Someone commented on another list that one should not worry about rounding of
the back during deadlifting. He considered that to be "proper form" and
added that "if they're rounding it, then they're probably not using it a
whole lot."
My comments:
*** Rounding the back hardly is "proper form". The way in which you have
worded that comment makes it appear as if one *should* round the lumbar spine
during deadlifting, which is not the wisest advice, especially if accompanied
by some spinal rotation. While it generally is almost inevitable that the
lumbar concavity will diminish to some degree during any very heavy lifting
from the floor, there is a major difference between deliberately rounding the
lumbar spine and rounding or flattening taking place as a natural consequence
of mechanical loading.
Moreover, the visual appearance of rounding also can have far more to do with
the bulging of the back muscles than with rounding of the spinal column. One
cannot judge the degree of spinal rounding by simple visual observation -
this may only be done accurately by use of X-ray or CAT scans.
However, whatever you do, it still constitutes sensible advice not to relax
the spine to any noticeable extent during any form of lifting from the floor,
but to make a concerted attempt to produce optimal force to keep your lumbar
spine in the position which enables you to lift the heaviest possible load
with minimal stress to the lumbar discs. Moreover, true flexing of the
lumbar spine tends to move the centre of mass of the bar-body system and the
trajectory of the load further from the body, which lowers the efficiency of
lifting.
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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