The short answer; yes and no. Twisting of the lumbar spine (the low back) is dangerous and can be quite harmful. The most common and a significant issue can be a disc tear. In order to avoid this, rotation of the mid back or thoracic spine and hips is better for you. Twisting the low back is among the three movements that can cause significant injury to the low back. The others are bending and lifting. Imagine that your disc has two parts. An inner gel and outer onion layer, the outer onion section is made of several layers. That onion layer is made primarily of collagen and can be progressively injured, layer by layer, the more you bend, lift and twist your low back. Once injured, the inner gel can find its way out of the opening and cause some serious pain and disability.
So, does this mean that we should all stop twisting? Of course this isn’t realistic and quit frankly impossible, since vacuuming and even walking has a twisting component in it. Also think of all the athletes that twist including tennis players, golfers, hockey and baseball players. These athletes have been putting a significant amount of force through rotation after rotation for their entire career. The only difference is that they learned how to rotate more efficiently. This means stop twisting the low back and learn to use your hips and midback. You need to learn to stop moving the low back and stiffen it up.
What You Need Know About Rotating the Back
- The midback, or thoracic spine is where you can find most of the rotation in he back, not the low back. This means you should be trying to move at the chest level, not the lower back. Many people with neck and shoulder pain will compensate and rotate the low back because their mid back is too restricted and rotating from the mid back causes too much pain.
- You must loosen up your hips. If your hips are tight you will be unable to rotate and, again will risk rotating the low back. It’s interesting that both areas above and below the low back provide the greatest amount of rotation, and these are the areas that are consistently tight and painful. Sitting and poor training are huge contributing factors.
- Timing and muscle coordination is very important. The average person has enough strength to rotate their body with significant enough force. The component that is lacking is coordinating the different parts of your body to move the most efficiently and to produce the most force. For example, I could pitch a baseball. Maybe not accurately, but I’m sure I could get a few across the plate. A professional pitcher, who has trained this specific movement and coordination of the muscles, can pitch a baseball far more accurately and with more speed and power because they have harnessed all of that energy. They have trained to coordinate their body for that specific movement. Conversely, everyone has done the same with any rotation movement. Over the years your body has found a way to rotate. It may not be the most efficient, or provides the most power, but it has worked for you to this point. This does not mean that there is no room for improvement. Most people who experience pain when rotating have been moving inefficiently for a long time. The pain just decided to manifest recently.
- If you are rotating for exercise or attempting to produce significant power, make sure you are standing. Your legs are the most powerful group of muscles and generate the most force. If you sit, you immediately limit your power output. Again, using a baseball pitcher as an example, 50% of the power generated comes from the waist down. By raising the leg, taking a step forward and rotating the hips, they begin transmitting force towards their arm. More importantly, by standing, you are more likely to maintain better posture in the spine and apply more compressive force through it, reducing the chance of injury.
