If I were in a room full of thirty-year-old humans and asked the question: “Does anyone’s back hurt?”, at least half of the room would raise their hand. A mentor I followed in my years as a student in the physical therapy field once told me, “Anyone past the age of thirty is diagnosed with arthritis.” Once we get to our thirties, we have probably dabbled with high school and college sports, various forms of exercise, and more than likely experienced a few work-related injuries. As the body endures this stress up to the thirty years of age marker, connective tissues surrounding bones can become damaged, bones fractured, and sedentary lifestyles unmask under use injuries from sitting too much.
Traumatic post thirty-year-old bodily stress can lead to back pain. A thirty-year-old body isn’t as new as a twenty-year-old’s spry and springy frame. Wear and tear of the body accumulates as age increases each decade. Lower back pain is among the most common types of nagging pain as decades progress. Back pain can significantly limit our functionality and lifestyle.
The function of bending over and getting closer to the ground is commonly overlooked on the impact it has on our lives when it is taken away. Do weeds need to be pulled? Those weeds will only grow longer and spread their seeds if no one bends down to remove them. Do baseboards need cleaning? Getting on our hands and knees could be painful. Those spider webs and scuff marks from shoes can display our neglect to house guests. Do your grandkids request to be picked and held by their favorite grandma? This request from our favorite munchkin for some grandmotherly love could be immediately declined due to consistent back pain. The last thing we want is the fear of bending over to lead to the idea that our grandkids think we don’t like them.
Consistent practice and awareness of the significance of bending over is a critical part of our daily lives currently and for the years moving forward. Our lifestyle becomes severely limited without the ability to bend over. Practicing how to hinge from our hips, bend our knees, and keep our back rigid reinforces the invaluable ability to bend over and acquire items at ground level.
The hip joint is similar to the structure of a socket wrench. In fact, the hip is classified as a ball and socket joint. Similar to how the square knob of socket wrenches insert into a socket bit to create torque on a bolt, the femur fits into the hip joint to create torque on our hips to propel our lower extremities under our torso. This is a hinging mechanism that uses the powerful motors of the gluteal and hamstring muscles to take the brunt of the load when bending over to the ground and extending upright when returning to standing. Prioritizing this hinging movement along with the bending of the knees limits unnecessary spine movement, making the spine tertiary mover and prioritizing its job of changing small angles of direction to align vertebrae. The spine isn’t meant to be the shape of a rainbow when bending over. Therefore, by learning how to keep the back the rigid while hinging from the hips can significantly decrease overuse of the spine and limit rounding of the back.
To perform a hinge from the hips, begin by slightly bending the knees, allowing the shins to flex forward. Once the shins are “parked” forward, prioritize a rigid spine to keep the torso rigid. Limit rounding of the lower back, shoulder blades, or tucking of the chin. The spine should be as a rigid as a redwood tree in Big Sur. Finalize the movement by rotating the hips around the head of femur as your torso articulates over the hip joint. Similar to the socket wrench moving around a bolt. Keep hinging until a brief stretching sensation is experienced in the hamstrings. Revert to your initial position by hinging back over the hips and ensuring to keep the back in straight while activating the glutes and hamstrings to bring your hips under the torso and over the thighs. This movement can be performed to pick objects up from the ground, picking up twenty-five-pound humans, or bending over to pull troublesome weeds.
Next time you see a rogue candy wrapper left over from the ghouls who trick or treated last week on the ground, bend over and pick it up. Make sure to use proper technique in doing so. It’s these repetitions of consistently practicing mindfulness of picking up objects from the ground that mitigates the debilitating effects of back pain while bending over as we progress through life.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
