Keeping your back happy!
Aha, I thought while listening to the NPR report on “The Lost Art of Bending Over: How Other Cultures Spare Their Spines,” that’s what my talented instructor in my NIA dance/exercise class is trying to get us to do.
After listening to the report, and then reading it, I started trying to use the approach in the hedge trimming project I was working on. In my very non-scientific, sample of one trial, I think I had much less back ache after cutting and picking up some 15 garden cart loads of branches.
My interpretation
The method, as I interpret it is when you need to pick up something in front of you:
- Consciously think of your hips as a hinge, and your back as a plank.
- Bend at the hip hinge.
- If that isn’t low enough, bend your my knees, keeping your knees over your ankles.
- That sticks your bottom out, and there you are lifting with a flat back!
Probably, if others are like me with a lifelong history of bending with a curved back and my knees out in front of my feet, it’ll take some practice to make the approach second nature. I’m working on it.