Coincidentally, that's the gist of the NPR article I linked to 3 posts back.guitarrista wrote:One thing which seems to be missing from the discussion on back pain and strain is that exercising so that one's muscles are properly conditioned/developed compensates for any differences in strain between different postures. In North America, a lot of people have lower back pain not because of a particular posture at work, but because they lead a very sedentary and exercise-free lifestyle overall (thus typically have very weak back muscles). To me, the most useful advice to sedentary people is not how to give their muscles even less to work with (by adjusting to almost lying positions etc.), which likely leaves them even more atrophied, but to increase exercise and therefore build up their muscles through progressive overload and recovery. This would have the effect of minimizing and eliminating back pain in many cases, as the muscles would become strong enough to support the spine and the body. Of course, all that applies more in a preventive sense - if one already has severe back problems, don't go out and start squating with 300lbs.
Except for the 300 lb. squat-lift part.