When I say that modern society is a grand conspiracy to ruin your posture and your spine?
Well, how about this medieval torture device?
Recognize it? Yes, no, maybe so? Here’s more.
Now, in my yoga for posture posts, I’ve given you exercises that do pretty much what the back extension part is doing. I’ve also stressed (firmly stressed) the need for you to first
- program yourself for healthy spine movement
- master the basic exercises
- use the basic exercises to strengthen your back for long enough to ensure that it can perform the advanced, harder exercises without pain or injury
Further, the exercises are floor based, so you CAN NOT move through as great a range as on this piece of crap.
In addition, I’ve told you, somewhere or other, sometime or other, to never, ever, EVER do another sit up or crunch. For core strength I gave you dead bug and plank (and eventually advanced modifications for them) but I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating:
Never do another sit up or crunch
Why?
Lumbar spinal flexion. We live in a state of lumbar spinal flexion, which is simply the bending of the lower back in the opposite of its natural curve. We slouch over our meals, we hunch over the steering wheel, we slump over our desks at work…
This is unhealthy enough when we are only applying a static load (such as when we are sitting, which we do 16 hours a day), but a sit up or crunch? Then the reversed bending of your low back is being done dynamically, exponentially increasing the load on your poor, abused lumbar spines and discs. In short, doing sit ups and crunches will ruin your low back.
So, to return to the above pictures, where did I take them? You can see the snow on the ground around the fool thing, so it’s outside.
Outside, where?
On the playground of a public library/high school. Yes, for some reason, the local school board and city decided to put a public library in the same building as a high school. Weird, I know, but there you have it.
Anyway, this infernal sculpture of evil, this spine wrecking device, is placed on a playground where anyone from 5 to 105 has access to it. Anyone with:
- Poor posture
- Weak back muscles
- Untrained back muscles
- A public school education where they teach and test you on sit ups
Now do you think I’m being hyperbolic when I say modern society is a grand conspiracy to ruin your back?
