Vital Reflexes



Nearly 3.7 million Australians are suffering from chronic back problems, that’s around 16% of the population, or 1 in 6 people.

If you’ve ever suffered one you’ll know, chronic back problems affects every aspect of your quality of life.

So let’s get educated on a few simple ways to protect your back both at home or at work. The art of practicing vital reflexes to protect the health of your spine.

Spine injuries 101

Many different things can cause spine injuries, but the most common issues that trip most people up are poor technique when lifting objects, twisting while carrying heavy weights or a combination of twisting and bending. In many cases, the cause of poor movement and lack of tightness in the core area is due to the lack of preparation for the activity.

This issue is two fold:

  1. Most people don’t take the time to set up the work environment in the best possible way.
  2. Most people don’t take the necessary time to prepare their bodies for the given physical activity. This often results in acute injuries or damage to the spine that leads to overuse injuries down the line.

How to set up the work environment to avoid potential injury

Setting up your work environment optimally is crucial for the prevention of injuries and the longevity of everyone involved.

More often than not, it’s the simple things that cause issues:

  • Spills that could make someone slip and hurt themselves.
  • A cluttered environment that obstructs freedom of movement, especially while carrying heavy objects.
  • Potential hazards on the ground that could lead to tripping, sprained ankles, and much more serious problems.

Any potential hazard needs to be addressed as quickly as possible - spills need to be cleaned up quickly, the work environment needs to be de-cluttered as much as possible, and anything that could lead to obstruction of movement needs to be cleared up.

These are simple fixes that take relatively little effort to do but can save you down the road.

How to brace your body & protect your back

Have you ever watched an Olympic weightlifter or a powerlifter pick up a barbell off the floor? Did you notice something interesting about the lift?  Well, aside from the fact that these guys are incredibly strong, each lift has two things in common:

  1. The lifter takes the necessary time to brace the body and engage the core before the weight breaks off the floor.
  2. Each lift is done with impeccable technique to ensure longevity. These guys are the masters of picking heavy things, and there’s a lot we can learn and apply to our lives.

Whether you’re walking on a platform to deadlift 200 kgs or are walking up to a heavy object at work, you always need to be mindful of your technique, and you need to engage your core to protect your back.

Aside from the fact that we need to take good care of our work environment and make it work for us (and not against us), we also need to train the body to brace itself when bending, lifting, or reaching. Any position that could compromise your back is a position that requires the proper engagement of your transverse abdominis muscle.

The transverse abdominis is a deeply-rooted muscle that resembles a weight belt around your stomach area and is one of the most important components of your core. Learning how to engage it properly will allow you to create tightness in your core, maintain rigidity in your hips, and keep your lower back safe, far away from injuries. But unless you actively work on engaging your TA, you will never master the bracing pattern.

A properly engaged transverse abdominis is going to act as a foundation for a stable core. Think of it this way: If you were to fire a cannon from a canoe, you wouldn’t hit many targets because of its flawed and wobbly foundation. The cannonballs would fly all over the place. The same goes for your core muscles - if your transverse abdominis doesn’t serve as a stable foundation, the muscles above it wouldn’t be able to function optimally, and you wouldn’t be tight and safe.

To engage that muscle, you need to gently draw your belly button in as you’re exhaling. This will cause your abs to be drawn in, but not too much. The movement pattern resembles the one you would do if someone were to punch you in the stomach. You would tense up the whole area.

Creating the mind-muscle connection will take some practice but, after a while, you will be able to brace your core in a moment’s notice whenever you need lumbar support.

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