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QUESTION:
I've been working out on cybex weight training equipment at my gym for
about two months. I've noticed some lower back pain which I haven't had
for a long time. I've carefully kept away from the equipment that twists
the torso and others that produce stress on the spine. I've also been
doing a lot of crunches, reverse and hanging crunches for the abs.
Can anyone give some advice on what else to avoid and what I can do to
alleviate the cause of the pain?
ANSWER:
Hmmmm...lower back pain? This could be aggravated by a number of things,
from exercise selection to improper technique to muscle imbalance to....
(you get the idea).
Anyway, some helpful suggestions:
- Exercise selection - reverse and hanging crunches are both
exercises that are more stressful for the low back than
ordinary crunches. Any of them can be used to work
your abdominals, but the on-the-floor position provides
more support for the back.
You may find that abdominal machines can provide more
resistance with less stress to the low back than reverse
or hanging crunches, since they tend to provide support
for the back and also guide the body through the motion.
Also, beware of exercises that are billed as "abdominal
exercises" but really provide much more work for the hip
flexors. Full sit-ups, improperly performed reverse
crunches, leg lifts (single or double), hanging crunches
that involve any flexion at the hip, etc., all fall into
this category. The hip flexors are plenty strong to begin
with, and unless you're involved in a particular sport
pursuit that requires more strength in them (and your
program compensates) overly strong, tight hip flexors can
become one of the key contributors to low back pain.
- Proper technique - be sure that you're performing the exercises
with control through the full range of motion. It's quite
common for people to use momentum and "cheat" on exercises
like reverse curls or hanging curls in order to get more
repetitions in. This puts a tremendous stress on the back -
do as many reps as you can with good form, and then give it
a rest.
- Muscle balance - if you're doing lots of exercises for the abs
but none for the back, you may be creating a muscle
imbalance problem for yourself, especially if you are doing
rather high-intensity training for the abs but not for
the low back.
In the same vein, avoiding all twisting motions means that
you're probably not training the obliques very effectively,
and recent EMG (electromyograph - muscle activity recording)
studies demonstrate that the obliques are key in maintaining
posture, even more so than the rectis abdominus, as was
previously thought.
While your caution is understandable, oblique curls performed
lying on the floor are relatively quite safe (so long as they
don't cause any discomfort) and can strengthen the obliques.
Adding some mild back strengthening (provided your back is
not actively bothering you) may also help to provide more
of a balance of strength between muscle groups. Muscles
pull around joints like guy wires around a sapling tree,
and if one wire is too much tighter than the rest the
whole tree will fall, as it were.
Adequate attention to flexibility is also important. If
you've been doing exercises like hanging ab crunches you
are probably giving your hip flexors more of a workout than
they need (they get plenty in everyday life already), and
this can create muscle imbalances and postural problems at
the pelvis (which is connected to the spine, which is...).
Be sure to stretch all your muscles adequately after working
out to increase flexibility. Hold statically for a minimum
of 20 seconds, preferably longer.
- See your doctor - If the pain persists, or you can't seem to
locate the cause, a visit to the physician may be in order.
A couple of pieces of advice--first, make sure your form is correct when
using the machines. In fact, you may be best off by slowing down the
speed of your movement so that all jerking motions created by quick
starts, etc., are all eliminated. For example, I see a lot of people
arching their back when doing shoulder presses & bench presses, or,
jerking backwards when doing pulldowns. Another is bouncing the weight
stacks to maintain momentum. A five - ten second positive combined with
a four - five second negative should help improve form and add to the
safety of the improvement.
Second, you could try switching to other exercises such as dips,
chins--movements where the body is hanging freely instead of having to
succumb to the design of the machine.
Third, did you start doing anything different with your other activities
when you started with the Cybex? Did you add time to the Stairmaster?
Aerobics? Running? Swimming? Chopping wood? You may want to look into
other activities beyond your weight training as the culprit.
There were some other great tips on things not to do--but I'd look at
these other areas as well.
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