Youth sports should leave a young person stronger, more coordinated and closer to the adult S-shaped spine, and the book names the 3 ways programs fall short
Chapter 2 of the Spinal Fitness book states that youth sports should offer a child 2 distinct gifts, physical preparation and skill preparation, and names 3 crises in youth sports that carry directly into adult injury patterns. The book places this inside its 18-year window: by maturity, typically around age 18, the vertebral structures have largely ossified and the postural pattern is established.
Chapter 2 states that during approximately the first 18 years of life, the vertebrae are developing in size through ossification, the nervous system is learning movement patterns, and the body is progressing toward the mature adult S-shaped structure. The book's conclusion is that the childhood and adolescent years are the critical intervention window, and that postural habits formed during this period, through sedentary behavior, screen time, heavy schoolbags or sports training that ignores spinal architecture, become progressively harder to change.
Chapter 2 states that spinal change after adulthood is still possible and that the first years of the 18 offer the greatest opportunity. Its line for sport is that a youth program that develops athletic strength without developing spinal structure is building performance on a foundation that will fail under load.
The first is physical preparation. By adulthood, Chapter 2 states, a young person's body should be stronger, more coordinated, more resilient and better equipped for the activities they choose; the spine should be closer to the adult S-shaped structure, not farther from it; the joints should be more stable and the muscles more capable, so the body is better prepared for life because of training rather than worn down by it.
Promise 2 is skill preparation, 7 items in the book's list: fundamentals, strategy, discipline, teamwork, timing, confidence and decision-making. Chapter 2 values these 7 lessons and states that skill without spinal structure is incomplete, because a young person can know exactly what to do and still be unable to do it when the body no longer has the mechanical capacity to perform. Its rule for the sport: youth training should never trade the future body for the present season.
Chapter 2 states that in contact sports, spinal posture affects whether force is transferred through structure or absorbed as strain. A young athlete with a better S-shaped spine has a stronger mechanical foundation for bracing, driving, changing direction and absorbing contact; with poor posture, more of the effort is spent stabilizing shear instead of producing usable force.
The book notes that youth programs may already have coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, strength coaches, conditioning specialists and medical resources, and states that those resources are incomplete if the adults do not understand spinal maturation, because children are not smaller adults. A young athlete trained in poor spinal alignment may become stronger, faster and more skilled while building muscle around faulty structure, which the book calls reinforcement rather than development. Its screen documents 7 items: forward-head posture, a flattened lumbar curve, excessive rounding, limited extension, chronic hamstring tightness, repeated back pain and compensation patterns during movement. The stated goal of the 7-item screen is not to label children as damaged but to identify which children need better structural support before sports loading magnifies the problem.
Crisis 1 is the failure to stop overuse injury before it begins. Chapter 2 lists 6 contributors that slowly alter the body: poor posture, excessive repetition, early specialization, year-round competition, inadequate recovery, and training that values effort over structure. Years later, the athlete who should be reaching peak performance may be managing chronic symptoms instead. The book calls this the cost of quantity training without quality training.
Crisis 2 is the failure to resolve injury correctly. Many youth injuries are handled in 3 moves: the athlete rests until pain decreases, returns to play, and the system celebrates the comeback. The book states that pain reduction is not restoration; if the injured tissue has not regained proper structure and function, the athlete returns to the same forces with the same weakness, and the protective compensation pattern the injury created becomes more important than the original injury.
Crisis 3 is the lack of adult knowledge. Children cannot be expected to understand spinal development, shear forces, tissue healing or the long-term consequences of poor training, and they depend on adults to protect them. The book's line: "Good intentions do not change physics."
Chapter 2 states that spinal health is never the responsibility of 1 person, and it names the links. Parents, the 1st link, make the first decisions about participation, training, rest, recovery, equipment, transportation and care. Coaches teach fundamentals and recognize when pain or repeated injury requires help beyond their expertise, the 2nd link. Athletic trainers and healthcare professionals, the 3rd link, guide true restoration, not merely a quick return to play. Strength coaches and physical trainers, the 4th link, shape the muscles and posture directly. Equipment manufacturers are the 5th link because tools shape training: a device that supports correct mechanics helps the body adapt constructively, and a device that ignores mechanics can reinforce compensation.
Chapter 1 records what Dr. John Scherger and his collaborators observed in professional football from the mid-1980s: players with a pronounced lumbar curve consistently performed at the highest level, moving quicker, lasting longer, showing greater flexibility and delivering harder contact, and as the season progressed and players accumulated trauma, those curves began to flatten. Chapter 5 sets the goal of Spinal Fitness in athletics as reversing that seasonal decline, so the athlete becomes more durable as the season goes on, not less.
Pain, numbness, tingling and dizziness are the stop signs in the Spinal Fitness book. When one appears, stop the exercise, get evaluated, and then proceed with a therapeutic exercise program designed by a Spinal Fitness expert. The book's training rule for every step is that strain is acceptable and pain is not.
The PowerCushion is the fulcrum for the Sit-Up and the Pelvic Tilt, and the Back Trac roller is Step 1 of the 5-step system.
Practitioner Eileen Durfee, NBS (Nutritional Balancing Science), NASM-CPT - wellness educator, inventor, author, and a Nationally Certified Spinal Fitness Specialist.
The About the Author page of the Spinal Fitness book records that Eileen's personal health journey began after severe allergies, chemical sensitivities, toxic exposures and a near-disabling accident, and that she rebuilt her health through nutritional balancing, detoxification, corrective exercise and environmental health strategies. The same page states that her personal recovery under the guidance of the late Dr. John Scherger transformed her life and inspired the book.
Our Facebook group is free to join for questions about any of the 5 steps in the Spinal Fitness system.
Physical preparation, a stronger body closer to the adult S-shaped spine, and skill preparation, the fundamentals, strategy and decision-making of the sport.
The failure to stop overuse injury before it begins, the failure to resolve injury correctly, and the lack of adult knowledge about spinal maturation.
The book states that by maturity, typically around age 18, the vertebral structures have largely ossified and the postural pattern is established.
No. The book states that an athlete trained in poor alignment may build strength around faulty structure, which it calls reinforcement rather than development.
The book names a chain: parents, coaches, athletic trainers and healthcare professionals, strength coaches and trainers, and equipment manufacturers.
Published October 29, 2026 - Updated October 29, 2026
By Eileen Durfee, Nationally Certified Spinal Fitness Specialist, NASM-CPT, and author of the Spinal Fitness book.
More from Eileen Durfee
Eileen's free guide, Is Your Posture Aging You?, on EileenDurfee.com
