The human body wasn’t designed to sit all day. We’re walkers. Best to appreciate a job that keeps you moving. Haven’t had back problems since I started doing manual labor. Before that, there were days I couldn’t tie my shoes.
That’s one aspect of it but the main cause is weakness of the lower back muscles. This is in the case of office workers, if you have a manual job the causes could be many. But all of the causes can be addressed to a certain degree with deadlifts to strengthen to lower back muscles. But people don’t want to lift weights so 🤷🏽♂️
There are plenty of body weight exercises like squats and lunges that can strengthen the back. I think more than weights, people simply don’t like to do targeted exercises.
Dude, I picked up biking last season and on Monday I biked a new personal best of 12 very hilly miles without a rest. I decided literally the night before to join a local 4th of July 5k without any training (literally said “I can bike 12 miles, what’s running 3? Those are similar enough muscles!” and I’ve been riding the high since because my leg muscles are still all sore and tight in all of the wonderful “I pushed my limits and achieved something!” kind of ways that make me feel so alive!
I’d say stretching and familiarizing yourself with what the edge of acceptable motion is goes A LOT further with not hurting yourself. You can deadlift all you want, but if you don’t know how to deal with shifting weight or an odd position once you start doing some generic activity that doesn’t mirror the lift, you’re still going to hurt yourself.
In fact, overconfidance with being able to lift a heavy amount vs dealing with shifting forces can be the reason someone tries to move too much weight in the first place. Think lifting a solid, easily grippable mass of a steel bar vs moving a heavy-ass wobbly mattress. The mattress might be a fraction of the weight but it’s still a pain in the ass. Don’t know how to deal with weight suddenly shifting? That’s a pulled back anyways.
I assumed, obviously incorrectly because this is the internet and I’m always correctable, that it would be understood I wasn’t saying “hurting yourself by exercising incorrectly” when advocating for strength training.
It is very easy to hurt yourself doing strength training without experience pushing your body’s boundaries. Getting familiar with stretching first can be the difference between starting strength training successfully and overdoing something and turning the experience in to a painful turnoff.
Nah, not those alone. Developing only one side of a movement can cause serious health problems. Like how people that get only their calves really strong are prone to getting pulled tibia muscles doing sports because those muscles cannot keep up and fatigue out quickly. I can only imagine how terrible it would be to only have a strong back if you end up doing the wrong movement some day.
Sorry I meant in context to keeping a strong trunk and a happy lower back. Of course you’d want a good balance of exercises to support even muscle development
Can’t it be addressed with any regular, properly practiced sport, which many people don’t do over 30? Lifting seems like effort without the fun of a game.
Lifting seems like effort without the fun of a game.
The fun is in learning your muscles, feeling them shift and move as you put new strain on them and ultimately improving. Any metric you can track for improvement gives you a big source of pride when you hit a new milestone. Maybe it’s more reps. Maybe it’s a bigger weight with the same number of reps. Maybe it’s a new more difficult exercise you can do. Maybe you’re aiming to join a local competition. There’s always a goal to work towards and you can watch your body get better as you work on it. There’s incredible magic in knowing the control you have over your body’s shape, and suddenly being able to join in races or competitions that you might have used to be annoyed by how they get in your way.
I’ve gone big into biking. I started out struggling to make it around the block (which includes a big hill because where I live there really isn’t any flat surfaces to bike on) and last week I hit 12 miles in one go, and that’s including quite a few hills, some I powered up standing on the pedals, and some I powered through going as slowly as I needed and just continuing to pedal and push through. Every week or two I can achieve a new best for the season or even a new personal best, and that’s just tracking distance. I could instead focus on increasing my average speed. Or I could download an app where I race other people on the same route in virtual time trials.
It is certainly 1000 times better than doing nothing, but even athletes lift weights to complement their training because there’s nothing quite like targeting the muscles directly. But like others have commented running is also good for strengthening the back, so any sports where there’s a lot of running like soccer, football or basketball will help.
Weightlifting can be a game itself though, at least for me it is. The game is attempting to best my previous numbers every session. Very much a single player game but a game nonetheless.
Seriously depends. If someone is out of shape, starting with a game can be both disheartening when you physically cannot compete and make you far more likely to injure yourself when you’re not paying full attention to what your body is doing.
Going from out of shape (and most nonphysical people are out of shape nearly completely) to in shape is a treacherous path that should not be taken lightly.
Not to say sports are a bad idea, but they aren’t a silver bullet.
Repeated motion injuries can happen even in very fit people. The body needs time to heal even from low impact/low stress movement. Especially if it’s at the edge of what’s “easy”.
A good example is a food server. Even if you can handle the weight of a fully loaded tray easy enough, unless that weight is like throwing a nurf ball around for you, you’re going to need a healing period after a long shift. Most likely longer than any asshole shift manager would ever allow if you’re a small pretty gal.
yeah. I brought it up mostly to contrast the its from sitting thing. Lots of folks in physical trades had back problems. It was a trope really. Working class dads with back going out and corpo dads with heart attacks.
Adults don’t know how to bend and squat properly. Watch people and you’ll see that practically everybody bends at their back anytime they’re reaching down.
I still do if the weight in less than around 100lbs, but that’s only because I’ve strengthened my back to the point where 100lbs is no big deal even in weird positions, and bending at the waist is sometimes way easier.
Yea, that’s usually the case when something is actually heavy to be fair. Always a good idea to make sure they’re the muscles that tighten first!
Also to add more context; I specifically strength train the ‘bad’ way of lifting things, as it were. Like hyperextensions, bird dogs, superman, etc, so I’m not joking when I say I lift some “lighter” things in a ‘bad’ way when convenient. lol
… though if I feel back strain start to build up, you bet your ass I’ll reposition! Only a fool (like younger me) just goes for a lift without paying attention to what the body is saying.
I’m personally convinced that the cause of back problems is sitting way to much.
The human body wasn’t designed to sit all day. We’re walkers. Best to appreciate a job that keeps you moving. Haven’t had back problems since I started doing manual labor. Before that, there were days I couldn’t tie my shoes.
That’s one aspect of it but the main cause is weakness of the lower back muscles. This is in the case of office workers, if you have a manual job the causes could be many. But all of the causes can be addressed to a certain degree with deadlifts to strengthen to lower back muscles. But people don’t want to lift weights so 🤷🏽♂️
There are plenty of body weight exercises like squats and lunges that can strengthen the back. I think more than weights, people simply don’t like to do targeted exercises.
I very much want to
Running also strengthens the back
Truth.
I do what I call the morning dump before runs now, squats + good mornings and then a 5k, my sore back is because I made it sore and it’s a good sore.
Dude, I picked up biking last season and on Monday I biked a new personal best of 12 very hilly miles without a rest. I decided literally the night before to join a local 4th of July 5k without any training (literally said “I can bike 12 miles, what’s running 3? Those are similar enough muscles!” and I’ve been riding the high since because my leg muscles are still all sore and tight in all of the wonderful “I pushed my limits and achieved something!” kind of ways that make me feel so alive!
Big if true, I just started running again this year. Ran a fair bit almost a decade ago, still have back pain though.
Sure, you can’t run 5k without good posture. Can’t hold good posture without some core strength
squat and deadlift are key to success. Really, anything that develops your posterior chain is a healthy bet
Squats, deadlifts and good mornings are the key to a back you made sore and strong instead of a hurt back,
I’d say stretching and familiarizing yourself with what the edge of acceptable motion is goes A LOT further with not hurting yourself. You can deadlift all you want, but if you don’t know how to deal with shifting weight or an odd position once you start doing some generic activity that doesn’t mirror the lift, you’re still going to hurt yourself.
In fact, overconfidance with being able to lift a heavy amount vs dealing with shifting forces can be the reason someone tries to move too much weight in the first place. Think lifting a solid, easily grippable mass of a steel bar vs moving a heavy-ass wobbly mattress. The mattress might be a fraction of the weight but it’s still a pain in the ass. Don’t know how to deal with weight suddenly shifting? That’s a pulled back anyways.
I assumed, obviously incorrectly because this is the internet and I’m always correctable, that it would be understood I wasn’t saying “hurting yourself by exercising incorrectly” when advocating for strength training.
It is very easy to hurt yourself doing strength training without experience pushing your body’s boundaries. Getting familiar with stretching first can be the difference between starting strength training successfully and overdoing something and turning the experience in to a painful turnoff.
Nah, not those alone. Developing only one side of a movement can cause serious health problems. Like how people that get only their calves really strong are prone to getting pulled tibia muscles doing sports because those muscles cannot keep up and fatigue out quickly. I can only imagine how terrible it would be to only have a strong back if you end up doing the wrong movement some day.
Sorry I meant in context to keeping a strong trunk and a happy lower back. Of course you’d want a good balance of exercises to support even muscle development
It’s not just load back. People have to strengthen their core, chest, and upper back.
All those muscles work together to help with good posture.
Can’t it be addressed with any regular, properly practiced sport, which many people don’t do over 30? Lifting seems like effort without the fun of a game.
The fun is in learning your muscles, feeling them shift and move as you put new strain on them and ultimately improving. Any metric you can track for improvement gives you a big source of pride when you hit a new milestone. Maybe it’s more reps. Maybe it’s a bigger weight with the same number of reps. Maybe it’s a new more difficult exercise you can do. Maybe you’re aiming to join a local competition. There’s always a goal to work towards and you can watch your body get better as you work on it. There’s incredible magic in knowing the control you have over your body’s shape, and suddenly being able to join in races or competitions that you might have used to be annoyed by how they get in your way.
I’ve gone big into biking. I started out struggling to make it around the block (which includes a big hill because where I live there really isn’t any flat surfaces to bike on) and last week I hit 12 miles in one go, and that’s including quite a few hills, some I powered up standing on the pedals, and some I powered through going as slowly as I needed and just continuing to pedal and push through. Every week or two I can achieve a new best for the season or even a new personal best, and that’s just tracking distance. I could instead focus on increasing my average speed. Or I could download an app where I race other people on the same route in virtual time trials.
It is certainly 1000 times better than doing nothing, but even athletes lift weights to complement their training because there’s nothing quite like targeting the muscles directly. But like others have commented running is also good for strengthening the back, so any sports where there’s a lot of running like soccer, football or basketball will help.
Weightlifting can be a game itself though, at least for me it is. The game is attempting to best my previous numbers every session. Very much a single player game but a game nonetheless.
Lifting is an RPG
That’s why I have a character sheet with all my stats.
Seriously depends. If someone is out of shape, starting with a game can be both disheartening when you physically cannot compete and make you far more likely to injure yourself when you’re not paying full attention to what your body is doing.
Going from out of shape (and most nonphysical people are out of shape nearly completely) to in shape is a treacherous path that should not be taken lightly.
Not to say sports are a bad idea, but they aren’t a silver bullet.
Weighing way too goddam much is also a cause of back (and knee) problems.
This is why I never sit down. Not even to poop. I just stand above the toilet, and hope it goes in.
Sometimes it does!
Made me lol at the last sentence.
My dad and brother had back problems and they were brick layers and then janitors. Only sat at breaktime.
Repeated motion injuries can happen even in very fit people. The body needs time to heal even from low impact/low stress movement. Especially if it’s at the edge of what’s “easy”.
A good example is a food server. Even if you can handle the weight of a fully loaded tray easy enough, unless that weight is like throwing a nurf ball around for you, you’re going to need a healing period after a long shift. Most likely longer than any asshole shift manager would ever allow if you’re a small pretty gal.
yeah. I brought it up mostly to contrast the its from sitting thing. Lots of folks in physical trades had back problems. It was a trope really. Working class dads with back going out and corpo dads with heart attacks.
In my case, it’s the combo of way, way to much walking in work boots and then later doing a lot of sitting. gotta shorten up those hip flexor, bae
Adults don’t know how to bend and squat properly. Watch people and you’ll see that practically everybody bends at their back anytime they’re reaching down.
I still do if the weight in less than around 100lbs, but that’s only because I’ve strengthened my back to the point where 100lbs is no big deal even in weird positions, and bending at the waist is sometimes way easier.
If you’re someone who knows how to lift at the waist you’re probably still keeping your back straight, like you would in a Romanian deadlift.
Yea, that’s usually the case when something is actually heavy to be fair. Always a good idea to make sure they’re the muscles that tighten first!
Also to add more context; I specifically strength train the ‘bad’ way of lifting things, as it were. Like hyperextensions, bird dogs, superman, etc, so I’m not joking when I say I lift some “lighter” things in a ‘bad’ way when convenient. lol
… though if I feel back strain start to build up, you bet your ass I’ll reposition! Only a fool (like younger me) just goes for a lift without paying attention to what the body is saying.