Exercise and Back Pain
In this article you will see three simple exercises you must do if you wish to strength in your lower back.
Why we get back pain?
The causes of lower back pain after all are not just muscular; they are a combination of both joint and muscle imbalances, along with Trigger Points and in more severe cases inflammation. To get lasting relief you need to target all these areas and a few strengthening exercises won't achieve that.
Stretch or Strengthen
There is always a debate over whether back pain occurs because muscles are too tight or that there is less strength...
In fact there is no debate.
Both occur. Muscle imbalances are a combination of muscles that are tight and other muscles that are weak. However, the weak muscles do not relate just to the physical strength of the muscle. Weakness can be related to a poor nerve and blood supply to the muscle, it can also come about as joint imbalances cause muscles to lose power and strength as distortion patterns occur ... if joints are out of alignment muscles are asked to work harder to perform their normal daily duty, hence they tire. This is why it is essential to use effective lower back stretches that target the muscles that are tight and use exercises for lower back pain to target the muscles that need to increase in strength. Combine this with methods to rebalance your pelvis and spine and you can relieve back pain quickly. It is a combined approach that is most effective, but before you start you need to know what to target.
The three exercises for lower back pain are:
Top1-Abdominal Hollowing
Top 2-The Plank
Top 3-The Superman
Top 1 Abdominal Hollowing
This exercise strengthens your abdominal muscles but it also improves your breathing cycle which helps especially when you lift heavier objects. It is the first exercise for lower back pain and the most important.
Why?
When you use any core exercise you must breathe correctly to activate the muscle. This exercise teaches you how to breathe while exercising.
All you do is lie on your back, with your knees bent and hands palm down, and flat against the ground, or you can be seated in a chair (as in the video below).
Then breathe in as deep as possible and relax all your abdominal areas as much as you can. Then as you breathe out fully, tense your abdominal muscles by pulling them towards the ground. Just imagine you are pulling on jeans that are too tight and you are sucking in your abdominals to zip up the zipper.
Make sure your pelvis and lower back do not move, they should stay in a neutral position, it is just your abdominal muscles that should be working.
Hold the contraction for 7 seconds but still relaxed in the rest of your body if you can. Breathe gently while holding the contraction. Then breathe in again and repeat the process 5 times.
This will build strength in your abdominals quickly. Once you master this you can then start using the other low back pain exercises.
Top 2-The Plank
This exercise targets all the core muscles and also can be used to monitor your core strength. The longer you can hold the Plank exercise, the stronger your core is.
To perform the Plank, all you do is get into a press-up position, with you lying face down on the ground. Have your elbows bent and arms facing forward with hands flat on the ground.
Then you raise your abdomen so that your back is flat and in a neutral position. A neutral spine is the position of your lower back as if you were standing flat against a wall. So you need to make sure your buttocks are not too high or too low. Then simply hold this position for as long as possible. Initially you will feel your muscles shake and quiver. This is your core muscles working hard to maintain this position.
Top 3-The Superman
For this exercise simply lie on the floor face down with arms outstretched like Superman, or over a Swiss ball if it is more comfortable at present due to back pain. Then raise your arms and legs off the ground again for as long as possible. If using a Swiss ball you only need to raise your arms and your body, keeping your toes planted on the ground.
Simply contract your back muscles as you breathe in to raise your raise into the position. Then as you breathe out contract the muscles as hard as you can, and breathe out for 7 seconds only and then relax.
This is an isometric contraction and you only need to do this once to build strength in the muscle, although as in the hollowing you can repeat this contraction up to five times as strength increases. You can also do this with the Plank to build strength, simply contract the abdominal muscles and hold for the 7 seconds.
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