If we are taught to never lift with our backs, why are there popular exercises like Romanian deadlifts and good mornings which has you specifically lifting with your back?
In: Biology
I’m gonna simplify the answer hahaha if a pencil is straight up and down, the weight is distributed throughout. If the pencil is curved the weight is all gonna go to that curve (weak spot). Consider your spine a pencil, don’t bend when lifting.
I was in rehab for sciatica, they had me lifting heavy milk crates from the floor to a waist-high shelf, and a shoulder-high shelf. Using my back. Apparently strengthens your back & core against back injury.
The advice is poorly worded to be short. If you imagine 3 hinges in your lower and mid body that do the work to lift something off the ground.
First at knee hinge, quads are the muscle to straightennit, if you had completely vertical back you would transfer much of the weight to the quads. This is fine and often shown in “office how to lift” posters, but not the actually best or strongest way to lift things.
Second hinge is at the hips. Glutes and hamsteings work here. This is the strongest hinge and in combination with quads should be used to lift shit off the ground.
Third you could imagine a of sort “hinge” at your “lower back” opposite of abs. This is what the advice says you shouldnt use to lift, it should not hinge. It should be braced tight and static. While work is done with hinges 1 and 2.
Don’t lift with you lower back. Lift with your ass. Bend from your hips down to the object while bending your knees. And lift simultaniously with your legs and ass while bracing your core tightly with a straight and steady lower back.
If you are lifting an object off of the ground from a full stop, if you round your back and keep your legs straight, you put the majority of the lift into your spinal erectors, and somewhat into your lats. It’s just a weaker process than predominantly using the quads and hamstrings.
But you can still train these weaker muscles to help avoiding injury. Since real life doesn’t allow for a perfect posture on every lift, it’s important to strengthen improper lifting as well as proper lifting. This helps your ligaments and tendons as well as your muscles, and can strengthen your spinal column as well, which needs to be able to spin, bend, extend, and compress.
The unspoken caveat to not lifting with your back is not lifting heavy things with just your back muscles without also engaging your core and hips properly. Those exercises start at a relatively low weight, and with proper form will strengthen the muscles used when lifting from a less ergonomic/more bent over position.
You’re meant to do them with an amount of weight you know you can handle with mindfulness when it comes to keeping your back straight while focusing on your hips and legs. All of those things mean you’re not putting your back at risk compared to trying to deadlift a heavy object and not remembering that your back shouldn’t take all that force at a weird angle.
Neither RDLs or good mornings are “lifting with your back” if done properly. The major contributors to the movements should be glutes and hamstrings with your spinal erectors, upper back, lats, and abs bracing your spine. If you feel RDLs in your back more than in your glutes and hamstrings, odds are pretty good you are doing them wrong.
Since when is deadlifting done with your back?
When people say this, they’re mostly referring to lifting with a rounded back. When you do a controlled movement like an RDL or Good Morning, you’re keeping your spine rigid and your back mostly straight. Some rounding is permitted, but it’s very minimal. When you’re lifting with your legs, it’s with the idea that you’re keeping a straight spine.
You can actually lift with your back but the amount you should be lifting is significantly reduced to avoid injury.
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