How well do you extend from your hips?

I am a firm believer that the solutions to most problems are very simple. The key is figuring out what the real problem is.

They say that 80% of all adults will experience this.

One of the best examples of this is figuring out what is causing back pain.  A few years ago I didn't know much about back pain. That changed one morning when getting out of bed. I went to get up and it felt like my pelvis shifted forward about half a foot. My back muscles went into spasms and I couldn't move in any direction without pain. Since my pelvis had moved too much, my brain decided that all the muscles around it should restrict any movement of the pelvis.  

After making a visit to D.C. Richard Novak it was determined that I had herniated the disk between my L3 & L4. He used Ultrasound and Electrical Stimulation to get the muscles in my lower back to relax.

After this bout of back pain I decided to learn as much as I could about our lower backs. The common theme from all the reading that I have done can be summed up by the following ideas. 

1. Lower Back pain has very little to do with the lower back. If you want to minimize bouts of back pain learn to keep the lumbar spine stable.

2.  One of the main causes of lower back pain is extending from the back instead of the hips.

3. Learning to extend from the hips will keep you from extending from your back.

My favorite hip extension exercises are:

1. Hip Hinges

A simple way to learn how to extend from the hips.

2. Bridging Hip extensions.

The basic version of bridging: Squeeze those glutes.

If you want to minimize your chances of developing lower back pain, learn to extend from the hips.

Next time I will write about the role that the thoracic spine plays in keeping the lumbar spine stable.