The old advice was a flat list of ‘movements to avoid’. The current BoneFit guidance is more nuanced and more useful: it’s about limiting certain loaded patterns, not living in fear of your own body.
Limit these spinal loads
Be cautious with spinal flexion (forward bending), rotation (twisting) and side-bending when they are also repeated/sustained, weighted, at end-range, rapid/forceful, or combined. It’s the combination of bending and load that threatens a fragile vertebra.
- Don’t round-and-lift — hinge at the hips with a flat back instead
- Reduce the cumulative slouching and twisting of daily life and work
- Take care lowering a heavy object down from overhead
- For the hip: avoid forced, end-range rotation, and follow any post-surgery limits
The single most protective skill is the hip hinge: bending from the hips while the spine stays neutral. Master it and you make every daily lift — groceries, laundry, grandchildren — safer.
What we encourage
Extension is your friend. Strengthening the muscles that hold you tall — the spinal extensors — improves posture and reduces back pain. That’s why the Foundation track is full of gentle extension work, and why every loaded lift in Bone Builder is coached to a neutral spine.