Beyond Limits Fitness

Back health is an essential component to composite musculoskeletal fitness. Proper core and back training is essential to keep the body healthy because lower back pain can be both an ailment and a disability. It negatively effects the working population and can decrease life quality. Weakened ligaments, tendons, muscles surrounding the spine, pinched or swollen intervertebral disks, larger waist circumference and low levels of physical activity are factors of poor low back health. Risk factors associated with low back pain are heavy lifting, siting or driving for long periods, poor posture, being overweight or obese, as well as psychological stress and physical inactivity. Flexibility, proper posture, abdominal and back muscle strength, and endurance will improve low back health. Screening is important prior to exercise; the participant must be able to demonstrate complete individual leg extensions with and without the opposite arm raised. If there is any discomfort, exercise should be stopped immediately. Flexibility is an important first step to back health. Good flexibility incorporates a full range of motion; decreased flexibility causes unnecessary stress to the surrounding ligaments. The CPAFLA uses the sit and reach protocol to measure low back and hamstring flexibility. Posture tests are hard to define however they are used to determine any deviations from normal body alignment. Corrective exercises may be prescribed to help. Abdominal muscle and back extension endurance are both crucial areas to improve back strength and stability. Abdominal endurance is measured through the partial curl up test. Low back strength is measured via back extension. The individual will lie face down with their iliac crest on the edge of a table with a partner holding their legs down. The individual will hold their body weight, keeping their torso in a straight line parallel to the the floor. The individual will hold the extension until fatigue with a maximum extension being 180 seconds.

Many factors affect low back pain. A greater waist circumference will negatively affect low back pain, especially in females. Low physical activity also increases prevalence in low back pain. The five parameters physical activity participation, waist circumference, sit and reach, partial curl-ups and back extension are measured on an 8 point scale and combined to assess composite back fitness.

Back Fitness Assessment:

Composite Back Fitness Rating: Very Good

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