Strengthening your lower back is important – here’s how to do it

Fitness,

Struggling with lower back pain? Try these physiotherapist-approved movements to manage it.

If there’s one area of your body almost everyone has experienced pain or discomfort in, it’s probably the lower back. In fact, 2009 research from the Royal College of General Practitioners (UK) has found that low back pain probably affects around one-third of the UK adult population each year.

Lower back issues can make it difficult to complete day-to-day tasks like carrying shopping bags and showering. Even sitting at your desk or on public transport can feel uncomfortable. And if the pain persists, it can potentially lead to long term injuries. 

You may also like

How to cut down screen time: 7 yoga poses to reduce excessive screen use

“Weakness or loss of endurance in the muscles around the pelvis and lower back can lead to problems – gradually you can lose some control of your pelvis or lumbar vertebrae,” explains physiotherapist Nell Mead. “The weakness could be caused initially by pain from an injury, or simply by lack of exercise or stiffness (sitting still for long periods is a key cause of lower back pain) but either way it leads to further dysfunction and the risk of more pain.”

Whether you’re already suffering from a lower back injury or pain or you’re looking to prevent it in the future, there are a range of movements and exercises you can practice at home to protect and repair your lower back.

Mead recommends a process called ‘release, stabilise and move’. “Releasing will help the big tight muscles to relax, stabilising will activate the deeper stability muscles and moving allows you to use both sets of muscles in harmony by performing movements,” Mead explains.

Here are some movements you can practice to strengthen and take care of your lower back…

Release

  • Lie with a tennis ball digging into any areas of tension in the muscles beside the spine (but don’t put the ball directly under the spinal bones).
  • Lying on your back, bring your knees up to your chest, place your hands on your knees and then gently rock. This is a yoga pose called apanasana.
  • Starting on all fours with your knees apart and feet together, drop your bottom back onto your heels and drop your head down onto the floor (or onto your hands if you can’t reach the floor) – this is a yoga pose called child’s pose or balasana.

Child’s pose is a great stretch for the lower back.

Stabilise

  • Activate your pelvic floor and lower abdominal muscles by imagining squeezing your vaginal walls together from bottom to top very slowly and then just as slowly releasing it from top to bottom. Repeat 30 times.
  • Activate the glutes or buttock muscles by sitting down and squeezing your buttocks together. You should feel your body rising up by an inch or so. If this is easy, try clenching one buttock at a time. If this is easy, try doing it in different positions, standing up or lying on your front.
  • Activate the deep lower back muscles by lying on your back with your knees bent and feet on the mat. Imagine you have a skewer through you, going through your hips from left to right. Slowly and carefully, tilt your pelvis back and forth, rotating around the invisible skewer. Your lower back should arch and flatten against the mat but make sure you are initiating the movement from your pelvis.

Try a pelvic bridge to strengthen your lower back.

Move

  • Supermans: start on your hands and knees with your hands directly under your shoulders and knees directly under hips. Activate your pelvic floor and lower abdominals as above, so that your tummy is pulled in slightly towards your spine. Maintaining good abdominal and pelvic floor control, stretch your left arm forward and at the same time stretch your left leg back behind you so that your leg, spine and arm form a straight horizontal line.Hold for a couple of seconds, then bring your arm and leg back down, and repeat with your right arm and left leg. To make it more difficult, you can add resistance with weights or elastic bands.
  • Bridges: start on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor as per the pelvic tilt. Squeeze your glutes together and tilt your pelvis so that your back flattens and then gradually roll up, lifting your bottom, lower back and then mid back until you form a straight line from knees to shoulders. Hold for a couple of seconds then (keeping your glutes squeezed together) roll back down vertebrae by vertebrae. To make it more difficult, you can lift one foot in the air (keeping your pelvis horizontal), place a weight over your pelvis or reduce your base of support by resting your feet or shoulders on a Swiss ball.

Deadlifts can help you strengthen your lower back.
  • Deadlifts: start standing with your feet hip width apart and a barbell or dumbell positioned close to your shins over the middle of both feet. Activate your pelvic floor and lower abdominals and keep your back flat and chest up. Push your hips back as though you’re closing a door with your bottom so that you can hinge forward and take hold of the bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip. Your hips should be lower than your shoulders, but higher than your knees – this is a hip hinge, not a squat. Pull your shoulders back and down, and then drive through your midfoot (under your shoe laces) to lift the bar, keeping it close to your body as you thrust your hips forwards and squeeze your glutes to return to a standing position. Pause, and then reverse the movement to lower the bar back to the floor. To make it more difficult, increase the weight.

For tips on moving well and recipes to support your fitness regime, check out the Strong Women Training Club.

Images: Getty

Source: Read Full Article