Lower back exercises to help avoid lumbar pain

Lower back pain has the same effect on a 19-year-old guy or a 45-year-old man. It is the main reason for a sedentary lifestyle. There is only one piece of advice for people with this problem: strengthen and stretch the abdominal and lower back muscles.

But if this is such good advice, why do so many people still suffer from back pain? It’s simple. Because strength and flexibility won’t help you avoid back pain. Endurance will. A healthy spine makes your back muscles stronger and more flexible. They need to be trained to develop endurance.

Another important factor is optimal muscle activation patterns. In other words, you need to train the muscles that stabilize your spine to support your back during physical activity for maximum back protection. Researchers in Finland found that men with poor back muscle endurance were 3.4 times more likely to develop low back problems than those with high back muscle endurance. That’s because poor endurance in the deep back and abdominal muscles – the spinal stabilizers with exotic names like the multifidus, quadratus lumborum, longissimus, iliocostalis, latissimus dorsi, and transverse abdominis – combined with poor muscle activation patterns make it impossible to sit or stand with good posture for long periods of time. And poor posture puts extra strain on your spine.

We present you with an exercise program that will help relieve back pain and reduce the risk of future attacks of pain. The goal: to increase the endurance of the deep back and abdominal muscles to improve spinal stability and reduce the load on the lower back.

Exercise program

Perform the exercises once a day, every day. You don’t need rest days, because the idea is to build endurance, not strength. Plus, doing these exercises every day strengthens the muscles that stabilize your spine, which may be in poor shape if you have lower back pain. Perform these exercises as a circuit workout, consistently, without breaks. At the same time, follow our tips for office and gym behavior. This way, you will achieve optimal back health.

Let's go back to the office

Your office chair may be doing a lot of damage to your back. Start taking control of your back with these tips.

• Move on

The best sitting posture is one that changes frequently. You need to change the area of stress on your spine, rather than concentrating it in one place. Try lifting your feet, moving your back back, and raising or lowering your seat throughout the day, while maintaining the natural curve of your back. Try not to lean your back forward or rest your elbows on your knees or on the table. This will make you slouch.

• Stand up, sit down, stand up again

We recommend that you get up from your chair every 20-30 minutes to give your back a break from the heavy load it receives from sitting. Try to get up every time you talk on the phone, make it a habit. Another trick: drink a lot of water. This will force you to go to the toilet often and do some spine exercises.

• Reach up

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms straight above your head. Slowly reach your hands toward the ceiling. When your fingers touch the ceiling, take a deep breath, then lower your arms. Use this exercise whenever you want to take a break from sitting and reduce the strain on your back.

Let's go back to the gym

Some guys can do the craziest things without causing any damage to their back.

You don't have to be drunk to do this. These things can happen in the gym. Try our strength exercises using simple principles.

• Beware of back stretches

While you may feel good doing these stretches, you may be making existing back problems worse. Danish researchers found that men with flexible lower backs were more likely to suffer from lower back injuries than less flexible men.

Cause: Specific lower back injuries, such as slipped discs, involve back movements. For example, your spine must be fully flexed to cause a slipped disc. A man who is not particularly flexible will not be able to force his spine into this position. By doing stretching exercises, you increase your risk of injury.

• Do not bend your lower back muscles.

The most dangerous position for your spine is a full C-shape. Avoid this position and maintain the natural curve of your spine (as in a standing position with good posture) when you bend forward, doing a hamstring stretch, or when you do deadlifts. If you suffer from any lower back pain, avoid all of these exercises until the pain goes away.

• Take it easy in the morning

Your intervertebral discs—the fluid-filled cushions that sit between your vertebrae—are like your morning bladder: They’re full. You know what to do with a full bladder, but the only thing you can do to drain your intervertebral discs is simply let them dry out on their own. The problem: Fluid-filled discs are larger and less flexible when they bend. If you force them to bend in this situation, you’ll put three times more stress on them than if you do it later in the day, when they’re drier and more pliable.

Walking can speed up the drying out of a disc, so in theory a good warm-up on a treadmill will reduce the risk. We recommend waiting at least 2 hours after waking up before doing spinal flexion exercises. Movements that are not advisable to do first thing in the morning include abdominal exercises and intense lower body exercises such as squats and deadlifts. The stress they cause can push the disc out of place between the vertebrae, resulting in disc displacement and severe pain.

• Breathe correctly

We’ve all been taught to exhale as we lift weights and inhale as we lower them. This idea, like many others, is based on good intentions. If you hold your breath during the lifting phase, you’ll cause a slight increase in blood pressure. That’s why trainers tell clients to exhale as they lift weights. But that air in your lungs doesn’t just raise your blood pressure. It also creates support for your spinal column. And it’s completely unnatural to destabilize your spine while lifting weights.

• Try the old "inhale-exhale" rule

Breathe as you feel comfortable when you lift weights for general health and fitness or when you perform the stabilization exercises described in the exercise program on the previous page. You will not build less muscle if you inhale as you lift and exhale as you lower the weight. If you like, you can inhale twice during one rep.

If you like to exhale as you lift, do it. In real life, your back and abdominal muscles should be stabilizing your spine at all times, whether you're inhaling or exhaling, lifting or lowering. Letting your body decide how to breathe, rather than forcing your own strategy on it, will teach your muscles to protect your spine.

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