Cavaliere added that lower back pain isn't always simply about your lower back muscles. Hamstrings glutes, and upper back muscle issues can all manifest as lower back pain.
7 Strength-Building Exercises That May Help Relieve Your Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is an affliction experienced by a lot of people but as Athlean-X's Jeff Cavaliere explains, it's often a misconception that rest is the cure. More often than not, he says, you can alleviate lower back pain not be resting, but by moving smartly. "Instead of resting your way through your back pain, you need to be working your way through back pain," he says.
7 Exercises That Can Help Relieve Lower Back Pain
"The location of your pain might be your lower back, the source is almost never the lower back," he continues. "The body is a kinetic chain, passing forces up and down, through the lower back. We know the hamstrings and the glutes are going to feed into this area, and the mid-thoracic area is going to feed down, so we need to be cognizant of what's going on everywhere."
In his latest video (see below), Cavaliere outlines a series of exercises, to be performed in a specific progression, that can be used to help both ease and prevent back pain issues. These moves won't be for everyone, so use them with caution and, when in doubt, trust your doctor or physical therapist. But utilizing them can help your lower back issues. Just don't overwork yourself through pain; if the exercise makes the pain exceedingly worse, it's not worth doing.
The first move is a Bar Hang; Cavaliere recommends a 60-second hold, 2 to 3 times per day, and advises keeping your feet in contact with the ground,which will enable you to achieve decompression of the lower back. "If my feet stay on the ground, I'm going to allow myself to relax, and those muscles in the lower back are going to release, and give you some temporary relief." Similarly, if the pain is joint-related, the decompression in this exercise will have the same pain-relieving effect. The goal here: Stretch out the lower back muscles gently.
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Second is the Seated Row. This is a great exercise for helping to prevent back problems at their earlier stages, says Cavaliere. It can be performed at home with a band or in the gym with a cable, and the seated position means it minimizes stresses on the back muscles. "Don't load up too much here, it doesn't matter how much we're using, it's the positioning that we're benefiting from," he says. The lower, leaning end of the movement places a good stretch on the paraspinal muscles, while the upright portion of the move works the lats. "If we can get better extension through our upper back, that will help our lower back to function more normally," he says.
Next up is the Reverse Hyper. Engaging the glutes is one way to minimize future risk of back pain, explains Cavaliere, as you're working the kinetic chain from the bottom up. Simply position your torso face down horizontally on a bench, and then raise your legs, getting your hips at an angle above parallel to the ground.
Cavaliere also showed an advanced progression of this exercise which works the kinetic chain from the opposite end is the Hyper Row. This movement is challenging and best left out of your routine, especially if you're new to the gym. It is essentially a dumbbell variation which still engages the glutes in order to support the lower back, then uses the upper body for the lifting motion. The addition of weight means getting more muscles involved, like the lats.
As you continue to build strength, Cavaliere says it's important to keep progressing your lower back workout with standing exercises like the Pull-through. "Not only is it reinforcing you and teaching you how to properly hinge, it's getting those hamstrings, glutes and lower back to work together," he says.
Cavaliere showed off two more classic exercises that he says can assist in lower back pain; just keep in mind that both should not be done until you're back pain has largely subsided. Another standing, strength-building exercise which might seem counter-intuitive for preventing back pain is the deadlift but only after you've done the work with the other moves, and built a solid foundation. "It lets the glutes be the main driver of hip extension, feeding that kinetic chain and lower back muscles from the ground up."
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The final weighted exercise in Cavaliere's progression is the barbell row . "It's not something you should avoid," he says, "it's something that you should save until you have the strength necessary to be able to do it right."
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