Avoid weight lifting back pain and back issues from general lifting.
Dr. Craig Hindson of Loving Life Chiropractic Ottawa explains why lifting with your legs is old thinking and may be contributing to your weight lifting back pain and back issues from general lifting. Today, there is a new and better way to lift which engages back, leg and mid-rift muscles.
For over 120 years chiropractors have understood that every aspect of the human frame, and the communication system within it, is intricately connected.
In the last decade new publications and work from leaders in their field such as Thomas Myers have been putting forward ground breaking theories which help us make more sense of the world our bodies thrive in.
Myers’ work describes how muscles, nerves, ligaments, joints and the fascia which surrounds them are all inter-twined in “myofascial meridians” which are constantly in communication with each other.
His book “Anatomy Trains” beautifully connects the dots and explains the nature of whole body motion, expanding our understanding of the way different parts of the body communicate in ways which transcend current thinking.
So now when we are dealing with the fall-out from snow shovelling, moving house or weight lifting back pain we can understand how something in the very top of the neck can cause pain and tingling in the arch of the foot through not only electrical communication through the nerve system but also by fascial communication through a myofascial meridian such as the “Superficial Back Line.”
More importantly we can understand how squeezing our butt has a direct influence in recruiting layers of reinforcing abdominal musculature, back musculature and hamstring strength. In effect we constantly carry around our own weight lifting belt…. we just don’t realise it!
Other Methods Of Avoiding Weight Lifting Back Pain and Other General Lifting Issues
- Ensure that your work out program is correct for your body i.e. many adolescents engage in heavy weight lifting before bone centres are completely ossified (turned into bone). For example the bones of most males do not completely ossify until between the ages 20 -25. High rep, lower weight training for adolescents and younger adults would increase Cardio Vascular strength, improve overall condition and prevent premature spinal aging, structural imbalance and damage that situations such as spinal scoliosis (deviation from a straight spine in the AP (front to back) orientation) can exacerbate.
- Know your limits and get help when lifting awkward and heavy object. The extra 5 minutes it takes to get someone to help you may save weeks and even months of pain and discomfort. Also, most people love to have the opportunity to help out. If they don’t maybe you are in the wrong place – maybe its time to change jobs or neighbourhoods.
- Stay on schedule at your chiropractors office. Chiropractic care aims to ensure you get the most out of Life by maintaining nerve pathways clear and that is the aim of attending the office regularly – to stay at your optimum health, healing and performance potential for your enhanced Life.
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