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Gym exercises that can damage your back…
A common cause of back pain and back issues that I see in my chiropractic center is something that should be healthy for us—gym exercises! Exercise is the single most important thing we can do for the health of our spine, but with certain gym exercises you need to take more care.
Good exercise:
Movement is wonderful for the spine. After all the spine has only two functions—protect the spinal nerves and allow movement of the torso. If you don’t use a joint, it seizes up over time. Low impact cardio exercise like walking (fast with arms swinging), cross-trainers, and swimming are fabulous to help keep the spinal joints loose.
Stretching is key. If we don’t move our joints to the end of their range of motion, over time we lose some of that range of motion! Slow stretching yoga like Hatha Yoga is great for this.
Strength exercise is also important, especially for the postural muscles. Weak shoulder muscles lead to instability of the shoulder, and weak postural muscles fatigue and cause muscle tightening.
Higher risk exercises:
Some exercises require more care than others, because they put the spine at more risk. I prefer using alternatives to these exercises as I have seen so many people damage their back badly with just one bad repetition, but if it is really important to you… be careful with your technique!
Dead Lifts—bending and lifting very heavy weights with your back is always going to carry risk. With dead lifts, technique is crucial. If you do even one lift without maintaining the natural arch in the lumbar spine you can do damage. Ensure you stick your backside out to maintain the lumbar lordosis (arch), wear a weight lifting belt, and if you can’t maintain form…stop!
Barbell Squats—with a barbell, it is hard to stop the centre of gravity being forward of the body in a squat. With heavy weights this puts a lot of pressure on the rear part of the lumbar discs. Again, form and weight belts help, but better if you can use alternatives like split squats, leg press, or even dumbbell (with weights to the side, not forward of the body) or weight-vest squats.
Kettle Bell exercises (and other weigh-based exercise with momentum of weights)—great for building core but any time you do a weight exercise where you are NOT moving slowly and carefully you risk tearing muscles… or damaging your back if you are in the squat position.
Heavy weights put pressure on lumbar discs
Slight risk exercises:
Sit-ups—this can cause problems for some people so better doing planks, fit ball exercises, or crunches where you do not sit up the full way.
Double leg lifts—lifting both (straight) legs at the same time while face up increases the arch of your lower back and can aggravate some conditions. You are strengthening the hip flexors more than the abdominals, and hip flexors like the psoas increase the lower back arch which in many people aggravates their issues.
Click here to find out more about maintaining a healthy spine.
Stefan Becker
Sarrià Quiropràctica
