An online debate over the question “Is it safe to deadlift with a flexed lumbar spine?” has devolved into a memorable ideological mudslinging match for the 5th time this month. After an initially civilised exchange of pubmed links failed to lead to any reasonable shift in the positions of the key protagonists, the debate became increasingly heated, culminating in a string of expletive ridden rants that one might classify as unbefitting of two adults with years of tertiary level education and decades of professional experience between them.

“Yeah well I’m not surprised you don’t give a flying fuck about the risk to my grandma of lifting with a flexed spine… that’s exactly what I’d expect from a bleeding heart, liberal softcock like you,” carefully wrote one debate participant, who in 2018 commenced a PhD in effective healthcare communication.

“Oh cry me a river tosspot”, thoughtfully retorted his adversary. “It’s pretty obvious all you want to do is scare money out of your patients like the greedy capitalist pig we all know you clearly are!”

While the opposing parties appear at a loss to find common ground on the extremely important issue of lumbar spine motion during lifting tasks, it seems they do agree that they are doing all they can to facilitate useful discourse, with both parties assuring our reporter that it’s up to the other guy to stop being so sensitive and getting the debate off track.