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Recently had a chance to read a new article by Louis Howe and Greg Lehman titled, Getting out of neutral: the risks and rewards of lumbar spine flexion during lifting exercises
This is an excellent article that takes a deep dive into the topic. Go read it but here’s a brief review.
The popular claims -
1. Neutral spine can be achieved and maintained during lifting tasks
2. Neutral spine is protective against spinal issues
3. Neutral spine minimizes injury risk
Neutral spine defined -
“…the range of motion, or zone, where minimal restraint to movement is offered by the surrounding passive structures.”
Excerpt of Authors’ Summary -
“…it appears that some level of flexion during lifting exercises is unavoidable, even when cued. Whether the lumbar spine flexion that occurs during lifting exercises is beyond the neutral zone is yet to be established. However, based on the low values of flexion reported to occur in the neutral zone, it appears highly probable that exercises such as the squat and deadlift requires lumbar flexion past the neutral zone. While it is suggested that lifting with less lumbar spine is protective against injury, research to support this is lacking.”
Plain language summary -
We go into flexion for a host of reasons, some of which are related to task demands and personal preference. Even when we attempt to cue someone out of this behavior, it likely has minimal effect and still happens on some level. The data simply isn’t there to make strong claims avoiding flexion mitigates risk of spinal issues or injury. Overall, we can dose in various movements and tasks as a part of a well rounded strength and conditioning program to help build resilience without hyper focusing on unobtainable perfectionist ideas of movement shrouded in unnecessary fear-mongering.
Hope this was helpful. Like, comment, and share to spread evidence based information about pain, injury, and training.
1h
