No one wants to hurt themselves when they’re lifting weights–especially not their lower back. One of the most common concerns that people share with us is that they want to make sure they’re performing exercises with good form–so that they don’t get hurt. The often unspoken carry over is that people also don’t want to get hurt when they’re doing things in day-to-day living. This post is going to address how we help people to avoid getting hurt during a workout and how to avoid getting hurt doing regular daily things.

Squatting and Hinging 

There are two “lower body” movement patterns that are central to our training methodology (and philosophy) at Reimagym: squatting and hinging. You probably know the hinge movement pattern by the main exercise where its featured: the deadlift. (Also, “lower body” is in quotes because lower body movement patterns involve so much more than just your lower body…which is a story for another day).

These two movement patterns are so important and prevalent in our workouts because of how important and prevalent they are–or at least, can be–in day-to-day life.

On the one hand, our goal with squats and deadlifts is to use them as a vehicle for getting stronger hips…and knees… and ankles… and feet… and your core… and your lower back. 

And as a means of developing better mobility (through your hips and ankles). 

Oh, and as a way of building joints that move well and remain happy.

At Reimagym, we place a great deal of focus on form and technique and on helping you to develop a sense of awareness, making sure that you’re feeling and using the right muscles. We do this because, among other things, this is what keeps your body from getting injured.

Or, more accurately, this is what reduces the likelihood of injuries happening and bolsters your body so that, should an injury occur, it probably won’t be as bad and/or you’ll recover from it faster. 

To use an example that probably hits home for many of us, squatting and deadlifting with proper technique makes you less likely to use your low back in places where you could use your glutes (which are your butt muscles, in case you didn’t know) and your core. When you’re not (consciously or otherwise) trying to use your lower back in places where your hips (butt muscles=glutes) are better suited for the job, you’re less likely to strain something in your lower back.

This is not earth-shattering news, I’m sure. Pick things up (and put them down) using good form and you’re less likely to hurt yourself.

And in spite of all the emphasis we place on lifting with good form, something we see at the gym quite regularly is this…

The long and the short of it is…this is a gentle reminder of the importance of mindfulness.

On the one hand, in the gym, we’d like to remind you that the exercise isn’t done until you’ve put the weight down. And just because you’re not starting another set and you’re just picking the weight up to put it away, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about good form.

But wait, there’s more:

If you pick something up (or put something down) with less-then-perfect form…and you don’t hurt anything…that’s great! It suggests that your body has the capacity to buffer sub-optimal biomechanics at least that one time. This is not to say that you must always lift things with perfect form when you’re out in the world, living your life. Good form helps, but you’re simply not always going to be able to put yourself into a position where you can use good form.

In short, your spine flexes and extends and sometimes, we have to lift things like that. The underlying concern is that your back* tends to be more at-risk of injury when you are lifting things using your back as the prime mover.

*When we talk about your “back”, this can mean a number of different things: it could mean the discs between the individual vertebrae (the bones that make up your spine), or it could mean the muscles that run along the length of your spine, or we could be talking about the vertebrae themselves. Different movements, loads (either intensity or frequency of loading), movement speeds, or other variables are more or less likely to impact different tissues.

“Learn the rules so that you know how to break them properly”

One of the ideas that underpins our approach to functional strength training can be summarized by the idea of “learning the rules so that you know how to break them properly”. 

What do I mean by that?

Where squats and deadlifts are concerned, we aim to individualize each exercise: we adjust the squat depth and deadlift height in such a way that we can optimize based on individual biomechanics. In both cases, it allows us to maximize the potential contribution of the right muscles and while stabilizing the right joints. This minimizes the risk of unwanted compensatory contributions from muscles or joints that shouldn’t be functioning as prime movers (like the muscles and joints of your lower back). This is the “learn the rules” piece of the puzzle.

However, in life, it’s not always possible to be performing squatting or hinging motions in ideal positions (“breaking the rules”).

So, to the extent possible, we’re still going to aim to get as close to “ideal” as we can and use the following guidelines:

• Brace your core before you lift.
• Breathe as you lift.
• Use your hips/glutes as much as possible (more than your knees) and more than your low back.

In many ways, it really is that simple.

(And, if you’re feeling like you could use some guidance, drop us a line and let us know!)