Stop doing this exercise or you may injure

As one of the big baseball fans, I can’t wait to see the upcoming WBC (world baseball classic).   The Japanese team would have one of the  strongest teams in our history.  Not only Darvish and Otani decided to join the team, but also Yoshinobu Yamamoto is my favorite pitcher.   I really want to see how well he can pitch against other teams.



Lat Pulldown

Working on the back muscles is my favorite and many of us should do it since we often tend to sit, then slouch.  Working on the back muscles may make your posture better.

In order to train your back muscles, I think lat pulldown is one of the best choices if you do it properly. 


Behind the Head

lat pulldown mistake

The key to do resistance training safely is to keep your spine neutral.  This is not only the lumbar spine, but also your cervical spine.  Therefore, doing lat pulldown behind the head puts your neck into a flexed position and can harm the cervical vertebrae.  If you pull the bar too much, and hit the vertebrae, this is even worse.

Cervical spine

Lumbar spine



Swinging

lat pulldown mistake

If you want to get the full benefit by doing lat pulldown, stop swinging your torso unless you have a sports specific reason to do so.

But if you are swinging while doing lat pulldown, it makes it less effective to work on target muscles.  In addition to that, you may not be able to keep the lumbar spine into the neutral position with swinging movement that can potentially damage your lumbar vertebrae.


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