
Lost Art of Bending Over: How Other Cultures Spare Their Spines - happy-go-lucky
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/587735283/lost-art-of-bending-over-how-other-cultures-spare-their-spines
======
andrewla
The strangest thing about this is that children know this without any input,
and then go bad. I've watched my older son (now 5) go from having a perfect
squat and hip hinge to starting to bend over "like an adult" with the arched
back.

There must be some reason that everyone, to some good approximation -- I'm in
the US and this is what I see, does this the wrong way. Even people who know
better seem to require conscious effort to do the motion correctly, myself
included.

Maybe it's because squatting and hip hinging are thing that require that you
work into the position, rather than "falling" into it. It is strange that it
follows cultural lines; possibly it's just imitating what people around you
are doing, so fixing this would require some pretty large-scale brainwashing.

~~~
hinkley
I've been doing taichi for about 5 years. In addition to changing how I bend
(for the better), about a year in I was in the process of renovating my gait a
second time. As a person who always gets asked to 'slow down' it was a weird
experience to have to ask others to do the same. Unfortunately for them now I
walk faster than ever.

I came to this from a world of leg and back pain. It hasn't fixed everything
but I can do almost 5 times as much without tipping over into chronic joint
pain.

The quickest things I can relate to people that I learned from this time: 1)
Never lock your joints. 2) "Lift with your knees not your back" is the wrong
advice. Lifting "with your knees" is loading your quads. That and joint
locking put all of the stress on the parts of your knee (cartilage especially)
that are already overworked in the western posture.

The correct advice is "Lift with your legs", which takes longer to explain but
the Cliff's Notes version is that your legs are 3 joints and lifting with your
knees is only using one set of muscles and essentially locking the rest. The
right way to lift is to engage your calves, your ass, and your hams.

There's a great saying I heard somewhere about the Problem with Western
Posture being that we try to use our hips as a hinge joint and our knees as a
ball joint. There are a lot of tight muscles in the hips and upper thighs that
have to unclench to get there, and you literally feel like you're falling over
while you try to sort that out. But man if you do, I've avoided half a dozen
spills that should have put me in the doctor's office and one that would have
sent me to rehab for torn ankle ligaments for sure.

The downside of this experience has been that I have to fight an urge to
analyze everyone else's posture. I end up staring at people if I'm not paying
attention. I probably look like a creep. And some people make me feel
sympathetic joint pain. The number of people with fallen arches is crazy.

~~~
pault
I've had fallen arches since I was a kid. Is there something I can do to fix
it? There was a point where I was doing a lot of barefoot running on the beach
and being extra careful to focus on my ankle and foot posture, and I think it
helped, but as soon as I stopped running every day I reverted to my old
posture (ankles rotated slightly outwards, feet as flat as a board).

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
There is nothing "wrong" with a low arch. It's just a different genetic
adaptation. Don't believe the hype that there is something wrong with your
foot that needs attention and dollars to fix.

~~~
emodendroket
My flat feet made me walk splayfooted, which then eventually started giving me
knee troubles when I began to walk a lot. I find it a little puzzling to read
these kind of takes, testimonials for Five Fingers shoes, etc. If nature could
fix everything with no intervention we wouldn't need to brush our teeth
either.

~~~
linopolus
> If nature could fix everything with no intervention we wouldn't need to
> brush our teeth either.

Well, I'm not saying nature actually can fix everything, but in case of
toothbrushing, it's dependent on your diet. There are peoples knowing nothing
of brushing, but they feeding themselves different than we "civilized" people
are.

~~~
emodendroket
Walking primarily on paved sidewalks isn't really natural either.

Apparently even cavemen did make some effort to clean their teeth (and
according to this article, monkeys still do):
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2016/12/19/a-researcher-discovered-how-cave-men-cleaned-their-
teeth-it-will-make-you-want-to-brush-yours/?utm_term=.18c884f1c8ba)

------
kelukelugames
Has anyone heard of the third world squat?

It's a joke from weightlifting forums but also has some truthful parts.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=third+world+squat&oq=third+w...](https://www.google.com/search?q=third+world+squat&oq=third+world+s&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.2466j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

~~~
komali2
I for the life of me cannot do this squat. I've explored all sorts of
stretches, yoga, etc. It's the most limiting factor in my weightlifting.

I've gotten to the point where I will hover at the squat rack, spot someone
doing an ass to grass, and interrogate them how they got there. Nothing I've
learned has worked. I just fall backwards, _every time_.

~~~
hoorayimhelping
> _I just fall backwards, every time._

Without knowing anything, I'd say check your back angle - it's probably too
vertical. If you're falling backwards, point your nipples at the floor.

[https://youtu.be/QhVC_AnZYYM?t=427](https://youtu.be/QhVC_AnZYYM?t=427)

But really, just find a weightlifting coach and spend some money to get some
coaching sessions. They can fix this stuff in minutes.

~~~
ptest1
And if you find the vertical back angle more natural, you should try high bar
squatting. With high bar you will also benefit from having your heels slightly
raised with a plate under your heel or weightlifting shoes.

------
40acres
Anyone who's performed a deadlift knows the hip hinge. I recently was testing
my one rep max and due to fatigue my back arched instead of doing a proper hip
hinge. The pain stayed with me for days and was pretty agonizing. This was
about 5-6 weeks ago. Since then I've been deadlifting perfectly w/o pain.

~~~
navidfarhadi
I no longer perform the conventional deadlift as a part of my routine (due to
several injuries) but I completely agree with this. In my opinion the best
ways to learn how to hip hinge are the deadlift and kettlebell swing.

I've recently switched to the RDL (Romanian Deadlift) with significantly
reduced weight and higher reps and I personally prefer it for my lower back
and hamstring training. The conventional deadlift is a great movement though
if you can perform it correctly.

~~~
40acres
I also recently incorporated RDL's into my routine. Mainly to hit the
hamstrings with more weight as the hamstring curl machine has a pretty low max
weight and in general is annoying to perform.

I was just recently thinking that the deadlift is probably the lift I enjoy
the most. There is a rawness to it that just makes it so satisfying. Also it's
usually the lift where you can lift the most so that adds an extra touch.

The deadlift is killing my hands though. My callouses are starting to become a
bother and my hands are pretty raw for any other lifts later in my session.

~~~
oostevo
// I'm making the assumption here that you're _relatively_ new to strength
sports. If I've misjudged that, sorry!

> My callouses are starting to become a bother and my hands are pretty raw for
> any other lifts later in my session.

Calluses hurting late into your training session but not the beginning is
typically a sign that you're not taking very good care of the skin on your
hands.

Donny Shankle, a very accomplished weightlifter, has a really good video on
hand care here[1]. It's sport specific for weightlifting, but it applies
pretty well to strength training in general.

In addition to what he says, I've had really good success with a combination
of a corn/callus shaver[2] and a dremel tool. The goal is to take the peaks
off the calluses such that they're more or less flat to the rest of your
hands. My typical routine for palm callus care, performed every few days, is
to shower so that my skin is relatively soft, shave off any parts of the
calluses on my palm that are protruding above the plane of the rest of my
palms, and then smooth it out with the dremel's grinder tip set to low speed.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otorSGl3sG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otorSGl3sG0)

[2]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CYC4BG](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CYC4BG)

------
rebuilder
I find most trousers make it hard to do this. Maybe it was better before the
current low-waist style took over, but the way my trousers or jeans tend to
fit, there's insufficient space in the back of the leg, in the thigh region to
allow for proper hip flexion.

~~~
reneherse
Finding a good fit is easier said than done for probably most of us.
Fortunately there are also new stretchy fabrics (including wool and denim)
that give wonderful range of motion even when tightly fitted, or (in an
unlucky situation) ill fitted. For example, you can find men’s slim fit jeans
that look normal yet are flexible enough for even yoga or rock climbing.

Now that I found a brand that fits my build and uses this type of fabric,
regular, non-stretch denim feels so constricting I avoid it entirely (and
without, ahem, having to resort to men’s yoga pants).

~~~
bastih
Which brand would that be?

~~~
whyaduck
Some Levis have stretch fabric - I buy 514s, there may be others. Make sure
that the label calls out the stretch material.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
Thought that was an unfortunate typo - I wear the 541 Athletic Fit Stretch
jeans, and remember the 514 as the old, constricting straight fit. But
apparently they're making 514s on stretch now, too.

~~~
scruple
I rock the stretch 511's as my daily wear these days. I have large calves and
thighs and while the fabric does rub it also gives me my full range of motion.
I wouldn't want to work out in these things, but I probably could if I had to.

------
throw7
The kettlebell swing is a great way to train/fix your hip hinge. Squatting is
also another movement/position we in the west have seemingly lost the ability
to do well.

~~~
ivanche
If I could, I would upvote this 100 times! I can only confirm that, after
spending a year or so trying to perfect swings, front squats and low-bar back
squats, I felt my posture, strength and fitness were as never before. At the
age of 38.

~~~
sundvor
Yep. Properly squatting and deadlifting fixed my back for me too.

------
Fifer82
Just for other would be developers who are too young to know.

Don't use a bad seat for 15 years and don't sit funny and not for long
periods. Also find ways to stretch your leg muscles from the calf up every
couple of days (A good 30 mins). Almost every time I had a major back outage
stemmed from my left leg muscles which pull on your lower back when tight.

A great invention would be a seat/table which started at 0 degrees and over
the course of the day moves to 45 degree recline so that weight is constantly
redistributed to different parts of the skeleton.

~~~
jefflombardjr
What about a standing desk or walking desk?

~~~
NittLion78
I think standing desks are great. I usually use mine for about half the day
and adjust it to a seated position for the rest of the day.

I will say, though, that while standing or sitting, your posture will dictate
how well that time is spent - it's pretty easy to mess up either one. If you
stand with your shoulders back and the weight evenly distributed on your hips
and back, it should be possible to stand for many hours at a time. If you sit,
making sure you sit up straight and keep your spine curved naturally and
making sure you get up a few times to keep your circulation going in your
extremities, you should reduce most of sitting's bad effects.

------
ekidd
> _And the hip hinging is sprinkled throughout sports. Weightlifters use it
> when they do what 's called a deadlift._

Now, I'm by no means an expert, but I can confirm this. Powerlifters generally
try to perform deadlifts with a "neutral" spine. This doesn't exactly mean
"straight"—you can consult a good coach for details—but it's pretty close.
Here's a pretty typical demonstration which is good enough to visualize it,
though other coaches may differ in the details:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AObAU-
EcYE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AObAU-EcYE)

As I understand it, the idea is to distribute the weight evenly around the
spinal disc, and to avoid putting too much pressure on the front edge of the
disc by curving the spine forward.

A similar effect can be achieved by keeping the back closer to upright and
lifting with the legs, as seen in several squat variations.

Of course, the other things that _may_ help are having enough muscle and not
carrying too much abdominal weight. Anecdotally, weak spinal stabilizer
muscles seem to contribute to some people's back pain.

~~~
mancerayder
Yeah, although neutral to flexion is fine for a lower back for a squat or a
deadlift. In fact, with a heavy weight, good luck NOT flexing your lower back
on a deadlift or at the bottom of a squat.

The 'upright' squat you described is an Olympic lift variation - called
highbar squat. I was going to send a link over but I hesitate to toss a random
article or video (some of which are crap). But it's probably easy to watch an
Olympic lift video from the olympics, as that's the cream of the crop.

A squat positioning with more of a hip hingeing is more of a Powerlifting
squat. I can definitely recommend Rippetoe's explanations here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVC_AnZYYM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhVC_AnZYYM)
even though I myself do high-bar.

As you can see (especially as explained in the video), the bar positioning
plays a role in how upright your back is as you squat (since you mentioned
that aspect). It's because of the center of gravity and the straight-path of
the bar. It's obvious if you see an illustration of the bar path and these
positions.

However, a 'neutral' back, I don't know, I'd call it more of a flexed back
(which may be neutral under load). A neutral back might be more of a
gymnastics-specific thing.

Regardless, core strength (meaning lower back, abs and obliques, among other
things) is VERY important here.

~~~
bhandziuk
Neutral is not implying unflexed or unengaged. It's just the position. You'd
better be tight as hell through your whole squat/DL though.

------
newnewpdro
I basically stopped using furniture altogether years ago because it became
apparent how it was interfering with the natural preservation of my ability to
bend over and get down and up from the floor without effort.

Observe your average older person who lives a life employing furniture pick
something up off the floor, or pick themselves off the floor. It's not
uncommon for them to need assistance in the latter case!

If they had no furniture all their life, unless they were injured, they
wouldn't have these problems because they couldn't possibly go through life
without being able to get off the floor regularly having no furniture around.

It's also proven to encourage me to move more throughout the day, as well as
stretch more. The floor is spacious, it's luxurious, and unstructured. It
invites me to move around, stretch, and reconfigure myself when one position
gets stale or something is going numb.

Furniture is structured, it's almost like bondage. You must sit in this chair
design this way, your back must be up at this angle, your legs go here. It's
totally unnatural and honestly seems like an awful compromise in part to
increase density, and perhaps project wealth over those who live in furniture-
less, largely empty rooms, or maybe it's just good business to sell furniture
to everyone. And in the process it's preventing you from having to bring
yourself to the floor and back up to standing height dozens of times every
day.

There were some studies I read about geographic regions with the largest
concentrations of the oldest living people. I don't have the link handy, but
one of the things they observed was an exceptional number of these places
didn't use furniture. They noted how the lack of furniture naturally kept the
people limber into old age.

I love sitting on the floor now. It's become incredibly uncomfortable and
simply annoying for me to sit on furniture. When I'm with my peers, and I'm
not even that old - if we all end up sitting on the floor somewhere, I'm
shocked at how visible the difference is already. Many adults are not able to
be comfortable on the floor becuase they don't have the necessary flexibility
for the variety of floor positions that would otherwise be available to them.
It's because they stopped spending time on the floor after childhood, because
in the west successful adults use furniture. You want to be successful, don't
you?

~~~
Toast_25
That's a good idea! How do you use your computer/laptop? What about eating?
And how long did it take for you to get used to not having furniture?

~~~
newnewpdro
I don't know, it's all the obvious techniques you'd imagine in lieu of
furniture. Whatever is comfortable and practical. The orientations vary,
constantly, that's part of the value. When one position becomes tiresome, a
reconfiguration occurs.

I'm not a good person to ask about time to adapt, I stopped sleeping in beds
as a teen opting for the floor. So I was already pretty well acclimated by the
time I decided to get rid of the rest.

------
mabbo
Physiotherapists have given me a variety of reasons why, but I basically can't
bend over in the way they are suggesting.

> "Oh yes! In order to hip hinge properly, your hamstrings to have to
> lengthen," Shapiro says. "If you have tight hamstrings, they prevent you
> from bending over easily in that way."

My hamstrings are incredibly tight and exercise and daily stretching haven't
helped. The problem is my entire biomechanics are wonky. I barely use my abs,
instead putting the load they would usually do onto my hamstrings, tightening
them.

The only solution is for me to get a specialist therapist and retrain myself
on how to move, walk, run, etc. I work a traveling job, so that's basically
not possible right now. On the bright side, I look totally normal in my
movements.

~~~
mikekchar
I need to get to bed, so I'll save you my (continuing) story of retraining my
body to move. But this is from the mystical days of old when FAQs on Usenet
contained magical information:
[https://archive.org/stream/Stretching_and_Flexibility_Brad_A...](https://archive.org/stream/Stretching_and_Flexibility_Brad_Appleton/Stretching_and_Flexibility_Brad_Appleton_djvu.txt)
Hope it helps you!

------
fouc
We need to bring back squat toilets into western society. Get rid of the
sitting toilets. Then we'll end up with strong legs and be more likely to hip
hinge properly. Also less hemorrhoids.

~~~
supergetting
I've been on those toilets before at street-side filthy restrooms in hot &
humid summer days, uncleaned vomit and splattered excrements of drunk people
from the night before. It's the worst when you're feeling sick yourself from
too much drink, and you have to squat for 30 minutes. You sweat like a pig and
swim in a urine-covered floor; it's a full work-out session every time you go
into a bathroom like that.

------
krupan
Learning to hip hinge saved my life! OK, the back pain itself wouldn't have
killed me, but I think associated depression might have. I first learned it
from Foundation Training:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/DoAFounder](https://www.youtube.com/user/DoAFounder)

Like the article says, learning to properly squat and deadlift really helps
too

------
loorinm
I haven’t seen anyone posit a theory as to why Western people bend this way,
so I’ll go:

Extreme sex and body shame.

We receive, from a young age, shame about exposing - even with clothing on -
“sexual” parts of the body - breasts, butt, and crotch.

Women are strongly motivated to tuck in the backside because it is both shamed
and unsafe in our society to stick out our butts. This is why women squat to
tie their shoes in public. Rape, assault, catcalling, is so prevalent and a
constant awareness for women in public. This pose would also be considered
“unprofessional” in a workplace.

Men are discouraged as well, lest they incur the worst male insult in our
society : “gay”. Men are shamed and called gay from childhood if they take
this hip-hinge pose. So they stop.

Bending at the waist exposes the vulnerable backside in a way that is unsafe
in historically Puritanical Western society.

~~~
jeffdavis
It seems like you are reaching pretty far for a social explanation. It seems
more reasonable to start with lifestyle and work style. Maybe lots of sitting
and standing are to blame? Maybe something about industrialization or
household conveniences (washing machine, etc.)?

I suppose there are some social factors, but I would assume they are secondary
unless I see evidence otherwise.

~~~
loorinm
I don't think I'm reaching. Read the comments below, about the fact that
children learn this spine-bend posture early on, way before any sedentary
lifestyle. I'm pretty sure 3-year-olds aren't using washing machines either.

I'm speaking from firsthand personal experience, and overwhelming experience
seeing others go through the same cultural conditioning I described in my
post.

~~~
jeffdavis
How is 3 years old "way before any sedentary lifestyle"? I consider my family
moderately active, but my 3 year old is certainly familiar with the couch. In
more agrarian societies, there are probably a lot fewer opportunities to sit
somewhere comfortably.

And did you consider agrarian but sexually-conservative regions (maybe India
or the Middle East?), or developed but sexually-liberal regions (maybe
Mediterranean?), to see if those line up with your theory?

------
robaato
For related explanations: Esther Gokhale worth looking up, and also Kelly
Starrett - lots of videos

~~~
NittLion78
Esther Gokhale's book "8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back" saved my back. I basically
learned that I was sitting like an idiot for hours at a time, and walking in a
manner that did not distribute my weight efficiently on my back.

I went from hand-wringing over my ability to keep backpacking and playing
sports at 40 to wondering when or if I'll ever have to pack it in.

------
tiredwired
I blame it on school PE classes where they make you touch your toes
repeatedly. They act like there is something wrong with you if you are not
flexible that way.

------
dragontamer
Reading this article just makes me ask... Do people deadlift?

[https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/how-to-deadlift-
beginners-g...](https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/how-to-deadlift-beginners-
guide.html)

I'm not a very strong person. But Deadlifts are part of my routine. Again, not
for athletic purposes of anything, but "Practicing to pick things up" is
basically a Deadlift.

And every day, we bend over to pickup small objects, and occasionally, we bend
over to pick up heavier objects (ie: Grocery shopping: Picking up bags off the
floor or whatever). So the deadlift is the most straightforward way to do this
maneuver.

I mean, its no Olympic level "Snatch" or whatever. But the basic deadlift has
to be one of the more "practical" weightlifting moves to routinely practice.
Its also an overall good, full body exercise.

Doing the deadlift improperly can result in bad muscle strain and maybe even
injury... but that's what makes practicing to do it properly even more
important.

------
b0rsuk
This is nothing new if you have bad back, like me. Pain can be a good teacher
when it comes to proper form. As a bonus, I have a runner's knee, so my wall-
facing squats are damn near perfect. I'm perfecting my technique, and nowadays
I'm doing my squats _by ear_. I know my squats are perfect when I don't hear
any creaking in my left knee.

As for why we, westerners bend this bad way by default ? It may have something
to do with chairs. Sitting on a chair makes you used to bending over at your
hips, because a chair makes any other bending impossible.

------
te_chris
The jefferson curl is the secret weapon for loosening up hamstrings - be
careful with the weight at first though.

------
rowyourboat
Isn't this just a very long-winded way of saying "lift with your legs, not
with your back"?

~~~
krupan
Some of us really needed the convincing, ok.

In all seriousness though, I had heard that my whole life but never really
knew how to implement it until someone explained it in this way. It's lifting
with your hamstrings and glutes and upper back in reality, not just "legs"

~~~
jackstraw14
I always thought "lifting with your legs" was just hamstrings and glutes, and
it took like 3 months of daily yoga before I realized this all works quite a
bit better if you use your upper back instead of lower back. Then I found out
I have hip muscles, and life has been alright since then.

I don't know how many men age 20-50 that I've seen joke about "lift with your
legs!" and then proceed to laugh as the subject just fumbles around worse than
they would have, because they're not sure what lifting with your legs means
either.

The really bad part about all this, is that without good posture and
defaulting to "cashew-style," you're preventing your lungs from using their
full capacity. Which I think makes people slightly oxygen-deprived, more
sleepy and daydreamy, causing them to sleepily lean forward into their screen
instead of taking a minute or two and finding some good posture.

I don't know how you can fix this either. Most Americans do destroy their
lower back and then spend their rest of their life with a lopsided body,
because they have no idea what good posture is, and it takes a long long time
to actually fix the part of your mind that causes bad posture. You have to be
willing to accept that your entire way of operating your body has been
slightly off, for a really long time.

------
scandox
I thought this was going to be an article about being conciliatory...which I'm
really good at.

~~~
eboyjr
But you might also be really bad at it.

~~~
scandox
I'm definitely open to that possibility

------
ZeroGravitas
I'd recommend one of the featured experts, Stuart McGill's books to people
having back pain. Straightforward practical advice but with an HN-level of
science-based nerdiness behind it. Not the fuzzy woo that you find in many
health related topics.

------
mkagenius
Any idea when a curved back isn’t bad? I mean we have the ability to curve the
back for some reason.. right?

Feels weird to completely make the back stiff forever

~~~
toasterlovin
The real danger with your spine is rotation under load. So, picking up
something heavy, then rotating your torso instead of turning your entire body.

TBH, you probably won't hurt your spine by curling your back. Mostly it's just
a poor way to transmit force between the floor and whatever load you're
carrying. You could hurt the muscles involved in making your back erect,
though.

------
pkaler
+1 for weightlifting. This is basically how you kettlebell swing, snatch,
clean & jerk, and deadlift.

------
magic_beans
It’s called a deadlift.

------
moonbug
Except to anyone who's ever been on an H&S introductory course.

~~~
emeraldd
I'm assuming you mean "Health and Safety" and not one of the many other
meanings for that set of letters. On the other side of the pond, where this
article originated, H&S isn't really a thing. The closest thing we have over
here (and I'm only guessing here) would be OSHA and as a "office worker" I can
say they really haven't been a significant part of the my day to day. Might be
different in a labor oriented profession though.

------
blunte
No, this is simply wrong information. Or rather, this is information provided
to people who are otherwise terribly out of shape.

Look up Jefferson Curls, or j-curls. These are essentially the exact motion
that this article is suggesting is the wrong way to do things.

Now without question, you can do stronger lifts and put less direct stress on
your spine by doing squats to pickup things rather than bends. But full
fitness and flexibility absolutely include bends like the ones this article is
telling you to avoid.

Wherever your weakest muscles and structure are is where you'll first suffer
injury when you try to do something beyond your capability. So if you learn to
squat to pick things up, that's fine; but if you neglect to maintain your
flexibility, especially including spinal, you will get a back injury one way
or another. Rather than bending over to pick something up, it will be turning
over in bed, or coughing while carrying something.

What bothers me about specialist advice is that it is usually focused on one
thing, one specialty. But whether you're talking about human anatomy and
systems or economics or mental health (or many other very complex systems),
you cannot just focus on a narrow set of changes or fixes.

~~~
nkassis
I'm confused by your comment, From my reading you seem to say the article
suggest squatting but from my reading the article is not advocating for
squatting at all. It's advocating for hip hinge where your back remains
straight and your hips rotate using your hamstring to pull. Unlike the j-curl
you mention the back remains straight. Similar to deadlift technique.

~~~
blunte
You're right - I went from hip hinge to squat because that's the natural
progression of how you would adapt your movement in order to pick up something
heavy. The posterior chain is the strongest set of muscles in the body, so the
heaviest lifts will involve a squat (which is both a hip hinge and a leg bend,
butt drop).

I'm not referring to the standing negative squat as in weight lifting, I'm
more referring to the dead life move done by people with longer legs and
shorter torsos/arms. You probably know that there are many variations of dead
life. What I was referring to, which I took the article to basically be
advocating, was a type of bend (lift) that isolated the spine as much as
possible. And I was arguing that use of the spine in a bending, flexing way is
not inherently bad - it's just that typical modern (sedentary) life allows the
core to weaken and reduces flexibility.

Instead of telling people to isolate to avoid injury, we should be telling
people to move more (starting lightly) to increase flexibility - then add
weight to increase strength everywhere.

------
soheil
Why make it about culture/race? Using anecdotal evidence the author is
suggesting there is cultural reasons why this is happening. It’s not too far
fetched to go one step further and make it also about race. I’m surprised
people are ok with semi-racists articles like this perhaps because they come
from NPR? All you have to do is remove one layer to realize the pseudoscience
used in this article is saying some cultures and therefore races behave
physically different than us (although in a good way, but nevertheless)
without any rigid evidence. Yet no one here seems to mind that and not see how
this leads to prejudice and exacerbating that we are different and everyone
else is “others”.

There are people in the US who also bend from the waistline.

~~~
Jemmeh
There ARE physical differences in races though. It's not so major that you
should treat people as more or less than you, but there's nothing wrong with
pointing out that there's different types of people around the world. For
example when studying disease you can see statistically certain diseases are
more common for certain races or sexes.

The article even mentions we still have "bending at the hip" in our culture as
well especially in sports, yoga, and gardening. But we could benefit more than
that.

And posture is cultural in that it varies somewhat depending on where you are.
A military bootcamp would have a culture that promotes a certain posture. Even
between a English tea room and a Japanese tea room there's different rules
about posture. Then you can also even consider the fashions in an area. For
example people who wear heels a lot (even a small heel) vs someone who is
constantly wearing flip flops will have a very different squat. People who
wear heels a lot will have a harder time doing a squat while keeping their
heels down due to a shortening of the muscle on the back of their leg.

