The Lumbar Extension Machine Debate: Spare the Spine or Strengthen It?
Few disagreements in strength and rehabilitation have been as durable as the one over the low back. On one side is the view, associated with Stuart McGill, that the lumbar spine has a finite tolerance for bending and loading, that repeated flexion under load is how discs fail, and that the job of training is to build endurance and stiffness so the spine is spared. On the other is the position, associated with Brian Nelson and the isolated lumbar extension tradition, that the lumbar extensors are muscles like any other, that they weaken and decondition in people with back pain, and that isolating them with pelvic stabilisation and loading them progressively is the treatment. Both camps cite science. The question is what the trials say.
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