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
Yeah I remember the “never lift with your back” advice, it is trash because of the pieces of information it leaves out. Full (good) version goes like this:
Never lift (too heavy) with your (weak af) back (or you will get injured)
Now that statement is true, but the original is just coddling moronic nonsense, that encourages people to remain weak
When I do deadlifts/good mornings I intentionally keep the weight low and REALLY pay attention to my body so that if I feel the strain I stop and re-assess.
When I pulled out my lower back lifting some stupid package I
1) Didn’t know the weight and didn’t mentally/physically prepare
2) Wasn’t properly stanced/braced to lift something that heavy
3) Was already feeling the strain on my back from moving a bunch of other packages but I *needed* to get that package move due to scheduling issues.
A gym exercise reprensent focus on form, and conscious effort to lift a specific amount. You aren’t “caught by surprise” and generally you shouldn’t be doing that kind of exercise if you’ve already strained your lower back to its limit.
Also people get injured *all the time* from those exercises. They aren’t for newcomers.
Think of your spine like a stick of wood on a table. If the stick is standing straight up on the table, you can put a 100lb of weight on top the stick and it won’t damage it because wood is strong in compression. Now lay the stick on its side over the edge of the table and put the 100lbs on the end and it will snap the stick in half.
Your spine is made up of discs, when they are aligned straight they can carry a lot of load in compression and your back muscles/core can brace your spine very well in compression. If you’re standing over an object with your back parallel to the floor, you can pretty easily generate enough force to round your back and cause a disc to slip/other types of injuries. Properly done, the Romanian deadlift and good mornings use your hips/legs to lift/lower the weight while the back and core muscles brace the spine in neutral position. It is still possible to round your back using too much weight and cause injury doing these as your legs are quite strong compared to your back, but much safer than just attempting to lift only using the back muscles.
The short answer is that you don’t life with your back in those exercises.
For RDLs, you should absolutely be keeping a tight core and straight back. The exercise is meant to open up your pelvis, not your back. Good mornings are the same. Just because your core and back are activated does not mean they are the focus.
Lifting with your back has more chances of injuring you as opposed to lifting with your knees.
But also a way to prevent injury on certain parts of your body is to train them for specific activities.
While it is in bad form to lift with your back, there are times you cannot avoid it and those times if your back is properly trained injuries can be lessen or even avoided.
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