Raise your hand if you think twice these days before bending over to pick up something you’ve dropped. For all too many of us, pain that emanates from the spine or back often means that bending over is a complex or uncomfortable task. Well, it turns out that over the course of your life, you may have been bending down the wrong way, which is why your spine now hurts. In a new story on NPR, reporter Michaeleen Doucleff describes the practice of “hip hinging,” or bending from the hips rather than the waist, as a method better suited to the biomechanics of preserving the spine and preventing back pain. The key is to keep the back straight rather than curved as you bend, a method many are familiar with from dead weight lifting at the gym or from yoga. So sit up straight and take a listen to this story Here. Would you like a visual demonstration of this technique? Check out this brief video Here.