​We’ve all heard someone say that deadlifts are bad for your back. Which is funny because they are actually one of the exercises used for low back pain rehab. This is just one of the many exercises labeled as a “bad exercise”. Also see upright rows, knee extension, or any “knee over toe” exercise. The same thing goes for running, it’s not bad for your knees (honestly it can be good for your knees).

None of these exercises are bad. Now that’s not to say that any of these exercises are mandatory. There could be some other exercises that you could use to achieve the same goal, but the point I am trying to make is that if you love to deadlift, you should be able to do it without hurting yourself. That is if you have the proper guidance.

Most exercise related injuries are because of one thing:

​Stress is not always a bad thing. Lifting weights puts stress on our muscles. The cool thing about the human body is that it adapts to stress. The whole point of weightlifting is for the body to say “hey if we increase the size of this muscle, we can lift this weight easier.”

However, our body can only handle a certain amount of stress before it becomes too much. If you quickly increase the workload of an exercise, then you could be overloading the muscle and not allow it to adapt. Hence, you get a strain or sprain.

We can also look at things that affect your recovery from stress. Like getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep a night or eating enough to support your caloric expenditure. But there is enough to talk about that can be another blog post.

The answer may surprise you. It’s actually not as important as you may think. For example, some people create a fear around deadlifting with a rounded back. As long as the rounding is not excessive or the back does not move much while performing the lift, most people will be perfectly fine to lift this way. If you deadlift this way and work up in weight over time, your body can adapt and get stronger.

Some people will be sensitive to a rounded back posture, but others may be sensitive to whatever someone determined to be “good form.” It’s not a black and white thing. There can be some variation from person to person and you just have to find out what works best for the individual.

​In general there is no such thing as a bad exercise. The human body can adapt to stress as long as it is not a sudden change and you ease into something. Start with the basic recommendations for form in an exercise and make slight adjustments as needed.

​If you are having pain while exercising and are spinning your wheels trying to fix it, then it’s time to reach out to us! Click the link below to claim a Free Discovery Visit and we can talk about what is going, what you have tried, and what your goals are.

You get your shoes on and set out for your run. Everything feels good, but when you get about 10 minutes into the run it happens again...

​That nagging pain in your low back.

Low back pain is a frustrating issue that affects many runners. Exercise is one of the best cures for low back pain, but that doesn’t mean that healthy and active individuals aren’t susceptible to injuries. In this article, we will go over a few common reasons for developing back pain from running.

​Improving pelvic control is one the most important things you can do to improve your running performance and reduce the risk of injuries. The most common fault people have is an anterior pelvic tilt. An anterior tilt of the pelvis creates a sharper curve and more compression at the low back. Running by its nature is repetitive, so it will amplify the pain with every step.

​The other issue with an anterior pelvic tilt is that the glutes are lengthened which reduces your ability to call upon them. This makes other muscles work harder to bring the leg behind you, like the hamstring or low back muscles. These muscles are not built for this job and can quickly fatigue and become painful or tight.

Fixing this issue can come down to improving core stability to tilt the pelvis into a more neutral position. When we say stability, we mean exercises like planks. Not exercises that require movement of the spine or pelvis, such as crunches or sit ups.

​We mentioned how the glutes can be put into a poor position because of the anterior pelvic tilt. If your pelvis is in a good position, but your glutes are just plain weak, then you will run into a similar issue here. The low back or hamstrings will take over the job of extending the hip, causing overuse.

Improve your glute strength with exercises like bridges or single leg deadlifts.

​Having tight hip flexors can overlap with the first issue of anterior pelvic tilt. Maybe when you stand still your pelvis is in a good position. But when you bring your leg behind you it dumps forward. This could be because your hip flexors have difficulty lengthening.

Stretching your hip flexors the right way could be the key to improving your back pain. The video below has a great description of how to properly execute one hip flexor stretch.

​The earlier you get it checked out, the more quickly it can be fixed. Take the guesswork out of fixing your back pain. Let us take a look at it and determine what the cause of your back pain is. Click the link below to claim a FREE Discovery Visit!

​Low back pain can really interfere with your quality of life. Some people get frustrated when they can’t seem to find anything that will help them get relief. Most of the solutions you find online are extremely basic and generally unhelpful, like “take medication” or “buy a new mattress”. Here are 6 simple remedies that could help you get the relief that you need.

​With any injury it is important to get enough sleep. A lot of our recovery occurs when we are sleeping, so the longer we sleep the better our recovery. It also helps to reduce stress, which is a big factor that can amplify back pain. Shoot for 7-9 hours of sleep each night to optimize recovery and stress relief.

​Speaking of stress relief, breathing can be extremely helpful in that department. One issue a lot of people have is mouth breathing. Normal and effortless breathing occurs through the nose. When we breathe through our mouth it requires extra effort from other muscles that usually only assist in breathing with high intensity exercise. It also makes most of our air fill the chest cavity instead of the abdominal cavity. Filling the abdominal cavity helps to support our low back through intra-abdominal pressure.

Breathing is also connected to our nervous system. We have our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). Mouth/chest breathing is a sure fire way to ramp up your sympathetic nervous which increases stress and can create excess tension in our muscles. We want to increase our parasympathetic tone when we are at rest (since we are not exercising or running away from a bear). We can do this with deep inhales through the nose and long exhales out the mouth. Breathing is one of the first things we usually address with our clients.

​One of the most important things to do when trying to let your back pain heal is to temporarily avoid positions that cause or increase your pain. If you continue to reaggravate it, then it will take much longer to heal. The same as if you were to pick at a scab. Leave it alone and let it heal on its own.

Inventory your movements throughout the day. Does sitting for long periods hurt your back? Does bending over irritate it? Does reaching overhead feel uncomfortable? What about standing for a long time? Back pain typically follows patterns and we can look at these to determine what the cause of your pain is and how to start getting immediate relief.

​Heat can be helpful for some people to loosen up the muscles and reduce some pain. It may be useful for bringing blood flow into the muscles and supporting recovery. This will be temporary though, so don’t assume you can melt your pain away. There is still work to be done for permanent relief.

I never recommend ice because it can be more harmful than helpful. Ice prevents normal inflammatory reactions. Inflammation is not as evil as everyone likes to make it out to be. It is a normal reaction that protects our bodies. However, it is only supposed to go on for a certain period of time and ice can prolong this process. Choose ice over heat, or even better choose activity over heat.

​Everyone’s reaction to a perception of tightness is to stretch the muscle that feels tight. This is not always the right answer, honestly it is the wrong answer most of the time. We have found that there are two pretty common reasons why the low back muscles tighten up.

One reason is that the hip flexors are tight, or have increased muscle tone. One of the hip flexors, the psoas, attaches to the front side of the lower spine. The psoas pulls forward on the spinal bones, or vertebrae. In reaction to this the low back muscles can tighten up to pull backwards on the bones and balance out the forces. Reducing tone in the hip flexor can eliminate the need for the back muscles to tighten up as well.

The other reason we see is that the core muscles aren’t able to stabilize properly, so the low back muscles tighten up in an attempt to create a strong and stable spine. This is more so when we are lifting heavier weights as opposed to in our everyday life.

Based on the issues above, you could actually make the issue worse if you stretch the low back muscles. They are just trying to find a way to create stability from some other weakness around the spine. Address the root cause of the problem and the low back will relax as a result.

​Exercise in general has been shown to be an extremely effective way to eliminate back pain. We also want to improve the strength around our low back and hips. Strengthening the gluteal muscles will help support your back, since they are supposed to be one of the main drivers when standing up, picking something off the ground, squatting, or deadlifting.

Instead of using the word “strengthening” for the low back, it’s more accurate to say “stabilize”. The difference is that strength is our ability to produce force to move a weight, Stability is being able to resist force and prevent movement. Bird dogs, planks, side planks, and dead bugs are great examples of stability exercises where the goal is to keep your core from moving.

​If you want more permanent relief from your low back pain and get it taken care of quickly, so that you can get back to living your best life without limits, then click the button below to request a Free Discovery Visit!

​There are a lot of misconceptions about deadlifting. A lot of people in a variety of medical professions will tell you that deadlifting is dangerous and bad for your back.

It’s actually the opposite, deadlifts are used as a treatment for low back pain. It helps to build resilience in our backs and the confidence to live our lives without fear of injuring ourselves when we bend over to pick something up off the ground.

With that said, if someone is going through a bout of low back pain, they may be sensitive to conventional deadlifts. Here are some variations that may be more comfortable for you.

​Comparing the sumo deadlift to a conventional deadlift, we are in a more upright position. This position takes some stress off of the low back muscles.

​Simply changing the height of the bar can make a huge difference for some people. Shortening the range of motion is a simple adjustment to make and can easily be progressed by decreasing the height as your back pain begins to subside.

​The trap bar has a couple different benefits. It puts us in a more upright position, taking stress off the low back. Also, the placement of the handles puts our hands in a neutral position, which makes it easier to activate your lats. The lats play an important role in supporting the low back.

​The landmine setup provides a little more support than other barbell variations, so that most of the focus can be placed on activating the proper muscles.

​Single leg variations can be beneficial because they are loaded with less weight and require more core control. They can help build stability before working back into conventional deadlifts. If these are too difficult, keeping the back leg on the ground and performing a kickstand deadlift can be a great place to start.

If you have been struggling with back pain that keeps you from working on your strength, fitness, or weight loss goals, then give us a call at (607) 425-3369 or click the link below to request a Free Discovery Visit!