In society, particularly within the health and wellness space, we are constantly taught that moderation is key — that excessive amounts of anything can be harmful. Processed meats, alcohol, refined carbohydrates, even chia seeds!

But when it comes to lower back extension, it seems like people just can’t get enough of it. The word excessive doesn’t even begin to describe it.

It’s like… “I’m arching hard through my lower back when I work, walk, run, stand up, lie down, or even shower. I know — I’ll go to the gym and arch it even harder for the entire session, while lifting heavy weights.”

It’s madness.

Let’s break this down.

Next time you’re in the gym, at an exercise class, or scrolling through fitness content on Instagram — just observe how people arch through their lower back.

  • Chest pressing

  • Shoulder pressing

  • Rowing

  • Squatting

  • Lunging

You name it.

This isn’t the natural lordotic curvature of the spine. This is someone with little to virtually zero hip extension, arching through their lower back in a desperate attempt to produce force.

What is zero degrees of hip extension?

The vast majority of humans do not possess zero degrees of hip extension. Zero degrees is very easy to understand — it’s simply the leg angle of a human when they are standing or lying flat on their back (corpse pose).

If you lie down on your back, legs extended, and your lower back is arching off the floor — you’ve run out of hip extension. You’re now compensating by anteriorly orienting (dumping as a unit) the pelvis, while arching through the lower back.

The same applies if you stand up and there are:

  • Creases in your t-shirt around the lower back

  • A visible lower back arch

  • Hyperextended knees

Hip extension is force production — not just a joint movement.

It’s a joint movement through the entire chain that allows us to produce force into the ground. It requires the space between the sacrum and sit bone to open.

It’s associated with muscles such as the:

  • VMO

  • Anterior glute med

  • Glute max

  • Medial hamstrings

(All those muscles that may have been labelled “weak”. They’re not weak — ha ha — but that’s another discussion.)

So, if most humans have very limited hip extension, it’s fair to say that the majority of their daily lives are spent in extension.

This makes muscles:

  • Very concentric and squeezed

  • Restricts blood flow and nutrients to key structures like spinal discs

Ever wondered how your recurring bulged or herniated discs began?

It was blood flow restriction caused by repetitive lower back extension (lack of internal rotation/hip extension).

So it makes little sense when people visit the gym and:

  • Chest press with their feet on the ground and their back arched

  • Overhead press with horrific amounts of extension

  • Squat or lunge with huge amounts of lower back compression

  • Even sit on machines and perform back rows with the lower back arched, etc, etc!

That’s why it feels incredible for people to curl up into child’s pose and breathe at the end of the day.

They’ve finally given their lower back some expansion and blood flow. They’ve yielded and relaxed the chronically squeezed tissue — and it feels great.

So what should we do?

We should be working on improving hip extension — not reinforcing lower back compensations.

Next time you exercise, have a look in the mirror:

  • Are your chest, shoulder, glute, quad, and hamstring muscles really working and producing the force?

  • Or are you just extending through the lower back as a compensation?

Sadly, my money’s on the latter.

I have literally changed people’s lives by improving their hip extension.
Decades of chronic pain — gone. Sometimes in a matter of weeks.