Comments on: Thursday, January 7, 2009

By: Brent

Brent — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:44:00 +0000

POS- don’t miss it man. coming home from my CT visit was awesome.

Deadlift : 7×1 315-315-365-365-365-335-275
1×22 245
Have had trouble staying in a good position with the heavier weights ever since Indiana. Ironic considering today’s post.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:20:28 +0000

Calvin, I agree my analogy was not super precise, but I believe it has merit has merit when discussing general mechanics. If we were to get into the nitty gritty of things, you’re right that the surrounding musculature would play prominent roles in spinal stability. However, I still like to say that as a rough generalization goes, we want to maintain lumbar extension _most_ of the time for most of the movements we do. Admittedly, I did not clarify that in my post to which–thankfully–you did and gave some great information along with your clarification.

I’m not aiming for people to maintain stiff lower backs for the rest of their life as that will lead to other problems.. one of more immediate ones is walking around like you’re in a state of persistent constipation. I am, however, hoping people keep the idea of lumbar extension and, subsequently, bracing in mind when performing most of the exercises we do. Especially the compound lifts.

I can’t really speak on muscular strength vs. muscular endurance, other than it sounds like I ideally want to maximize both as you need the muscular endurance to maintain periods of isometric contraction for certain muscle groups, BUT you also need muscular strength to be able to maintain isometric contraction against progressively bigger loads. I’d have to do more homework on that front.

Again, we’re trying to simplify things and while my model may have been too simple, I think it mostly gets the point across. I wish I could provide all the details to people but most I can [try to] do is get the salient points across without burying people in details. Even if is in the details.

By: richard

richard — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:57:06 +0000

POS,

That looks horrible.

By: POS

POS — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:09:21 +0000

Thanks Invictus for thinking about us here in the frigid North East….

Here is a Photo of our beach WOD this past Saturday
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3489/3248490080_1fb3157ff0.jpg

By: Calvin Sun

Calvin Sun — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:19:36 +0000

Mike,
I have to respectfully disagree with you. Your fishing pole picture is a poor model of spinal function as it suggests that the skeletal structure alone is responsible for stability of the spine when, in fact, the surrounding musculature is far more important. The fishing pole model would work if the pole were upright and we had several tensioned guy-wires that stabilized the pole. The guy-wires in this case would be modeling the role of musculature in spinal stability.

The lumbar spine needs to be capable of being STABLE but not necessarily be in a chronic state of stiffness. Stability under load is the most important step in prevent back injury during weight training. Your suggestion would lead others to believe that an immobile lumbar spine is ideal when in fact it is not. Some lumbar flexion and extension is necessary for normal spinal ROM and function. Some lumbar flexion is OK and it does occur in training…even at CrossFit Invictus. Kipping Pull-ups, Sit-ups and Knees-to-Elbows would be impossible if not dangerous without the ability to flex the lumbar spine. Also, the lumber doesn’t get “mobilized” over time. When is the last time you heard of a senior citizen with a hyper-mobile lumbar spine? Most people tend to get stiffness in their lower backs as they age.

Furthermore, muscular strength in the lumbar is not nearly as important as muscular endurance. The muscles of the lower back and trunk do not need to generate a large amount of force in order to create a stable lumbar spine. You need to be able to generate a moderate amount of force (we’re talking less than 10% of maximal voluntary contraction here) but for a sustained period. In other words, you should focus on increasing the muscular endurance of your lower back musculature as opposed to increasing the amount of force it can produce.

I do agree with you in that we should not foam roll the lower back with the intention of creating hyper-mobility in the lumbar spine. However, this doesn’t mean a foam roller can’t ever touch your lower back. You can safely roll out your quadratus lumborum if you know the proper technique. I plan on discussing this as well as how to increase muscular endurance in the lumbar in an upcoming post or perhaps in a seminar format.