155 A Christian Guide to Body Stewardship, Diet and Exercise execution of both the two-hand rule and belly-whack test. Figure 7.14. Two-Hand Rule (Left) and Belly-Whack Test (Right) Low Back Pain Prevention and Treatment According to Cady (2016), nearly every American adult has some form of spinal abnormality. In fact, just as with graying hair and wrinkles, changes to the spine (i.e., vertebra and intervertebral discs) are a natural part of the aging process. For example, the water content of the intervertebral discs gradually decreases with age (Zatsiorsky & Kraemer, 2006). Even so, these abnormalities of and age-related changes to the spine do not necessarily guarantee that an individual will experience low back pain. Figure 7.15 shows the relationship between age and the percentage of individuals with a documented disc abnormality but no reported back pain (as depicted via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)). As shown in the figure, by the age of 50 nearly 80% of adults have some degree of disc degeneration and 60% have a disc bulge. Figure 7.15. Percentage of Patients with Documented Disc Abnormalities but no Symptoms
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