You may not be aware of this, but many of the exercises performed in the gym are very dangerous to your back and spine. For example, if you are performing back extensions and your not a professional athlete, the you should stop doing them. Here is the reason, back extensions create an extremely high amount of pressure in your spinal discs because of the way the muscles are activiated. The amount of pressure is so great, that numerous research studies by Dr. Stuart McGill (one of the worlds leading spine and biomechanics researchers) and others, have show them to easily exceed loads that cause tissue failure in a spinal disc.1 This means if you are doing back extensions, especially if you’re doing them with weight, you are setting yourself up for a back injury, and likely a herniated disc.
So, if you can’t do back extensions, what exercise can you do? There are several exercise that are more appropriate for strengthening spinal erectors of the lower back. You may want to try the bird dog. Bird dog, is a better choice because you are only activating half of the musculature in the back (because you are only using one leg at a time), and this significantly decreases the load on your vertebral discs.
Hopefully this will help you keep your back healthy in the new year.
Visit Us On the Web: www.alliancechiropracticcenter.com and www.ncfibroclinic.com
- McGill, Stuart. Low Back Disorders. Human Kinetics, 2002.
