Bad Habits - Remember that song

There are lots of people telling us what to do, but what should we avoid?

One of the most common injuries occurs in the back, especially the mid or lower back.

In fact, nine out of ten of us will hurt our back sometime in our lives and it can be a long road to recovery.

In general, to avoid "ANY injury during movement - be that exercise, or daily living - we need to set ourselves up properly first. This means good alignment and posture before we even start.  This helps ensure we don't twist, too much, during a lift. 

• knees and feet pointing the right way i.e. in line with the load
• Back straight
• head up
• You know the drill

However, the back requires a little more attention.  Some say we must brace our back as we lift.  Note that a lot of bracing may happen automatically, subconsciously.  By all means, if the load you are going to lift is heavy - BRACE. All the bracing in the world may not help if you are in poor posture.

So to avoid disaster DO NOT BEND FROM THE WAIST. Bending from the mid-back puts strong, harmful forces through the spinal discs.

•     Hinge from the hip. So when you do bend, the bottom sticks out the back 
•       Keep the whole waistband, broad and straight. 

We should learn this in school, it is so important.  

So when you want to lift something heavy, think of squatting in good form and in the correct sequence. Bend from the hips using the big muscles of the legs and hips, they are gluts, hamstrings and quads.  Use your "rump " rather than the little "eye fillet" muscles that run down your spine.