Bend With Your Knees or With Your Hips? Protecting your low back while lifting
You have definitely heard the saying “bend with your knee, not your back”. In theory, this is to keep a “flat back” which is a protected back. But practically speaking only bending with your knees may put you at a disadvantage.
You probably know someone who has “thrown out their back” while lifting something, doing a half bend, or picking something up off the floor. I can tell you that as a chiropractor I know many of these people.
What this is called is sub-maximal buckling. It’s a common chiropractic complaint, and many people are perplexed why something so nominal can cause so much back pain.
The truth is this is multi-factorial and I could make this an extremely long post, speaking to the complexities of low back mechanics and muscle recruitment, but for the sake of simplicity, I will explain how to keep your back in a protected position by bending with your hips and knees while keeping your back in a flat position.
A “flat back” is usually referred to as a neutral spine or neutral low back. The easiest way to describe this is the position your low back goes into if you push your butt out behind you. essentially you are creating an arched back.
The components of your spine are able to handle the forces placed on them, and the increased forces while lifting an object if you stay in this protected position.
In the video below I demonstrate how this can be achieved by locking your arms out and letting them slide down to your knees as you bend. This will keep your low back neutral, and help to protect yourself while lifting.