How To Fix Low Back Pain
Over 80% of people currently have or will experience low back pain at some point in their life
Everyone's case is unique and different but there are 3 common problems that often contribute to low back pain. Here's how to get rid of it:
#1. Underdeveloped glutes
Most people who deal with chronic low back pain are living with dead butt syndrome. This is all too real and is a main cause of low back pain. The glute muscles work to stabilize your hips, core, and lumbar spine. When these muscles are too weak or are not doing their job because they are too weak, it places tons of tension and stress on your low back.
What to do:
Depending on the severity of my clients low back pain, low impact hip extension exercises such as banded bridges, prone donkey kicks, or a glute kickback machine is a great starting point for many people
Hinging exercises are a great way to strengthen the posterior chain. Romanian deadlifts, hex bar deadlifts, rack pulls, and band pull-throughs are some of my favorite ways to incorporate hip extension to strengthen the glute maximus
The glute medius works to abduct your leg, but it is also a major hip stabilizer which many people overlook. Hip airplanes, single leg touchdown squats, and banded lunges are some of my favorite ways to build stability in your hips and glutes. The big thing to focus on here is not letting your knee cave in, driving it to the outside will engage more glute and stabilize the hip joint better.
#2. Weak and unstable core
I always argue that the glutes are apart of the core muscle group. Having weak glutes can cause serious pain, and so can an underdeveloped core. Our core is responsible to move and stabilize our spine. Many people focus on sit ups, leg raises, and side bends. While these exercises do use your core, they are all strength exercises, not stability. These movements will not help your low back pain, they can actually increase your pain if you're not careful.
Building core strength is a great way for lifters to also address other common issues like bulging or herniated discs.
What to do:
Focus on stability exercises, not strength exercises. What's the difference?
Strength exercises create movement, stability exercises avoid movement. The easiest way I think about stability is holding positions and focusing on slow controlled movements.
Planks, side planks, bird dogs, dead bugs, pallof presses, farmer carries, march walks, and hollow holds are some of my favorite core stability exercises to heal low back pain. Holding longer pauses is a great way to add more stability to many exercise.
#3. Restricted hip mobility
Our hips and low back work together. If our hips are not able to move the way they are supposed to it will have a direct impact on your low back. Working on hip mobility alone will not get rid of your low back pain, but it is an important part of the equation.
What to do:
Gentle mobility where you feel a good stretch is the goal, not forcing yourself into a position and compromising with other muscle groups.
Static posterior hip capsule stretch, figure 4, 90/90 translations, lumbar trunk rotations, hip CAR's and child's pose are some of my favorite low impact stretches to improve mobility for low back pain
Misconceptions:
Tight hamstrings are NOT the cause of your low back pain. This is often a byproduct from other issues. Many people spend lots of time doing toe touches or elevated foot hamstring stretches and have zero luck.
This is often from weakness in the posterior chain. Instead of constantly stretching, add more strength exercises to the area like bridges or roman chair extensions and watch your hamstring tightness naturally resolve its self.
If a muscle is tight, it is fighting hard to do it's bare minimum job. The more you stretch a weak muscle the more irritated it can become. Ease off of the stretching and incorporate a balanced workout program to get rid of that stubborn low back pain
If you would like to work with Platinum Training to finally get rid of your low back pain fill out our form below or email us at platinum.train1@gmail.com
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