Think about the last time you went to your family doctor with a complaint of pain. If you experienced that pain while lifting a barbell, there’s a good chance the doc uttered these words, “I recommend not lifting for a few weeks.”Sound familiar?
It’s true many find some short-term relief of their symptoms by following these orders. It makes sense on paper. If deadlifting causes your back to hurt, not deadlifting will likely decrease your pain! Problem solved right?
Wrong.
While eliminating what triggers your pain for a few weeks will likely decrease your symptoms, it is never a final solution. Chances are the pain will eventually return because you never addressed why the problem started in the first place.
In other words, the things that you didn’t do for your body to be resilient to injury in your fitness practice are still now needed to resolve the pain issue, including if there spinal injury. Restore functionality, specifically the fitness of flexibility and stability strength.
To kick-start this active approach, let’s start by learning about our body’s ‘core’ and how it’s function relates to both the cause and fix of injury.
What is ‘core stability?’
Imagine for a moment a symphony orchestra composed of countless musicians. Just as each and every person must play their instruments in a united manner with constant changes in tempo and volume, our body must too coordinate each and every muscle and joint to create purposeful and sound movement.
The muscles that surround our spine are considered the “core” of our body. It is composed of the abdominal muscles on your front and sides, the erector muscles of the back and even the larger muscles that span multiple joints (like the lats and psoas muscles). It may surprise you that the glutes are also an important part of the ‘core’ (something you’ll learn about very soon!). Each and every one of these muscles must work together in order to enhance the stability of the spine. But what really is ‘stability’?
Stiffness is often associated with back pain, but in biomechanics, it plays a crucial role in spinal stability. Professor McGill has defined and measured spinal stability through his research, emphasizing two key points. First, when muscles contract, they generate force, stiffness, and elasticity. These qualities work together to stabilize the spine. Stiffness provides resistance to unwanted movement, while elasticity allows muscles to adapt dynamically to changes in load and motion. Think of the spine as a flexible rod that requires both stiffness and elastic responsiveness from surrounding muscles to bear load effectively. Without this balance, the spine becomes vulnerable to injury.
Through his studies, Professor McGill has observed that athletes who fail to achieve appropriate muscular stiffness and elasticity around the spine—due to poor coordination or muscle imbalances—are more prone to injury and pain.
Second, our body operates as a linked system where distal movement depends on proximal stability. For instance, try moving your finger rapidly back and forth. Notice how the wrist must stiffen and stabilize to allow this movement, or else the entire hand would wobble. Now apply this principle to walking: the pelvis must stiffen and dynamically stabilize to the spine, or the left hip would drop as the left leg swings forward to take a step. This core stability and elasticity are non-negotiable for efficient movement.
In any activity—walking, running, or squatting—spine stability requires the right balance of stiffness and elasticity, achieved through proper muscle coordination. It is not about being rigid or taking the path of least resistance but rather about training the body to align with the right strength, direction, and responsiveness. Over time, this deliberate effort becomes more intuitive, like muscle memory, creating ease in movement with less effort while maintaining the necessary stability.
When the core fails to meet the stability demands placed on the body during a certain lift, parts of the spine will be overloaded with forces that increase injury risk and performance will suffer. Much like a trumpeter squealing off pitch and out of tune would instantly dismantle the entire orchestra’s sound, each and every muscle that surrounds the spine must play it’s part in maintaining our body’s own “symphony of movement” in order to produce safe and powerful movement.
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