Align Your Spine

Every day is a great day to think about the shape of your spine, since lots of movements require you to maintain a neutral spine position to protect your back.

➡️ What's neutral? It's the strongest and safest position for your spine to be in. Slight arch in your lower spine, a natural slight rounding in your upper spine and a slight arch in your neck.

➡️ The core muscles of your torso stabilize your spine and allow you to hold it in a neutral position when moving dynamically.

➡️ During a heavy lift, you'll be able to hold your breath, push out on your abs, and create a lot of intra-abdominal pressure and hence a really strong brace to hold your spine in position.

➡️ During conditioning workouts, you'll need to do a lot more breathing, meaning that you'll need to hold a softer more dynamic brace that allows you to breathe while still holding a neutral spine. Can you do both?

❓ Do you have reduced mobility in your shoulders? Your core muscles will have to work extra hard to maintain a neutral spine when you move into an overhead position! Essentially you're using your core to force your shoulders to stretch. If you don't do this, your lower back will excessively arch to balance the load such that your shoulders don't have to flex fully overhead. This causes compression of your lower vertebrae that increases your risk of lower back injury. Fighting to hold your neutral spine is a mobility workout for your shoulders and will over time loosen them up. If you're struggling, try adding a hang from the pull-up bar between sets to stretch out your overhead position a little extra!