How to keep your back safe when lifting weights

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To keep your back feeling good as you get stronger and more fit, you need to make sure to keep your spine position neutral when lifting heavy loads.  Let’s define the term “neutral spine position:” the position of the spine that has a natural, neutral curvature in the neck (cervical), upper back (thoracic), and lower back (lumbar).  Looking at the skeleton below from a side view, notice that the spine does not follow a straight line.  It has anterior-facing curvatures in the neck and low back, and a posterior-facing curvature in the upper back.  

So why is this important?  First, having too little, or too much curvature can damage soft tissues such as intervertebral discs, especially when under loads that compress the axial skeleton.  Doing exercises such as deadlifts, squats, overhead presses, weighted carries–basically any movement where you’re standing and holding weights in your hands–can jeopardize your spine if you don’t know how to get in a neutral position.  Secondly, you are most strong and injury-resistant when your spine is in neutral, so your ability to develop strength and fitness in the long-term is strongly connected to how well you learn to get in–and stay in–good position.

So, how do you get in a good, neutral alignment?  Here’s a 3-step process that can help you: 1) glutes, 2) abs, 3) shoulders...

• Step 1: “Glutes”

  • Squeeze the glute muscles as hard as possible.  If watching from the side view, you may see the top of the pelvis tilt slightly towards the posterior when the glutes activate fully.

• Step 2: “Abs”

  • “Shrinkwrap” the abdominal musculature around the spine; when doing this one looks as narrow as possible from the front, as well as from the side, at the level of the waist (it also makes talking normally or taking a deep breath difficult).

• Step 3: “Shoulders”

  • Bring the shoulder blades back (towards the spine)  and down (towards the hips) as far as possible.

Doing these 3 things in order will get you into a strong, safe alignment.  The next trick to master then becomes “how do I maintain neutral spine position while moving the rest of my body?"  Check back for my next post to answer that question...