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My name is Stuart McGill, and I am a professor of spine biomechanics here at the University of Waterloo.
Most people will not get through life without some element of back pain impinging on their activity.
Statistically, those who have more range of motion in their back have greater risk of back disorders in the future. So having a flexible spine is not protective, in fact it's quite the opposite.
The muscles of the legs, arms, shoulders, and hips are designed to create force throughout a range of motion, resulting in movement
Muscles of the spine, or core, or torso, are designed to do precisely the opposite- they stop movement.
Having a very very strong back is not really preventative for a back injury. What turns out to be important is the endurance.
Proper lifting mechanics require you to actually lift with the hips, not with the knees- otherwise you'll just end up with knee arthritis
We're just gonna slide our hands down the thighs, and go down a little bit more and grab the basket, and then slide it up your thighs, and pull your hips through.
This idea of drawing in your belly to activate a muscle, called transverse abdomens, when you're performing exercise is highly problematic and it's a myth.
When you measure the roll of that muscle and the ability to stabilize the spine, you do not want to suck it in. You simply stiffen the abdominal wall.
So the stir of the pod exercise requires the feet to be quite wide, she's stiffening controlling through this part of her spine, and now she's just gonna swirl her elbows around in circles. We call this exercise Stir the Pot.
We're going to spend time, just flex your spine and extend your spine, finding that neutral position here which is lowest stress for her back. At that point she stiffens her abdominal wall.
Then she's going to extend opposite arms and opposite leg, moving about the hips and the shoulders. She'll hold that posture for about 10 seconds
We release the cramp by having her sweep the floor with her knee and her hand, and back out again, with all motion taking place at the hip and the shoulder
So we're going to increase the value of this exercise, she's going to make a fist, and cocontract and stiffen her arm all up through her back which brings up her upper back here
Then she' going to challenge the different neuromuscular compartments in her back by drawing squares.
Just small squares. Square out, down, across, and up. Out, down, across, and up.
What she's doing, is flexing her spine like this, stressing the posterior part of the annulus which eventually if she does enough of them, will cause the damage we see here namely a disk bulge.
We'll shift her to a different style of curl-up. She's going to put her hands in the small of her low back to support her lower back so it doesn't flatten to the floor, and she'll straighten one leg, and she's just going to curl up, just unweighting
her head and shoulders not too much, just to about there so that the motion is hardly moving at all. And we'll bring up the elbows, and she's very stiff through this region here
She'll count to 10, and slowly put her head and shoulders back and rest, and then release the contraction through here.
Optimal back health doesn't come from doing nothing, it comes from doing the perfect, optimized amount, not too much, and not too little.