Us back pain sufferers are often reminded of the virtues of exercise. So I was interested to find an article by Kathy Ekdahl, a cerified personal trainer, on the wicked local.com website with a slightly different point of view.
She makes the observation that many of the commonly used back exercises, especially those designed to strengthen lower back muscles, may actually do more harm than good.
She says sit-ups, weighted crunches, and weighted hyperextensions can be very risky for your back and that back health and stability is really created through exercises that strengthen the buttocks and abdominals.
The article was in response to a question asking about back strengthening exercises to improve back strength prior to winter snow shovelling in the U.S.
Although they do tend to have more of the stuff than us here in the UK, with last years winter apparently set to become the norm, and it being September already, I thought it was something we could learn from.
Kathy goes on to describe some safe back exercises as well as handy tips for snow shovelling. I personally try to avoid it as much as possible, as well as anything else that may aggravate my back pain.
But if you must shovel snow, you could do well to read the full article here.
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