I could write about the spine for days and I guess that is because the spine is under so much pressure & stress at the moment. I also know that it can all be avoided if we just know how!
Throughout our lifetime, we assume that our bodies will carry us safely everyday. We focus on what needs to be done for the day, how many meetings we have, how many clients we need to see, running the household and we never really think about how awesome this vessel is that carries us everyday. But what can we really do to look after it?
Sit upright.
And yes, you have heard this but please do it now! Make sure that your ‘bum’ is pressed back into the back corner crease of the chair and that your lower spine has a small arch in it as seen below.
When you have to pick something up off of the floor, think about it. Don’t just bend over and do it. This is normally when we hurt our backs. So you need to do it in three easy steps. Please keep your feet and knees parallel.
- Bend your knees and keep your back as straight as possible.
- Get a good grip on what you are picking up.
- Use your legs and ‘bum’ to get yourself back up to a standing position.
These are two of the most functional movements that you will do daily. If you choose not to follow these two steps then I can guarantee you that you will be struggling with your back, if not now then later.
Now you can think of all of the sports that require your spine to be in a position that is less favorable.
A cyclist and hockey player is constantly stretching their spinal extensors and this leads to weak back muscles, neck spasms and spinal pathology.
The problem with this is that the spinal extensors do not like to contract concentrically if they are not used to it and therefore the professional that is training the cyclist must have a systematic program that they use to enable these muscles to strengthen concentrically without spasm.
When we deal with the spine as professionals, it is imperative that we understand exactly how the spine will respond to movement. This is dependent on the habitual movement that it performs on a daily basis.
Due to extensive experience in working with spines during exercise, we noticed that the back extensors offer different feedback when they are not able to work concentrically. They seem to spasm at the mere thought of concentric work especially in the above types of sportsmen and women.
We went a step further and conducted a Kinetic Precision study and in this study we cemented the evidence over the past 17 years of 5 specific muscle groups that respond slightly differently to movement than for example the biceps, triceps and abdominals.
Ok, so we have the info… what now? If you are unable to work these muscles concentrically, then you need to somehow get them to the point where they can do concentric work because at the end of the day, if we really want to strengthen the spine, we need to be able to do low load and medium load concentric work.
The process is of such a nature that you would need to plan the program carefully. All compensations must be avoided and the process will then be as follows:
- Client postural assessment.
- Client injury assessment.
- Client movement assessment.
- Client mind body assessment.
- Client common compensation assessment.
- Program that involved eccentric to concentric back work.
This forms a very strong base of all training especially in the Kinetic Precision training. All of this work and the technique can be viewed on the Of-CourseOnline courses because these courses are based on these principles. Specifically the ‘Spinal isolation, restriction and rehabilitation course‘ and the ‘Why behind compensations course‘
In these two courses you will understand the concept of why some exercises are not working for some and are working perfectly for others. You get to jump into the persons body and experience it as it happens and therefore really learn how the spine responds to compensations and movements with PRECISION!
Let’s do things differently. Let’s change the way we exercise and teach. Let’s really create a healthy future!
That is the HEALTHY TRUTH!
