, with good positioning would be healthy and good exercise, not a cause of pain. By contrast, pulling a rolling carrier or bag on wheels while bent over in unhealthy ways can cause the same kind of pain.
One common poor positioning when wearing a backpack is rounding the upper body forward or slouching to the side to offset the weight of the pack. These poor positions are the same that create pain when sitting poorly at a desk, which is another source of the children's pain. If you stop hunching forward or sideways when carrying a backpack or other loads, and stand straight, the pressure on the spine shifts from the spine to the core muscles. It is free exercise.
The second major pain producing bad habit when carrying a backpack is leaning or arching backward - allowing the lower back to increase the inward curve (overarch). Backpacks do not make you arch your back. It is you who allow yourself to be pulled backward by the weight. If you straighten yourself and not slouch backward, the compression on the lower back stops. The muscles that pull your spine forward to reduce the backward lean are your abdominal muscles. You would have a free abdominal muscle workout. The action of pulling yourself straight instead of arching backward is the same movement as described in Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain.
Posts to come will show how to easily carry loads, books, and backpacks so that instead of compressing and hurting your back under the weight, you get free exercise that makes you stronger and healthier. The answer is not to stop carrying books, then go to a gym or physical therapy center to lift weights. It is fitness as a lifestyle to move and get healthy exercise from your daily life, including carrying your own things in healthy ways.
Black Belt Hall of Fame - Black Belts and Black Tie
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Healthline
This past weekend, the Eastern U.S.A. International Martial Arts Association held their 19th annual Black Belt Hall of Fame inductions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Martial artists traveled from nearly every state in the United States and more than 50 countries overseas to attend the weekend of awards and seminars.
The atmosphere was fun and healthy. Top Grandmasters and martial arts legends mixed easily with attendees. Guests at the host hotel enjoyed the site of dozens of martial arts teams going by, each in the distinctive uniform of their martial arts style. The black belts of many of the participants were heavy with stripes of rank, and ragged from years of training.
During the three-day event, there were seminars on teaching skills and specific techniques in Kendo, kickboxing, Jiu-jutsu, and others. Students were flying in all directions as they tried each training exercise.
I taught a seminar of core training that I developed called The Ab Revolution. It is a method of exercising your abdominal and back muscles the way they work in your real life. It uses no forward bending. The forward bending commonly used for core exercise trains unhealthy bent-forward posture, pressures the spine and discs, and is not the way your muscles work when you stand and move in real life. Click here for a synopsis of The Ab Revolution including sample exercises.
Soke Sean Martin, pictured at left demonstrating with his assistant Christopher, taught Kagedo-Essensu, (Shadow Essence) a style that he developed. Kagedo is a devastating defense technique. It does not require strength and conditioning or years of specific poses and positioning to master. For information about learning this effective technique, contact EPallack@gmail.com.
The Saturday afternoon awards ceremony was held for kyu ranking (not yet Black Belt) and youth black belts. Saturday evening saw the banquet for new inductees to the Black Belt Hall of Fame and members of the Hall of Fame receiving distinguished awards (photo, left).
Organization founders Soke John Kanzler and Kim Harper are already at work on next year's 20th year anniversary event. Contact them at the International USA Martial Arts Association, toll free at 1-800-456-3872, or e-mail EUSAIMAA@verizon.net.
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Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain
Monday, November 13, 2006
Healthline
When you lift your arms, do you lean back and increase the arch of your lower back? It is unhealthy body mechanics if you do - photo at right.
Arching your back to raise your arms reduces the stretch and exercise on the shoulder, and increases loading on the lower spine joints and soft tissue.
Do you arch your back to raise your arms? Try this to tell:
Stand and reach as high as you can overhead.
Notice if you lift your ribs and lean your upper body backward.
Check if you stick your backside out in back, or do the opposite and push your hips forward. Both increase the lower back arch which increases load on the joints and soft tissue. You may feel a familiar pressure in the lower back.
Increasing lower back arching may occur automatically, and may seem "natural," but it is not healthy. Wetting your pants is natural too, but you have to learn to control it. To reduce the unhealthy overarching:
While standing arched, bring ribs back down to level, and tuck your "tailbone" under you to straighten your hip.
The motion is like doing an abdominal crunch standing up. Don't bend your upper body to the front, just "crunch" (or flex) the lower spine to reduce the overarching.
Your lower back moves backward, and your "tailbone" tucks straight under you so it is not tilted out in back.
Now reach up overhead again holding the new straighter position. Feel how the reach needs to come from your shoulder instead of your lower back. Keep shoulders relaxed downward, and don't crane or tense your neck.
Watch other people when they reach overhead for exercise and daily life, and notice fitness magazines picturing overhead moves. See how often they increase the arch of their lower back. It is important to be able to tell when positioning is unhealthy, not just follow a bunch of strange rules about how to stand and exercise.
The next time you are in the shower washing your head, notice if you are leaning backward, and remember this article and concept. Reduce the overly large lower back arch back to normal/neutral, using the tucking/tilting move described above. Feel how the pinching pressure is reduced in your lower back. The muscles that work to flex your lower spine forward enough to reduce over-arching are your abdominal muscles. By preventing unhealthy over-arching each time you reach up, you will get built-in abdominal exercise and better shoulder stretch, and stop the source of much "mystery" lower back pain.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Every November they hold an exhilarating weekend of training, seminars, and events for hundreds of martial artists. They also host the U.S.A. International Black Belt Hall of Fame and annual Hall of Fame awards. The weekend event is recognized and respected by the world martial arts community, and attended by representatives from many dozens of countries from around the world from novice to Grandmaster.
The sizeable work to organize and run this event every year is done by Soke Kanzler and Kim Harper. "Soke" is a Japanese term meaning "head master of a style" and is used for those who have risen to such a degree of understanding of the martial arts that they have founded their own martial arts system.
I will be there, learning all I can, and teaching a seminar of core training - The Ab Revolution - a method of training abdominal and back muscles the way they really work for daily life and for exercise. It is better, harder exercise than conventional ab training and uses no forward bending. The many posts of this blog explain how the commonly-used forward bending for exercise only trains unhealthy bent-forward posture and is not the way your muscles should work when you stand and move in real life. You will learn techniques to increase power and to change spine positioning to prevent injury right in the one-hour seminar.
The weekend event is by invitation only. People must be registered guests to attend seminars. To attend or stop by and say hello, contact the International Headquarters of the International USA Martial Arts Association, or call toll free at 1-800-456-3872. Tell them I referred you.
--- Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Read and contribute your success stories of Dr. Bookspan's methods. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Probably the most common stretch I see in gyms and fitness classes, beside hurting your discs by bending "wrong" to stretch hamstrings, is bringing one arm across your body in front, pictured at left. Although this posterior shoulder stretch is one of the most common stretches, it is one of the least necessary.
You probably already have over-stretched the back of your shoulders by slouching all day over your desk, steering wheel, and other work. Sitting and standing with rounded shoulders wears on the neck and shoulder joints and is a common source of upper back and neck pain. One of the most unnecessary things you can do is to further stretch the back of your already overstretched shoulder. Going to a gym to do it does not magically make it healthy.
The best way to stretch your shoulders for health is to skip the posterior shoulder stretch. Instead, stretch the front chest (pectoral) muscles, shown in Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain to help straighten and "unround" your shoulders and upper back.
Here is a check for how well you can straighten your shoulder positioning for healthy standing and sitting:
Can you put your hands on your hips and bring your shoulders back?
You should be able to pull your shoulders back without tilting your shoulders forward, or arching your lower back, or jutting your head forward.
When you can pull your shoulders back easily with your hands on your hips, try pulling your shoulders back with your hands clasped together behind your back. Keep chin in and shoulders back.
Occasionally I give my cerebral palsy patients the posterior shoulder stretch (above left illustration) if they have an overly pulled-back position. More helpful to these patients is The Ab Revolution, a method I developed where you move your spine from an overly arched lower back, so common in many people, to a less arched position, reducing much back pain. The muscles that bring the lower spine forward are the abdominal muscles so you get a free ab workout going about your day just keeping healthy straighter spine position. The post Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain shows how easy this is.
It is rare to need the posterior shoulder stretch. Yet, notice how often you see it in fitness publications and gyms. Instead of doing stretches to practice rounded posture, use stretches like the pectoral stretch to restore healthy position. Then use the healthy positioning as a free built-in stretch for all you do so you don't get tight in the first place. That's fitness as a lifestyle.
Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Healthline
My Tuesday night martial arts students had another good class tonight. At the beginning of class, I showed them how to greatly strengthen their punch using a technique that also stops a common cause of lower back pain. The reason both benefits occur from one technique is that it changes body positioning to shift the effort and leverage of the punch off your lower back and onto the muscles of your abdomen and back. You can use this technique any time you punch, or push anything from a baby carriage to a piece of furniture to a car.
One of the commonest misconceptions in fitness is that you are supposed to stick your behind out in back. It is not cute or healthy. It is a major source of pressure on the joints and soft tissue of your lower spine.
There is supposed to be a small inward curve to the lower back for shock absorption and protection of the discs. (But only a small curve.) When people lose the needed small inward curve by rounded forward sitting, standing, and bending over wrong, it pressures the discs and eventually damages them (Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix). The problem is that people hear they need a small inward curve, so they make a big one by tilting their hip and/or leaning their upper body backward. This overarches their lower back. You can see this silly-looking and unhealthy over-arching in many fitness classes and gyms, and fitness publications and videos.
By straightening your hip, you will have the healthy small curve without sticking your behind out in back. When standing, your hip should be vertical, not tilted, from the top of your upper leg bone to the middle-point of the crest of your hip. To reduce the large lower back arch, tilt your hip under you as if you are starting an abdominal crunch while standing up. Do not push your hip forward, just straighten your back by changing the hip angle. This is called a pelvic tilt. This is what we did in class. Try this:
Look at the double photo above left, and stand facing a wall as in the photo, with one arm outstretched. Put the knuckles of your curled fist against the wall as if you had just punched the wall. Elbow slightly bent.
Stand badly, as shown in the left-hand photo. Stick your behind out in back. Let your lower back arch inward. Let your upper back lean backward. Press your fist hard into the wall. You will probably feel pressure in your lower back.
Now, keep pressing your fist hard but stop the bad positioning by tucking your hip under you, shown in the right-hand photo. The movement is like a hip thrust or a standing crunch. The arch in your lower back reduces.
The first thing you will notice if you do this right is your back stops hurting. You should also notice a stronger push against the wall and new strength in your arm and upper body. You will feel the muscles in your trunk and abdomen working.
I developed this technique and called it The Ab Revolution, because it uses your ab muscles all the time for real life. Don't stick your behind out to lift weights, to exercise, or to stand and walk. Use your muscles to position your spine so that your weight does not sag on your lower back. You will get free built-in exercise and back pain prevention while doing all your normal activities. You will stop one of the commonest silly-looking mistakes in fitness. You will also be able to throw a surprisingly strong punch.
Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending
Monday, October 02, 2006
Healthline
If you think that not having time to exercise is the problem, here is good news. Thinking that your life and your health are two separate things is the problem. You don't have to stop your life to get exercise.
Look at the drawings, above left. The left-hand drawing shows bad bending - letting weight rock forward, heels lifting, and overly arching the lower back. The right-hand drawing shows healthy bending - keeping weight back, heels down, and the lower back in healthy position, not rounded and not overly arched. Look at the right-hand drawing and try it:
Keep your upper body as upright as you can, instead of rounding over forward
Keep both heels down as you bend your knees (right drawing).
If you find you lift your heels, use your leg muscles to deliberately pull your knees back so that your weight shifts back over your heels. Shifting your weight back keeps your weight on your leg muscles and off your knee joints. There should be no knee pain with good bending.
Keep your knees back toward your ankles. If you just let your weight flop, the knees will come forward past your toes. Don't allow your knees to shift forward.
Don't overarch the lower spine (overly sticking your behind out in back). Keep neutral spine. If you overarch, tuck your hip (tailbone) under you just enough to prevent having a too large arch (inward curve) in your lower back. Although it is often taught in exercise and weight lifting classes to stick far out and overarch, increasing the arch increases pressure on the joints of your vertebrae, called facet joints, and the soft tissue of your lower back. Overarching is a major hidden cause of lower back pain and injury.
Use good bending every time you bend - even to look in the refrigerator and get in and out of your chair. Don't use your arms to lean on the arm rests to sit down and get up; use leg muscles. If you need to use your arms, or you lean your body forward to sit or rise, you need to improve balance, Achilles tendon stretch, and leg strength. Bending properly does all that for you. (Practice safely. Don't fall down.)
Have a friend (or a camera set on timer) take photos of you from the side as you stand and bend, showing how you fixed your bending from unhealthy to healthy during whatever you do all day for work and at home. Write a fun summary and e-mail your photos and stories to me. If you can, put the photos on a photo sharing site. That is easier for me to retrieve and post on Fitness Fixer. I can put the best photos and most fun stories up in lights.
Realize that a big part of your health is the way you move in real life. Make a conscious decision to change your idea of exercise, fitness, and health from stopping life to "do exercise" to how you live. Have fun - the best health.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Change Common Exercises to Get Better Ab Exercise and Stop Back Pain
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Healthline
Holding a straight pushup position is sometimes called "the plank." Holding a plank is often done in a way that reduces the exercise benefit, trains unhealthy habits, and increases compression on your spine.
Look at the photo at left. The first boy on the left is letting his lower back (and neck) sink and bow under his weight. So is the third and fourth from the left. This sagging is not healthy and is not a normal curve. The bad overarching makes the plank easier to do. That means you get far less exercise. More seriously, allowing your weight to “hammock” shifts your body weight off your muscles and onto your lower back, causing compressive force and bad positioning habits.
The second boy from the front (and left) is holding straight.
A major, often overlooked purpose of the plank is to train your muscles how to hold your back in straighter healthier position under the weight of your own body. If you can’t hold up your own body weight in a plank for a few moments without sagging, it is no wonder your spine sags painfully during the day. No matter how many planks or pushups you do, if you let your spine sag into an arch, you are missing the best benefit of the exercise - to train positioning habits for real life once you get back off the floor.
Holding a plank has so many benefits that even if you are not athletic this exercise is one to choose. To do it in a healthy way that is useful to your real life, move your spine posture to be straighter(second from left in the photo). To reduce an overly large arch while holding the plank, tuck your hip under you as if you were starting an abdominal crunch or thrusting movement. The muscles you use to reduce the inward curve (arch) are your abdominal muscles. As soon as you reduce the arch to straighten your spine, you will feel your abdominal muscles working strongly.
Use the plank as a functional exercise. That means to use it to train how to use (not tighten) your abdominal muscles during daily activity. Once you understand the hip tuck to reduce an overly large arch, use it during the day when standing to exercise your abs the way they are meant to be used – for real life to keep you standing in healthy ways.
I will teach a workshop this coming Saturday on The Ab Revolution™, the method of holding healthy spine position for life, and having fun while exercising. See the class schedule on my web site.
If you miss the workshop, you can get the Ab Revolution™ training manual. Make sure to get the current edition, presently Third expanded edition.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Limited Class space for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.
What Abdominal Muscles Don't Do - The Missing Link
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Healthline
Did you know that your abdominal muscles have the most important function when you are standing?
The person in the photo is not using abdominal muscles to prevent a common overlooked cause of lower back pain. The upper body is leaning and sagging backward. The inward curve of the lower spine is exaggerated. It is not neutral spine, but overly arched in a bad posture called hyperlordosis.
Tightening abs does not fix the problem - using the abdominal muscles to change lower spine angle does.
Abdominal muscles connect your ribs to your hips along your front and sides. When you use your abs, they pull your ribs and hip closer in front, bending your spine forward. If you don't use your abdominal muscles when you are standing up, your ribs and hip can pull away from each under the weight of your upper body. Your lower back will arch. You can see the over arch in photo upper left, and the drawing below. Leaning back also shows not using upper back muscles, to be covered soon. The weight of your upper body arching backward presses on your lower back, making it ache after long standing and walking. That is how not using your abdominal muscles contributes to back pain. The answer is not in strengthening the abdominal muscles. Many muscular people stand arched. Just look at fitness magazines, where the weak, arched posture that causes so much back pain is common.
The answer is just to *use* your abdominal muscles to pull your spine enough forward to reduce the arch and stand upright - first figure in the drawing at left. Tuck your hip under just enough to reduce a too large arch, and pull your upper body forward to straighter position, like starting an abdominal crunch or pelvic tilt standing up. Don't round your upper body, just pull it to an upright position.
Don't "suck in" or tighten your abs. Just move your spine like moving any other body part. When you reduce the arch, your body weight shifts to your abdominal muscles and off your lower back.
Watch how other people stand and move, particularly in the gym. Are they using their abs to stand right when they get back off the floor from doing "abdominal exercise?" All the crunches in the world will not stop back pain if you do not know you need to voluntarily use your abs when standing so that you don't sag into a sloppy arch. That is the missing link - your abdominal muscles do not automatically support your back. You have to use them to move out of unhealthy position.
If you use your abdominal muscles to prevent your lower back from sagging into an arch, you will stop pain and get built-in, all-day, free abdominal exercise from all your standing, walking, and activities in an ordinary day.
Photos and descriptions of how and why preventing hyperlordosis prevents injury - Prevent Back Surgery.
Get all the information in one handy training manual - The Ab Revolution.
Send in your photos and success stories of how you corrected your spine positioning and stopped pain in daily life and in the gym. I post them in Fitness Fixer Reader Inspiring Stories. Prizes for the best ones.
Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Healthline
Many people let their lower back curve inward (arch) too much when they stand, walk, exercise, and carry things (drawing on left). This is commonly called sway back, hollowback, arching, lordosis, or hyperlordosis. People who overarch this way get back pain after long standing and walking. They often feel they need to bend forward or sit to relieve it.
The pain is from overarching, which tilts the weight of your upper body downward onto your lower back, arching and pinching it inward (drawing on left). Think of the foot-rests in bars. The reason putting one foot up on the low foot-rest reduces back pain is that you unwittingly reduce the large lower back arch that so many people allow when standing.
It is not normal or "neutral spine" to have a large inward curve. A large curve is not "just the way you are made." Sticking your behind out is not cute or healthy, whether in daily life or exercise. It does not protect your back. It is bad posture that hurts, and that you can easily change. You don't need pills or injections or treatments for the pain. All you need to stop the pain forever is to stop allowing your back to sag, and simply move your back to straighter position while you go about ordinary life (drawing on right). Here is how:
Check yourself - Stand up and reach your arms high overhead. Do you lift your ribs, arch your back, or lean backward? Did the front of your belt or hip tilt downward? These are all indirect pointers to different kinds of hyperlordosis (drawing on left).
To reduce the arch, tuck your hip under you (drawing on right), like doing an abdominal crunch or pelvic tilt while standing. Don't round your upper body or hunch forward. Imagine wearing a belt buckle and tilting your hip to lift the buckle upward, closer to your ribs instead of hanging downward.
Reach up again and hold your straighter spine position. Your belt line should be level. Your ribs do not lift upward. Your upper body does not lean backward. Now the reach has to come from your shoulder where it belongs, not your lower back, an additional benefit. The post Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique shows more on how to do the tilt to correct the overarching. Future posts will show more about problems from overarching in exercises and daily life.
Yes, this is different from what we learned in the gym and in school, including medical school. It is simply stopping the source of this pain - stop pain from arching by voluntarily moving your back, like moving any other body part, so that you reduce arching.
I developed this method, called The Ab Revolution™ that you can apply to all your daily life to stop pain, and to get more abdominal exercise than through conventional methods. Posts to come will show more. I will teach The Ab Revolution™ in downtown Philadelphia, Saturday morning, September 30th, and a workshop on how to fix your own back pain will run Oct 7 & 14th. Info on my site, www.DrBookspan.com
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
A recent injury survey by US military revealed that 62% of American injuries in Iraq are occurring in the gym. The same is happening at home. How can this be? Several things are happening. Just as not every medicine is healthy, not all exercises and stretches are healthy.
Just as smoking "works" for weight loss, but is not a smart or healthy way to do it, many exercises "work" for cosmetic results, but result in long-term injury, and promote bad movement habits. Other common exercises don't work your body the way you need to move in real life, resulting in strains and injuries when going about daily activities.
This Fitness Fixer blog will show you hundreds of simple ways to change your exercises, stretches, and daily movement, to make them fun, healthy, and the way you really need to move for healthier daily life. In my laboratory research in human physiology, and my sports medicine clinical practice, I see patients every day who are hurting and unhappy, despite all the exercise and fitness they do. Many of my patients are yoga teachers and Pilates teachers with back pain, hip pain, and neck pain. I see personal trainers with herniated discs and knee pain. I see body builders with back pain, despite all the abdominal exercises they do. I see patients, including fitness instructors, who aren't getting more flexible no matter how much stretching they do. I see people who are stressed, tired, achy, and not in shape, even though they spend hundreds of dollars a month on supplements and pills, gizmos, equipment, trainers, and classes. The answers are simple, and this regular column will cover many easy changes you can make so that your fitness becomes not only more effective, but fun and healthy.
Photo by Jolieof Paul who does real life not gym exercise
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An example of a test that does not test what it claims is the "Sit and Reach" test. Sit and Reach is assumed to test hamstring flexibility, but is more a measure of how much you can round your spine. Many people can pass the Sit and Reach with little hamstring flexibility and an unhealthful angle at the hip - tilted back (shown by shorts side seam) rather than vertical. The Sit and Reach is required testing for numerous military, corporate, and school fitness programs
