Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Healthline
My Tuesday night martial arts students had another good class tonight. At the beginning of class, I showed them how to greatly strengthen their punch using a technique that also stops a common cause of lower back pain.
The reason both benefits occur from one technique is that it changes body positioning to shift the effort and leverage of the punch off your lower spine and onto the muscles of your abdomen and back. You can use this technique any time you punch, or push anything from a baby carriage to a piece of furniture to a car.
One of the commonest misconceptions in fitness is that you are supposed to stick your behind out in back. It is not cute or healthy. It is a major source of pressure on the joints and soft tissue of your lower spine.
There is supposed to be a small inward curve to the lower back for shock absorption and protection of the discs. (But only a small curve.) When people lose the needed small inward curve by rounded forward sitting, standing, and bending over wrong, it pressures the discs and eventually damages them (Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix). The problem is that people hear they need a small inward curve, so they make a big one by tilting their hip and/or leaning their upper body backward - left photo above. This overarches their lower back, causing a swayback (hyperlordosis). You can see this silly-looking and unhealthy over-arching in many fitness classes, gyms, and fitness publications and videos.
By straightening your hip to vertical and your lower spine to neutral (right photo), you will have the healthy small curve without sticking your behind out in back. When standing, your hip should be vertical, not tilted, from the top of your upper leg bone to the middle-point of the crest of your hip.
To reduce the large lower back arch, tilt your hip under you as if you are starting an abdominal crunch while standing up. Do not push your hip forward, just straighten your back by changing the hip angle. This is called a pelvic tilt. This is what we did in class. Try this:
- Look at the double photo above left, and stand facing a wall as in the photo, with one arm outstretched. Put the knuckles of your curled fist against the wall as if you had just punched the wall. Elbow slightly bent.
- Stand badly, as shown in the left-hand photo. Stick your behind out in back. Let your lower back arch inward. Let your upper back lean backward. Press your fist hard into the wall. You will probably feel pressure in your lower back.
- Now, keep pressing your fist hard but stop the bad positioning by tucking your hip under you, shown in the right-hand photo. The movement is like a hip thrust or a standing crunch. The arch in your lower back reduces.
- The first thing you will notice if you do this right is your back stops hurting. You should also notice a stronger push against the wall and new strength in your arm and upper body. You will feel the muscles in your trunk and abdomen working.
I developed this technique and called it The Ab Revolution, because it uses your ab muscles all the time for real life. Don't tilt your hip to stick your behind out to lift weights, to exercise, or to stand and walk. Use your muscles to reposition your spine to neutral, so that your upperbody weight does not sag onto your lower back. You will get free built-in exercise and back pain prevention while doing all your normal activities. You will stop one of the commonest silly-looking mistakes in fitness. You will also be able to throw a surprisingly strong punch.
Try More:
- Friday Fast Fitness - Neutral Spine in 5 Seconds
- Lower Back Pain and Golf
- Spotting Back Pain During Running and Walking - What Do Abs Have To Do With It?
- Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain
- Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine
- Stop Lower Back Pain From Swimming and SCUBA Part II
- Innovation in Abdominal Muscles
- Learn this technique and high training for body and spirit in the book Healthy Martial Arts
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Read success stories and send your own.
See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, and Index. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification through DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Read success stories and send your own.
See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, and Index. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification through DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
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Photos © copyright Dr. Jolie Bookspan from the book Healthy Martial Arts
Labels: abdominal muscles, arm, fix pain, hip, knee, lordosis, lower back, martial arts, neutral spine, posture, strength
4 Comments:
At Thursday, October 05, 2006 4:02:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
This is great! Thanks for explaining the pelvic tilt going under. I was a little confused in your last post Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending, but now I totally get it. The pictures with the arrows are a great help!
At Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:41:00 PM,
Healthline said…
Good work. You are smart. This is the same technique I mentioned in the posts, "Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain" "What Abdominal Muscles Don't Do - The Missing Link" and "Change Common Exercises to Get Better Ab Exercise and Stop Back Pain." When you really understand and do the tilt, you will feel the difference right away.
It is a myth that you have to strengthen abs to fix back pain. Plenty of muscular people have back pain. Overarching causes this one kind of back pain, so stop the arching. You do not have do months or years of treatments to fix back pain from overarching. The muscles you use to do the tilt are your abdominal muscles. Using my Ab Revolution technique gives you the free ab workout just holding yourself in healthy position for daily life.
I will post more on using this for better health and built-in exercise during daily life, and will make pictures with arrows. Use this technique all the time when standing, walking, lifting weights overhead, doing squats, everything and let me know how it works.
At Monday, October 09, 2006 4:54:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Really helpful post! I've been working on strengthening my stomach muscles and have been noticing that total upper body movements seem to come from the lower back/stomach/upperback/shoulder as a whole now, and wondered about that. (Is that a "Well, duh" comment for you? LOL)
I checked out how I'm standing/walking, and will pay attention to your suggestions for pelvic tilt. I'm glad I found your blog.
At Friday, October 13, 2006 7:15:00 AM,
Healthline said…
Good work putting the info to immediate smart use. Using core muscles to deliberately tilt you back to healthy spine position and away from the painful, weak arching is part of a method of abdominal training with no forward bending that I developed called The Ab Revolution. Bending forward (like crunches and leg lifts) is not how you live your life, and it promotes rounded forward posture, tight hip, and back strain. I'll post more on this.
It's not your fault that you didn't have this info on ab use before - it's misunderstood in fitness and in medicine. Well-meaning people follow the "party line" learned in school and the gym that arching is normal and that strengthening and tightening somehow changes posture or cause of pain. I have lectured at conferences to spine surgeons who told me I was wrong and that hyperlordosis (overarching) has nothing to do with lower back pain, and strengthening (and surgery) were indicated. Then a few of them tried the hip tilt and felt their own pain go away right there. The pelvic tilt is what happens indirectly when putting your foot up on the footrest in pubs. That is why the footrests are there - many people stand with their low back arched which hurts with long standing (at the pub, for example). It is a cool, obvious thing when we can finally put the two together.
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