This Tip Eliminated Most of My Back Pain

In previous posts, I mentioned how I had been diagnosed with a herniated disc at L4-5 ten years ago, and that I am still aware that this is my weakest link.  I can feel the ache first thing in the morning, and must avoid any type of flexion activities for the first hour that I am out of bed.  I focus my  training sessions on core recruitment and stabilization while training full body movement patterns.  To my knowledge I was maintaining a stable trunk and was protecting my lower back.  However, the day after my training session, I would feel an increase in lower back soreness and felt that I had to be extra cautious with certain activities to prevent an increase in pain.

The majority of my training deals with multi joint movement patterns rather than isolating muscles.  I make sure to do squats, lunges, and deadlifts, and ensure that I incorporate a proper hip hinge rather than spinal flexion when lowering myself.  But there was one technique that I had not focused on while performing these movement patterns until recently.  And since doing so, my lower back pain has dramatically improved.  I have spoken about "gluteal amnesia" in the past.  One of the causes of this "amnesia" is that upon performing a squat, we use our hamstrings to extend our hips and our lumbar extensors to extend our spines while transitioning from the squat position to tall standing.  Using the spinal extensors to do this compresses the spine, causing more back pain.  This is most likely why I would wake up the following day in more back pain.  Incorporating the gluteals to extend the hips while returning to a standing position from a squat will help reverse this "gluteal amnesia," and save the back.  So I decided to try this a few days ago.  To do this takes concentration but is not too difficult.  All you do is "spread the floor" with your feet.  So when performing squats, as I descended and ascended, I was gripping the floor with my toes as I was pushing my feet isometrically outward, as if I was attempting to spread the floor.  This technique engages my glutes which extends the hips, bringing me into the upright position while taking the strain off of my spinal extensors (and reducing spinal compression).  I decided to incorporate this throughout my day, not just during training sessions.  I initiated getting out of a chair by "spreading the floor."  Squatting down to pick up my daughter, I did the same thing.  This morning I woke up with almost no lower back soreness. 

Try this technique and you will be amazed at how your back responds.  I was taught that my "lower back is like a bank account.  There is only so much money in it.  So use it only when you need to."  To do this, we must use proper and efficient movement patterns to eliminate unecessary stress on the spine.