Lower Back Strengthening Exercises

Article by Jared DiCarmine

One of the most important parts of your body when it comes to stay fit and healthy is your lower back. Over 80% of the population will have some form of pain at least once during their life. I personally have chronic lower back pain already in my young adult life. This was due to a tragic and freak weight lifting accident that happened from dead lifts. The injury never was properly diagnosed and therefore mistreated. A year later, I re injured the same spot and now I have chronic lower back pain. In fact, it’s not even that area exactly; it’s my pelvis which gives me problems. It is actually shifted out of place slightly and now has settled in that position. Since it went a year with being misdiagnosed and mistreated, it settled into place and now it’s chronic. It really sucks. But m y point is when it comes to lower back strengthening exercise, there is no one size fits all approach because everyone is different and everyone has different contraindications, biomechanics, and core strength. One of the big things most people don’t understand is if you want a healthy and strong lower back, you need to also have a healthy and strong core, or set of abdominal muscles. Generally the core can be made up of your abdominal muscles, your glutes and your lower back, but for now we’re just talking about all the different layers of abdominal muscles you have throughout your middle torso. You see your abs are like a giant onion with multiple layers of different muscles each there for a specific reason. If you peel back one layer, you’ll find another layer. So when it comes to lower back health, you really want to focus on the deeper abdominal muscles such as internal oblique’s and transverse abdominus. These muscles when fully developed and trained; provide stability to your lower back and act as a brace throughout your core. The stronger these muscles are, the better off you will be. Now when it comes to lower back strengthening exercises, there are a lot of them that can be listed. But for now, we’ll start off with some basic exercises and move on to the bigger and more well known ones. The first lower back strengthening exercise that you can do in your own home or at a gym is called the superman. Simply lie face down on the ground with your arms out stretched in front of your or at your sides to make it a little bit easier. From this position, try and lift your chest off the floor and your lower legs off the floor at the same time. At the top, squeeze for 2 seconds then slowly lower back down. When doing this movement, try and focus your attention on the thoracic part of your spine. This area is made for mobility and what you generally want to target. The thoracic spine is basically your middle back area and slightly lower. Feel free to do this exercise for 3-4 sets of 10-12 repetitions.The next exercise you can do at a gym specifically is the hyperextension machine. Simply get in position within the position, hold your hands across your chest and slowly lower your body until you feel a nice stretch in your hamstrings. From there, reverse the motion and come up all the way squeezing your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. I only want you to come up into a neutral position so there is no concave look in your lower back. Keep everything neutral and flat, almost like a plank. This is going to protect your lumbar vertebrae from hyperextension which is something you don’t want to happen too often. Feel free to do 3 sets of 15-20 repetitions. The next exercise you can do at your home or in gym is the manual glute ham raise. Simply find a spot in the gym or in your home that you can hook your feet under so that it’s nice and snug. From there, slowly lower your body resisting the temptation to fall forward as much as possible. Once you can’t hold it anymore, drop to the floor and push away slightly with your hands just enough so you can get some momentum going and then activate your hamstrings to pull yourself back up. Directly this exercise is not a traditional lower back move but your back does have to isometrically contract to keep your body upright. And the last exercise that I’m going to talk about today is the Romanian dead lift also known as RDL’s. RDL’s are great for your hamstrings, glutes and lower back. They are also an awesome move for your upper back since those muscles will need to isometrically contract to keep your arms in place from coming out of their sockets during the movement. Don’t worry this won’t happen if that is what you’re thinking. To perform this movement, all you need is a pair of dumbbells or a barbell. Standing nice and tall with your arms in front of you, push your butt back, keep your chest up and pivot at your hip so that the weight gently slides down the front of your legs. Go all the way down until you feel a nice stretch in your hamstrings and then return to the starting position. Make sure not to round your back like you see a lot of people doing in the gym and make sure to keep the majority of your weight on your heels. All in all, these 4 lower back strengthening exercises are great when it comes to really building up some muscle around your lower back and strengthening this often weak point for many people. Just remember, with a stronger lower back, you also need a strong inner core to balance everything out.

Trainerwise.com FINALLY A BACK STRENGTHENING ROUTINE THAT WORKS THE APPROPRIATE PART OF YOUR BACK TO MAKE IT STRONG NOT PAINFUL
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