Not quite - I'm assuming that soft tissue will bend/flex before the bone breaks - in fact, it must to allow what spinal flex we have as it is.
If you pull on your hamstring too hard due to flexing joints around it too much, the hamstring tears rather than your femur breaking or similar. This is different to how the spine and its connective tissue/muscles works (in that it seems it's the bones that come apart, rather than anything softer), and it's the explanation of that difference that I'm looking for.
That still doesn't quite add up in my head - when I bend a pencil, I'm over-flexing a single, rigid structure. The spine is lots of smaller rigid structures, held together by soft, bendy stuff.
Potatopolis OP t1_j24sfil wrote
Reply to comment by Moskau50 in ELI5: If I "break my back" due to over-flexion (as opposed to sheer impact), what's actually happening? Given the vertebrae are connected by soft tissue, shouldn't that tear before any bones do? by Potatopolis
Not quite - I'm assuming that soft tissue will bend/flex before the bone breaks - in fact, it must to allow what spinal flex we have as it is.
If you pull on your hamstring too hard due to flexing joints around it too much, the hamstring tears rather than your femur breaking or similar. This is different to how the spine and its connective tissue/muscles works (in that it seems it's the bones that come apart, rather than anything softer), and it's the explanation of that difference that I'm looking for.