Overlooked Ab Muscles in Overhead Lifts
Monday, July 30, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The cheerleaders in the photo at right are letting their lower spine overarch.
Their hip tilts forward in front and sticks out in back.
It is an unhealthy, pain-producing spine position.
Can you see it?
Their hip tilts forward in front and sticks out in back.
It is an unhealthy, pain-producing spine position.
Can you see it?
Can you see it better now
with arrows showing the tilt of the hip?
Sticking the hip out in back
creates a higher angle than normal
in the normal inward curve of the lower spine.
It is an unhealthy spinal position
called hyperlordosis, swayback, and overarching,
among other terms.
Letting the lower spine overly-arch presses the weight of the upper body, plus the weight being lifted, downward onto the lower back, folding it backward and compressing it unevenly. Over years, the joints of the vertebrae, called facets, can degenerate under the compression. The surrounding soft tissue aches. The photographer of the photo labeled it "Ouch" in the Creative Commons collection where I found it.
Overarching and sticking out in back is unhealthy for the spine, and is a major overlooked cause of ongoing lower back pain after long standing and ambulating (walking and running, for example).
If the cheerleaders were standing in neutral spine, the yellow arrows would be vertical. In the drawing at right, the left drawing shows neutral spine, the right shows tilting the hip so that it sticks out in back.
Tucking the hip until neutral spine does not mean curling the spine forward (rounding the back), which can pressure the discs. In neutral spine, a small inward curve remains in the lower back, but not a big one, and the hip does not tilt outward in back.
Some exercisers are accustomed to stick far out in back when lifting weight overhead. It is now known that it is healthier over the long run to maintain neutral spine, not sticking out in back, when lifting overhead.
Another bonus of neutral spine is that the muscles that pull the spine away from overly arched position and into neutral position, are the abdominal muscles. Keeping neutral spine is a free, built-in abdominal exercise. There is no tightening of the abdomen to hold neutral spine - you should be able to inhale easily. It should be no great effort to move your spine from unhealthy to healthy position. Just move the spine, the same as moving your arm to scratch your head.
The post Aren't You Supposed To Stick Your Behind Out to Sit Down or Do Squats? covered how sticking out in back causes spine problems, just as tucking too much and rounding forward.
See what it looks like if you overarch the lower back when you extend arms overhead:
Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain
One way to see the difference between overarching and neutral spine is to check your beltline:
Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine
Click this to feel the difference for yourself in strength and immediate reduction in pressure on the lower back when restoring neutral spine from an overly arched position:
Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique.
Click the label "neutral spine" below this post for all related posts. Neutral spine is fun, and looks healthier, stronger, and fitter. Enjoy.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Drawings of Backman!™ © copyright Dr. Jolie Bookspan
Photo by heyerinLabels: abdominal muscles, disc, facet joints, fix pain, lower back, neutral spine, squat
8 Comments:
At Tuesday, July 31, 2007 1:00:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
hi Jolie ,
i am bit confused . how one can stand continuously the whole day . i think the lower part of the body will be in stress if one stand in that posture .
At Tuesday, July 31, 2007 8:03:00 PM,
Unknown said…
Hello Jolie,
I'm a bit off topic here, but I wanted to thank you for your advice. I've had intense posterior hip pain, spasms, and popping for 20+ years (I'm 45 at 143 lbs.) leaving me unable to sit and stand for very long. I always thought it was sciatica. Using your stretch from the "Fix Your Own Pain" book p. 171 has been a miracle! I started using it the day before I had a 2 and a half day intense graduate class. It helped immediately. When my hip acted up during class I folded my leg under the table to form the stretch and the pain disappeared right then and never returned for the following days. I've done the stretch every day since and my hip is no longer painful and rarely pops. I'm really amazed the solution was that simple!
Would you please post something about popping knees (no pain) and vegetarian meal suggestions that you use?
Also, when will your revised "Health and Fitness" book be available, and would I benefit from your martial arts book?
Thank you very much! You've improved my quality of life!
Mike Benson
Gilbert, AZ
At Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:55:00 PM,
Unknown said…
Hello again,
Would you please explain this or post a link explaining this sentence from your Thai massage page:
"It also turns out that free radicals may not be the bad guys anyway."
I love your advice and approach!
Mike Benson (posted earlier today)
At Wednesday, August 01, 2007 2:32:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
fitline, Standing overly-arched is the stress on the lower back.
Standing in neutral spine all the time stops a major cause of lower spine stress and chronic pain. It is also a built-in lower back stretch and functional use of abdominal muscles. Holding neutral is how the abs 'support' the back - not by strengthening abs or any tightening, but just using them to properly position the spine to prevent overarching that causes the pain and injury.
A frequent contributor to inability to stand in neutral spine without strain is a tight anterior (front) hip. Use the hip stretch in Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs.
If you are too tight to stand straight (neutral spine), it indicates you are going about all your daily life and exercise in hyperlordosis, which can result in strain, chronic lower back pain, and more tightness of the hip. This kind of pain can be quickly stopped by tipping under to neutral spine. Then you will not have the stress of back pain treatments, pills, surgeries, therapies, and so on.
Holding neutral spine all the time is the whole point of healthy spine positioning.
At Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:04:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Mike, good work.
Right, it is that easy when you use the principles.
I am revising the Health & Fitness book. Hold off for now. After I submit revisions, it is up to the publisher when to reprint. I will post when ready. The book Healthy Martial Arts is one to get, whether you use martial arts or not (www.DrBookspan.com/books). It covers joint health including hip and knees, injuries, healthy practices, with an entire nutrition chapter with many simple, quick, wonderful recipes. Chapters on developing your mind, self-discipline, stretching, speed, balance, muscles, more good things. Get the revised edition - identified off by the price printed on the back cover, publisher logo on the spine, and "Winner of the In't Black Belt Hall of Fame Readers Choice Award" printed on the opening page.
To answer your question on free radicals - they can be both destructive and good. Our body uses them to destroy certain infections. Fire is propagated by free radicals. It is thought that muscle contraction could not take place without free radicals. You don't want to increase levels too high with radical-creating processes like smoking, bad food, and overdoing exposure to high oxygen levels. Interestingly, you might not want to decrease your resting levels with too many anti-oxidant vitamins because of their many necessary functions. There was some work showing that in at least one kind of injury reaction, it was not free radials as thought (but other things) doing the damage. There is more. Your question is so good and the topic is so interesting (at least to me) that I will start preparing a post about it.
Keep the good work coming. Send photos to inspire readers that it can be simple and fun.
At Friday, August 03, 2007 9:35:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Dr. Bookspan,
I'm 47 years young but have been suffering from rather severe lower back pain and sciatica in both legs for the last two months. Needless to say, this has been no picnic and has brought my previously very active life to a grinding halt.
In my search for some credible answers to resolve my condition, I came across your site and read your articles and ordered several of your books(Fixing Pain, Stretching, Abs Revolution) because the information simply made sense to me. Your books, even in the limited amount of time that I have had them, are just SUPER!
After grasping and applying the message in the subject information for the last couple of days, I can state without reservation that it does, indeed, work. I could go into a thesis worth of detail but the bottom line is that I feel my abs working and the pain in my lower back and in my legs is subsiding greatly.
I still have a quite the road to travel and a great deal to learn, but at least I know that I am, NOW, on the right track.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
At Monday, March 24, 2008 12:31:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
My neck pain has been "diagnosed" by a chiropractor as arthritis and bone spurs resulting from years of editing and computer work ("forward head") X-rays also revealed an over-curved lower back. Having come across your article, I have eliminated all crunches and sit-ups in favor of your hip stretch and other advise. Unfortunately, my neck hurts worse than ever, perhaps from trying to retrain it w/ hydrotherapy, inversion, and 3 exercises, 2 of them from you, but possibly from stopping chiropractic (which made my middle back hurt; the only part that's NEVER hurt!) Could you recommend which two of your books make the most sense for me to buy and read? At 47 years of age, I never dreamed I could do so much damage to myself when I thought my posture was terrific--as did others--and I've been an fitness freak for 30 years, especially rowing and cycling!
At Wednesday, March 26, 2008 1:09:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Anonymous, Stopping pain from a forward head isn't in the article above where you posted your comment. Without your telling me which exercises you are doing or what article you got them from, I can make general comments:
- You mention thinking your posture is "terrific" but you know you have a chronic forward head and that you did forward bending exercises. Doing exercises bending forward and holding your neck forward continually over your editing will make it hurt, no mystery there.
- Pain and damage from the forward head can be quickly relieved if you stop the source, rather than just doing treatments and exercises. Hydrotherapy, chiropractic, and inversion do not retrain posture or correct holding your neck forward. Don't go to chiropractic that makes your back hurt.
- Two stretches, the pectoral stretch and
trapezius stretch are to restore resting length to the front muscles so that standing and sitting straight feels natural. Then you are the one to hold the new healthful position during all you do - and not go right back to rounding in bad position over cycling, rowing, editing, computer, etc. If you strain while doing the stretches, or crane and sharply bend back your neck to bring your head back, or force the chin in, or hold stiff strained position, it will hurt, of course. Don't do that. Any techniques I describe should make a positive difference right when you try them. If not, check them; you are probably doing them wrong. Can you tell me which three are you referring to?
- When you say "over-curved lower back" I am guessing you mean too much inward curve (hyperlordosis or swayback) since you posted it here at this hyperlordosis article, rather than too much outward curve, as in sitting rounded over your editing, cycling, etc? Too much inward curve to the lower spine is generally voluntary position that is allowed instead of prevented by maintaining neutral spine position. Stretching the front of the hip can help make it more comfortable to shift to neutral spine instead of allowing extra inward curve. The stretch does not change your posture, you do. Try Gluteal Muscles Myth - Shaking The Dog's Paw.
Books that cover what you ask are Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery, Stretching Smarter Stretch Healthier, and Health & Fitness THIRD edition, out March 2008 (not any earlier editions - things were added to editions 1&2 that I did not write or agree with). See my web site books page. While you are on the web site, see a summary of what to do for forward head, neck pain, and upper back pain here.
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