Take a look at the exercise above. What do you see? I’ll make it easy…what you are seeing is a soon-to-be low back injury.
It looks like a fit guy doing what is classically called a ‘Superman’. Well, we all know the man of steel is invincible. But, we are not. In fact, our kryptonite is the low back injury that is going to occur when we extend the spine like this. In fact, studies show that this exercise can create about 6000 Newtons of energy into our low back.
Superman will not break…we will. Just so you now, 1 Newton equals about .225 pounds of force. So, if we multiple 6000 x .225, we get 1350 pounds of pressure in the low back. Do you think your facet joints, ligaments, and discs are made to take this type of pressure? Well, this is NOT what you want to do. I’ve heard far too many people over the years saying they love the ‘burn’ in their low back that they feel when performing this exercise. Well, guess what? That burn is severely damaging your back. Don’t Be a Meathead!