Luckily, there are three core exercises we would recommend to help in the prevention of lower back pain. These exercises are designed to be safe and pain free, so it’s imperative in the early stages to not push yourself too hard. Increasing weight or repetitions too fast too soon can potentially be detrimental and cause more harm.
Safely do these core exercises to help your back pain
That being said, it’s still important to progress your exercises, but in a controlled and gradual way. Increases in weight or repetitions are vital but not to the detriment of your form. Always, always prefer good form.
If you’re not sure on the overall cause of your back pain, it’s always best to get this checked out before performing exercises at home in order to prevent doing any further harm. While exercise is good for helping strengthen and support the lower back, not all exercises are beneficial
Back extension exercises for your lower back
Start off by strengthening the muscles in your lower back. Lie down on your front, arch your back and bring your chest high by contracting your lower back and abdominal muscles. Make the movement slow and hold at the top. You could start off with your hands on the floor, keeping your elbows positioned underneath your shoulders to support. An alteration to increase the intensity of the move would be to hold out your arms to the side, bend the arms but keep your elbows in-line with the shoulders and raise with your chest.
Cable or banded abdominal rotations.
Most gyms will have a cable machine you can use for this exercise. Hold the cable at waist height, keep your arms slightly bent and rotate the waist (not the hips!) from left to right. You’ll want to keep your head following in the same direction to where your hands are. Keep the movements slow and controlled, keep the chest out and focus on your core. Avoid moving too fast or packing on too much weight early on. This exercise will help to strengthen the muscles at the side of your core.
Abdominal vaccumes for lower back stability
This exercise can be done anywhere, as it doesn’t require a gym membership and can even be done while sitting at your desk. Start by standing up straight, hold your hands on your hips, exhale the air out of your lungs. Inhale and draw your belly button in towards your spine, once you’ve inhaled as much air as you can, exhale but keep your stomach muscles contracted so you’re still bringing your belly button in.
Other Core Exercises To Help Relieve Back Pain
Depending on the stage you’re at different exercises would be indicated. For those of you reading this that have more severe current back pain, maybe a flare up, you’d benefit from a different approach to back pain exercises. Something that’s focused more around alleviating pressure on a tissue that’s trying to heal and generally helping create the optimal environment for things to heal correctly.
For those who are not in as much pain but never far away from a flare up, a more sensible approach to strengthening can be extremely effective in dealing with underlying weaknesses that leave vulnerabilities in your lower back.
Unfortunately with so many things to consider it can be a little overwhelming for the individual looking through the internet for some relief from back pain!
A more appropriate approach to back pain relief exercises
Believe it or not there is an ideal structure to help take someone who is experiencing back pain, from a position of pain to a position of wellness and stability in the lower back. In the clinic we primarily treat patients with lower back pain as you probably already know by now. The sheer volume of patients that we’ve seen, all with spinal imaging to accompany their condition, affords us a unique insight into the recovery process.
There are all to frequently bad habits that plague the individuals return to health and negatively impact the back’s recovery. In the clinic we are able to walk you through these mistakes, and make sure they aren’t being made. We also help instruct you on the right ways to hold yourself and conduct yourself thorough the day, in a way that doesn’t put undue stress on your lower back as it is trying to heal. Of course we also have our fantastic treatments to accompany this process.
With that being said, exercises are fantastic, exercise can help really relieve back pain, but if you don’t address at least some of the issues in the previous paragraph, mistakes, habits etc, then you’ll struggle to get results. This is why we created our Back In Shape membership area. You can access it and sign up at the top of our website under ‘membership site’.
Understanding Back Pain & Mistakes
Our Tailored 4-Part Protocol
Join The Back In Shape Membership
Contact Us.
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info@themayfairclinic.com
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0203 947 32 22
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4 Cavendish Square, London, W1g 0PG.