It turns out, however, that there are many cultures that avoid back pain altogether, and that has a lot to do with posture, and specifically, the way we bend over. Think of the daily activities during which we bend: putting on our pants and socks, picking up objects from the floor, doing household chores, even putting a leash on a dog—the list is endless.

Although we are largely unaware of it, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we are prone again lying in bed at night, we bend over from 2,000 to 4,000 times a day! In this unbalanced state, we barely equalize by bending backwards only several hundred times a day. All of this forward bending, particularly at the angle of about 20 percent flexion of the spine in a typical motion, means that over time, we are putting enormous extra stress on the back.

But it isn’t just the number of times we bend over, it is the way we bend over. Almost everyone in our culture bends forward from the stomach, which in the process curves the spine in the shape of the letter “C” causing a stress on the back. But experts studying other cultures have noticed that in places like Africa, South America and India, for example, people bend over with their backs nearly straight, making the back flat, like a table top, and parallel to the ground. Canadian expert Stuart McGill, quoted in an NPR article, says this type of bending is called “hip hinging” (bending from the hips as opposed to bending at the stomach), and he has spent his career advocating for this form of bending being better for us than what we typically do.

Some of the benefits of “hip hinging” are that it:

• Neutrally positions the spine
• Lessens stress on the spinal discs
• Positively engages gluteal muscles
• Stretches hamstrings (typically tight in Americans)
• Takes pressure off the back muscles