How to Avoid Back Injuries

Photo credit: Back Mechanic by Stuart McGill, PhD

As the weather warms up and we start to increase our outdoor activities such as gardening and spring cleaning we want to be mindful of our body movements so we can reduce the likelihood of injury.  We have usually heard plenty about bend and lift from your knees and not your back but less so about the importance of minimizing how we twist our backs.  Simply bending forward with only our body weight creates around 700 pounds of compressive force on the low back.  If we are bent forward and twist that force will be shifted more to one side of the spine instead of being evenly distributed, this increases the potential for injury.  One of the most common joints we see injured in these cases is the facet joints in the low back (lumbosacral region) followed by sacroiliac joints (where the bones of the pelvis meet).  Additionally, excessive repetitive twisting like this can start to injure the discs in the area potentially leading to a more severe injury with a longer recovery time.

---

Read More