Eight percent of Americans walk around with back pain that actually limits what they can do. That is a lot of people hurting. Spine doctors are loud and clear on one thing: Don’t push through it.
Especially when you do the forbidden triad. Dr. Arthur Jenkins has a name for it. BLT. Bending, lifting, and twisting. He is a surgeon for the New York Jets, he knows trauma, and he says doing these three things at once is asking for disaster if you already have a sore back.
The Disk Trap
It usually starts small. You don’t hear your disc rip. It just… goes.
According to the American Association of Neurovisual Surgeons, chronic back pain often means you already have damage to those cushioning disks between your vertebrae. You might not have a full-blown herniation yet. You are just sitting there. Waiting.
“Many patients… likely already have damage to their disks. They are certainly at risk of developing [a herniation]…”
Here is how it works. The outer ring of the disk, the annulus, gets weak. Then pressure hits it. The soft inside squeezes out. Boom. Herniation. That gel hits nerves in your spinal canal and suddenly walking up stairs feels like a negotiation with the universe.
Jenkins says bending adds pressure. Lifting adds pressure. Twisting adds pressure. Doing all three? That is the worst possible recipe.
Think about shoveling wet snow. Heavy, dense stuff. You bend to dig it out. You lift it up. You twist to throw it in the drift. Your spine is screaming while you just try to clear the driveway. Or lifting a car seat from a low SUV. You have to crane your neck, bend down, lift, and twist out because the car next to you won’t move. It is an accident waiting to happen.
Move Like A Pro
So what do you do instead? Ditch the BLT. Use Jenkins’ method. It isn’t sexy, but it works.
- Face your load directly. Do not reach. Shuffle your feet so you are standing square to it.
- Use your legs. Not your back.
- Engage your core before you move. Pull that belly button to your spine. It creates a brace.
If you pick something off the floor, put a hand on a table. Stick one leg out straight back like a penguin. It changes the angle. It saves your spine.
Your abdominal muscles are your friend here. They oppose the back muscles. Together, they stop your spine from wobbling under pressure. Jenkins says he hurts less when he does core exercises regularly. Skip them for a week? His back reminds him. Immediately.
Try planks. Bridges. Dead bugs. A trainer can help if you are unsure, but you can also just practice pulling your gut in when you walk around. It becomes habit.
Dr. Meredith Warner agrees. Keep the weight close to your core. Build your quads so your legs do the work. And for heaven’s sake, strengthen your hips. Strong hips take stress off your lower back. Why would you want a weak posterior?
It’s Probably Not A Hernia
There is a fear out there that back pain equals surgery. Wrong.
Warner notes that 90 percent of us will have back pain eventually. It is annoying, yes, but it is also kind of normal aging. It usually starts in our twenties.
“Rarely is there a true injury. Most of the pain is due… [to] complex interactions between… the brain and other factors.”
Bed rest? Skip it. It makes things worse.
Instead, move. Functional movement. Active rehab. Yoga works for many. Physical therapy is solid. The goal is not to wait for it to go away by doing nothing. It is to keep the system working.
So next time you lift that box of groceries? Check your stance. Face forward. Legs strong. Core tight.
Unless you really want to be explaining why you can’t walk for three weeks to your chiropractor.
