jefferson curls bad for your lower back?

Hi there. I am just wondering if the jefferson curls are bad for your lower back (long term).

It's the exact same motion how you should not lift things from the ground (round back straight legs).

I really like this mobility element but the form police in my gym was complaining/ trash talking.

Yeah I kind of deal with the same form police too. My thoughts:

The movement puts 'lots' of pressure on the spine, so any individual should activate the needed muscles to support the spine to begin with. Note also that the hips should stay tucked under as long as possible, this helps to support as well. Not sure, but curling one vertebrae at a time helps spread the load on the spine?

And by activating all of the (antagonist) muscles needed hips/core/legs, you will develop the (active) flexibility that is needed in a pike.

Basically, if you don't perform this with the right form and cues, which no one outside GB does, you will suffer. And die dramatically when trying to pick up a stuffed animal off the floor  

Check youtube these days...police brutality is on the rise.

The same movement that can hurt you, can make you strong too.

Variables are progression, body awareness, movement technique and load.

In the first place, pick up something HEAVY on the ground can hurt you if you're not prepared to do it, and most of the times that's the case, because is something HEAVY.

Besides, it's not the same motion than Jefferson Curls. When you pickup something heavy from the ground with a round back, you PULL it with intensity because it's heavy, you put lot of pressure on your discs that of course it's not prepared to do it with that load. The key here is LOAD. When you do jefferson curls you lift gradually one vertebrae at the time with awareness of your spine... is another thing.

Load that you can't manage, injury. Load that you can manage, progression to be strong.

Because of that, jefferson curls at the beginning are done with light weight , and with time, more weight can be added (I think the ideal would be full BW) when your back it will ready.

I have a lot of eyes on my back when I do jefferson curls, works mates, users, etc... and most of the times what I do seems crazy to them, but the funny thing is I have the strongest and and the most flexible back on the gym by far.

the excercise is not bad itself but if you go to heavy or without proper form yes it is bad. And that go for all excercises.

You can begin with a very little weight and slowly increase. I read somewhere in the forum that people do this with half bodyweight and more.

I dont think you should worry about what people think and say about your training. you follow a program from an elite coach that have much more knowledge than a typical gym rat or personal trainer

Be judicious in raising the load with awareness of your back and be focused in what you are doing. I think that a lot of times when people injure their backs it's because they weren't fully concentrated in what they where doing (a lot of people injure their back on warmup weights more than their work sets, not to mention outside the gym when picking up stuff).

Be conservative in the weight you are using as it's an iM element not a strength element.

Otherwise for a healthy back it's a fine exercise to improve pike position.

Badi said:

I really like this mobility element but the form police in my gym was complaining/ trash talking.

Yet another reason to stop going to gyms that aren't gymnastic/crossfit based. Too many charlatans.