Lower back injury and pain prevention
How many times have you said or heard someone say "My lower back is killing me!". I know I have had my own back issues myself. It doesn't matter if you are a professional athlete or an untrained regular person working a desk job. Everyone at some point in their life will experience lower back pain or injury. However, there are things we can do to limit ourselves from getting injured and certainly limit lower back pain.
Two main reasons why we hurt our lower backs are 1. Poor body position and lifting form. 2. Weak core and stabilizer muscles. The first reason usually happens due to laziness or just plain stubbornness. We may be in a hurry and lift something off balance, or we attempt to lift something heavy without asking for assistance or using proper lifting tools. Even something weighing as little as 20-30lbs can be enough to hurt our back if we are in a bad position, so lifting items or weights in the gym should never be taken too casually. If you sit for most of the day, and don't do any strength training, then you most likely have weak core muscles. Not to worry, there are several exercises that can be done with no equipment needed in order to build core strength. We shall look at these exercises in a moment.
First let's talk about proper body position and lifting technique. Anytime you attempt to lift an object you must be in a ready position. This means proper balance and posture. Most of our strength comes from the ground up. We need to make sure our feet are both firmly planted on the floor and that it is a stable surface we stand upon. If the surface is unstable, then we must ensure we won't slip otherwise it is best to avoid lifting on that surface. With our feet firmly flat on the ground we want to distribute our body weight evenly between both feet so that we are not leaning to one side or the other. This is the foundation of virtually every lift we do. If we have a firm grip on the ground with both feet and distribute our body weight evenly between them, then we can push ourselves and the object away from the ground much more effectively using the strongest muscles in our body, the legs and gluteal/butt muscles. Now that our feet are ready for the lift we need our torso and upper body to follow suit. This requires us to make sure we have a straight back or what we call a neutral spine. This means being able to draw an imaginary straight line from the top of our spine just under our head right down to the bottom of the spine at our tailbone. To do this we must engage our shoulders and keep them back bringing our chest out. We must also engage our stomach/abdominal and core musculature by drawing in our navel towards our lower back and slightly squeezing the muscles in our midsection. Doing this will give us a stable connection between the ground, our legs, and our entire upper body. This neutral spine position should be maintained throughout the entire lift. This whole process resembles a proper squatting motion. Check out my youtube video on squats to get a visual of what this form should look like.
Proper body position and form will take you far and help prevent most injuries from lifting. However, you will only go as far as your core strength can take you. Our "core" is made up of the deep muscles in our midsection that connect from our spine to our pelvis/hips and on to our upper legs. To build up our core muscles there are several key stabilization exercises to begin with. The plank, floor bridges, marching, and supermans are a great place to start. Demonstration of these exercises can be viewed here. If you want to take it further the best exercises you can do to further strengthen your core are powerlifting movements like squats and deadlifts. Assuming proper body position and lifting technique both of these exercises will naturally utilize the muscles in your core to maintain control of your body and the added weight.
This about sums up proper body position, form, and development of the core musculature in order to avoid lower back injury and limit lower back pain. If I missed anything or you have any questions, please message me through the contact page and I will be happy to answer you first chance I get. Take care and stay healthy!