To make a long story short, I don’t prescribe any rounded back lifting with my athletes/clients. I know that I will proably get bashed and hear people say stuff like “All completely safe exercises are completely worthless,” but I just can’t prescribe spinal flexion positions to my people. There’s too much inherent danger involved, and I don’t care what anyone says, you can’t set PR’s if you’re nursing an injury!
Keep in mind when Hatfield wrote this book, we didn’t have the insight to spinal biomechanics that we have now. If he did, maybe he would reconsider his statement.
Stay strong
MR
[quote]kryptoniteks wrote:
Hi guys.
I have a question about lower back strengthening and safety that I would like to hear your take on. I currently train low back with squats, deads, RDL, good mornings etc… and do these all with neutral (vs. flat or flexed) secondary to health and safety concerns. I know there are some advocates of doing some variations of good mornings and other exs. with some flexion to more dyanmically strengthen these muscles. To each their own but after reading Stuart McGill’s Low Back Disorder book I am very wary of these type of variations. However, I recently came across an article by Dr. Hatfield addressing some exercise techniques and after reading the following excerpt, was left with a couple of questions.
BACK EXTENSIONS
Picture this: The great Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alexeev?s ponderous body draped over a gymnastics long horse with his feet wedged between the stall bars of an unbelievably archaic training gym in Moscow?s Lenin Institute of Sport. With four hundred pounds precariously perched behind his head, he explodes for five reps of back raises. There is virtually NO hip extensor involvement, only pure erector spinae contraction. That means 1) tremendous low back limit strength and speed-strength is developed far beyond what any other low back exercise could possibly accomplish, and 2) virtually NO trauma to the tenuous intervertebral discs of the lumbar spine, which is something no other low back exercise ever conceived can claim.
By far the biggest muscles of your lower back are the “erector” muscles. They’re also the most visible. Your erector spinae muscles are designed to extend (and hyperextend) your spine. They do NOT act on your hip joint, so there’s no reason to engage in exercises which require hip joint movement (i.e., traditional “hypers”).
The best way to target your erectors is with “back extensions.” This exercise requires the use of a specialized bench quite unlike the ones you’re probably used to seeing around the gyms (the “hyper” benches you are used to seeing are, in my opinion, relatively worthless). The bench of choice is called (by its inventor, Dr. Mike Yessis) a “glute-ham-gastroc machine.” He called it that because those muscles are the ones the Soviets target with a similar exercise which Dr. Yessis improved upon. Glute-ham-gastroc raises are discussed in the section (below) dealing with leg and hip exercises.
To use this device to target your erectors, your feet are secured by the two foot pads which are backed by a metal plate that prevents your feet from slipping through. Your “belly button” is placed in the middle of the padded support. Your knees are bent. Then, your feet push against the metal plate in order to “lock” your upper legs against the padded bench. All of this ensures that only your erector muscles are targeted, and NOT your hip extensors (gluteals). Simply assume the described position and flex your spine (round your back downward). Hold as much weight behind your head as you can, and extend your spine (straighten it back out again). You should not raise way up by arching (hyperextending) your back, as doing so places too much strain on the intervertebral discs of your lumbar spine. Repeat for the desired number of reps.
This exercise is quite probably the ONLY low back exercise you will ever have to do. It is that effective.
Noted exceptions are deadlifts, squats, glute-ham raises and explosive high pulls, all of which involve the lower back muscles as either stabilizers or synergists. However, none is done for the express purpose of developing your lower back, and are probably unsuitable for most trainees outside clinical and sports-specific applications.
What is your take on the glute ham machine exercise that he describes. Does the positioning of the body on the pad limit flexion ROM enough that the paraspinal muscles cont. to be very active and do not reach the point of shutting down and relying on ligamentous support. Would you still consider such an exercise high risk. I found it very interesting that he was in favor this exercise and was more wary of RDLs and other hip extension exs.
Thank you very much for any opinions you have on the subject.[/quote]