You are constantly lifting things: your kids, a heavy bag of mulch or just training at the gym. Two very important things to do to protect the lower back while lifting is to always hinge at the hips and brace your stomach. Hinging is basically sticking your butt as far back as you can to achieve a squat. You need to do this in order to transfer the stress away from the lumbar spine to the hips and legs which can tolerate it more so because of the muscles of the butt and legs are much stronger than that of the lower back. You need to brace the stomach in order to stabilize the lower spine. This can be achieved by making believe you are going to get hit in the stomach and you will instinctively tighten your abs the correct way.
So brace your stomach, hinge at the hips and lift!!!
