Exercises for the lower back that will help to avoid lumbar pain

Back pain has the same effect on a 19-year-old boy or 45-year-old man. This is the main reason for a passive lifestyle. People with a similar problem can be given only one piece of advice: strengthen and stretch the muscles of the abdomen and lower back.

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

Another important factor is the optimal models of muscle activation. In other words, you must teach the muscles that stabilize the spine to support your back during physical activity for its maximum protection. Researchers in Finland found that men with insufficiently hardy back muscles were 3.4 times more at risk for developing lower back problems than those with high stiffness of the dorsal muscles. The fact is that the low endurance of the deep spinal and abdominal muscles - the stabilizers of the spine with exotic names such as the divided muscle, the square muscle of the waist, the longest muscle, the rib rib muscle, the widest back muscle and the transverse abdominal muscle - in combination with the weak models of muscle activation , make it impossible to be in a sitting and standing position with a correct posture for long periods of time. To the same bad posture increases the load on the spine.

We present to you an exercise program that will help ease back pain and reduce the risks of subsequent attacks of pain. The goal: to increase the endurance of deep dorsal and abdominal muscles to improve the stability of the spine and reduce the burden on the lower back.

Exercise Program

Do exercises once a day every day. You do not need days to rest, because the idea is to develop endurance, not strength. In addition, by performing these exercises daily, you strengthen the muscles that stabilize the spine, which can be in bad shape if you experience low back pain. Do these exercises as a circular training consistently without interruptions. At the same time, follow our advice on behavior in the office and the gym. In this way, you will achieve optimal back health.

Back to the office

Your office chair can very badly act on your back. Start monitoring your back with our recommendations.

• Move on

The best position for sitting is a posture that often changes. It is necessary to change the load zone on the spine, instead of focusing it on the same place. Try to lift your feet, move your back back and raise or lower your seat throughout the day, while maintaining a natural curve of your back. Try not to tilt your back forward and do not put your elbows on your knees or on the table. So you will be hunching.

• Stand up, sit down, stand up again

We recommend that you get up from your chair every 20-30 minutes to let your back rest from the heavy load that it receives as a result of sitting. Try to get up every time you talk on the phone, let it become your habit. One more trick: drink plenty of water. So you have to often go to the toilet and do a workout for the spine.

• Pull upwards

The legs are shoulder width apart, arms stretched directly above the head. Slowly reach out to the ceiling with your hands. When your fingers touch the ceiling, take a deep breath, then lower your hands. Use this exercise every time you want to relax from the seat and reduce the strain on the back.

Let's go back to the gym

Some guys can get up the craziest things without causing any harm to the back.

For this you do not have to be drunk. Such things can happen in the gym. Try our strength exercises, guided by simple principles.

• Beware of stretch marks for the back

Although you can feel good doing such a stretch, you can complicate existing problems with your back. Danish scientists found that men with a flexible loin were more at risk of lower back injury than less flexible men.

Cause: Specific lower back injuries, such as the displacement of the intervertebral disc, are associated with back movements. For example, your spine should be completely bent to cause the disc to move. A man who is not very flexible can not get his spine to take such a position. Performing stretching exercises, you increase the risk of injury.

• Do not bend the muscles of the lower back

The most dangerous position for your spine is full C-shaped flexion. Avoid this position and keep the natural bending of the spine (as in a standing position with the correct posture) when you lean forward, stretching for the hamstrings, or when you do the deadlifts . If you suffer from any back pain, avoid all these exercises until this pain passes.

• Take it easy in the morning

Your intervertebral disks - pads filled with fluid that are located between the vertebrae - look like the bladder of the morning: they are filled. You know what to do with a full bladder, but the only thing you can do to drain the intervertebral discs is just to let them dry themselves. Problem: Liquid-filled discs have a larger volume and are less flexible when folded. If you force them to bend in this situation, you will put them three times more stressful than if you do it later throughout the day, when they are more dry and supple.

Walking can speed up the drying of the disc, so in theory a good warm-up on the treadmill will reduce the risk. We recommend waiting at least 2 hours after waking up before performing flexion exercises. Movements that you do not want to do in the morning include abdominal exercises and intense lower body exercises such as squats and deadlifts. The load they cause can push the disc between the vertebrae, which will result in disc shifts and severe pain.

• Breathe properly

All of us were taught to breathe out during the lifting of weights and to breathe in during their descent. This idea, like many others, is based on good intentions. If you hold your breath during the lifting phase, you will cause a slight increase in blood pressure. That's why coaches tell customers to exhale, lifting weights. But this air in your lungs not only increases blood pressure. It also creates support for your spinal column. And it's absolutely unnatural to destabilize the spine, lifting weights.

• Try the old rule "breathe in and out"

Breathe, as you like, when you lift weights for general health and fitness or perform the stabilizing exercises described in the exercise program on the previous page. You do not pump up less muscle if you inhale during lifting and exhale during weight lowering. If you want, you can inhale twice for one repetition.

If you like to exhale during the ascent, do it. In real life, your spinal and abdominal muscles should stabilize your spine all the time, no matter whether you inhale or exhale, raise or lower. Let the body decide for itself how to breathe, rather than impose its strategy on it - so you'll teach your muscles to protect the spine.

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