The correct posture of bending over

As we know, bending is first initiated by the backward movement of pelvis and the flexion of hip joint, which enable the body to balance.

ideally, when the hip joint starts to bend, the lumbar spine also starts to bend forward slightly. However, there are many normal changes in this movement pattern, especially related to gender: men tend to bend more lumbar vertebrae, while women tend to bend more hips (this is mainly due to the different angles of lumbar pelvis between men and women. Even so, normal lumbar movements should not account for more than 5% of the total bending range).

Next, in order to make the body bend forward further, the curvature of the lumbar spine will continue to decrease until it is flattened. After this lumbar movement begins, the hip joint will continue to bend until the body reaches the limit of flexion.

In an ideal state, the body arrangement at this stage should keep the body balanced on both feet, with the knee passively extending backward, while the ankle, knee and hip should not move backward too much, and the hip should be bent to about 7 ~ 8 degrees. The lumbar spine is flat, while the thoracic spine will form an extended, smooth and gentle arc.

four common wrong bending modes

in clinic, we can find that many people can't do the above correct bending. The following four common problems may occur:

1) Lower thoracic vertebra bends and the hip moves backward < P > When people with limited hip flexion bend, the lower thoracic vertebra bends and the hip moves backward. This phenomenon may occur in people who have a longer trunk than their lower limbs.

2) The lumbar vertebrae are flat and the thoracic vertebrae are excessively bent

If the flexion range of the hip joint is normal (7-8 degrees) with a flat lumbar vertebrae, but there are too many thoracic vertebrae bends, this phenomenon indicates that there is something wrong with the spinal segmental mobility of the subject.

3) Excessive backward movement of ankle, knee joint and hip joint

If the flexion of hip joint and spine is limited, it will be accompanied by excessive backward movement of ankle, knee joint and hip joint. This phenomenon may appear in subjects with limited spinal mobility, too tight or too short calf muscles.

4) excessive lumbar flexion

if the subject is found to have excessive lumbar flexion when bending over, the subject may have a flat back.

△ Under normal circumstances, the lumbar forward bending angle will not exceed 5 degrees. When a forward bending action is made from a normal lordosis posture, the initial 25-35 degrees will bring the lumbar back to a central position, so the body forward bending action will only allow lumbar bending with a range of about 15-2 degrees. When a subject with a flat back bends forward from the middle position of the lumbar spine, it may cause the lumbar spine to bend beyond the safe anatomical range, and then cause damage to the ligaments and soft tissues supporting the spine.