How to Save your Back from Injury:

Last time I talked about how situps were bad for your spine and can possibly lead to a back injury. I wanted to follow up with some more information from the Stuart McGill spine stability seminar.

Dr. McGill is a noted spine researcher who measures various forces on the back to see what causes injuries. He also knows how to apply this knowledge first hand.

Following up on how situps are not the best thing for the spine, side crunches and situp variations aren't any better and may be even worse.

Let's look at some of the infomercials and the message they try to portray.

In an effort to show you with scientific proof that their ab device is effective, you will sometimes see some college professor talk about how they measured the muscle activity, and how well their device works the abs.

Well, some of them may work the obliques, the side muscles pretty well, but they never bother to measure the pressure on the spine in these positions. Dr. McGill says that these side crunches are absolutely terrible on your back.

This is another reason to dislike many of these items, besides the fact that they strongly infer that if you just use their machine you will get six pack abs. They never say anything about the fact that you can't spot reduce.

Meaning, no matter how many crunches you do, you won't burn the fat away from your stomach. But since that's what you want they try to sell it to you.

Another obvious back saver - don't bend over and twist simultaneously - bad for your back, but you probably knew that already.

Back again with the posture, Dr. McGill brought up it's importance in prevention and correction of low back pain. He demonstrated this by having people stand while placing their hands on their back muscles.

Then he had us lean forward a little bit and you could feel the muscles working. Lean back into good posture and the muscles stopped working. The point is that with poor posture, your back muscles are constantly working when they don't have to be.

Being stuck in the "on" position all the time will cause your muscles to fatigue and possibly lead to some painful muscles, over time.

And lastly, after sitting for a long time, don't put a lot of pressure on the spine right away. For example, and shipping and receiving clerk who spends some time sitting and then gets up to unload a truck, may put his back at risk.

After being seated a while, take your time before lifting anything heavy, as your ligaments may have relaxed somewhat while seated.