Lower back pain or LBP is a common condition in medicine and exercise all around the world. It is very rare to find any athlete, gym goer, office worker or anyone in society who has not suffered with some sort of LBP. Whether it is long standing chronic pain or simply of muscular tweak, LBP can be debilitating and affect our mental health as well as our overall wellness. Getting out of LBP can be a difficult process and a variety of techniques can be used to help manage pain, at NRG we found the McGill big three are the best for initial pain. But what do you do once the pain has gone? Here we will discuss what exercises we prescribe to patients and clients to continue with to help combat and keep lower back pain away!
Hip Extension
This exercise from the outset looks absolutely terrifying to some, especially the machine contraption that the exercise is completed in. If your gym has a GHR (Glute/Ham Raise) machine then brilliant, in you jump, if not there are other options available. Start by popping your feet into the foot handles at the bottom of the device, and place your waist on the padded area. Make sure your entire waist and upper body is off the pad. Take your hands off the handles below, from here lower your body down so there is a right angle from your legs to the hips and the floor. From here, keeping your abs braced, rise up so you are parallel with the floor, making certain to squeeze the bum at the top. This helps protect the back but encourage the muscles of the lower back to contract! Please see instructional video below to help visualise the technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X075Hrl5lE
We suggest completing 3 sets for 8 reps at the start of your session or 2 sets of 15 at the end of the session depending on your session demands! Remember to stay braced throughout and not allow yourself to hyperextend through the lower back.
If you do not have one of these machines, you can use a box for box jumps instead. Crawl yourself across the box so the waist is off, just make sure someone is holding your feet!
Romanian Deadlift
This exercise is a perfect foil for anyone who suffers from LBP alongside stiffness through the lower back and hamstrings. What makes this different to your normal deadlift:
The bar doesn’t touch the floor! You maintain constant tension, through lower back, glutes and hamstrings unlike your conventional deadlifts. (However if your grip goes, don’t be scared to drop the bar).
You keep your knees relatively stiff, unlike when you bend your knees on conventional deadlifts, this helps increase the stress on the hamstrings rather than the quadriceps.
More focus on lowering/eccentric portion of the lift, this helps apply a stretch to the hamstring area and release some tight tissues. Don’t believe me? Then try it! If you are stiff, try to touch your toes before your first set, then try again after your first set, there will be a massive difference!
Once again, please see the video below to help you visualise the movement before completing it. We suggest either using this movement as an accessory movement or replacing your deadlift and focusing purely on the RDL.
American Kettlebell Swing
Unlike your usual kettlebell swing that you see being butchered in your commercial gyms, this movement adds an overhead element. This is important as when the kettlebell is overhead, you need good glute, trunk and core tension to help maintain stability. The key to this movement is keeping the kettlebell as close to your body! Having the kettlebell drift away from you is exactly what causes the lower back to ping.
On the swing upwards, start with the kettlebell in front of you, grasp the metal handle by the corners and swing below your legs as high as possible without clipping your privates. Hinge slightly before squeezing and driving your bum forwards. With your arms, drive your elbows as high as possible, from here transition the hands and press above the head. The key is that it is not a long arc swing, it is pull and push. This helps keep the kettlebell close the body and allows the body to stabilise beneath the weight!
The video link below will help you visualise the movement and give you confidence to apply it into your workout. This is useful as it can be used as either a strength movement or to help conditioning!
And that concludes this article on Increasing Lower Back Strength to Alleviate Pain. We hope you find it useful and try these movements out. It may take a couple of sessions to get the technique completely spot on, but we recommend applying it your gym sessions no matter how you train. It may be worth while asking for the advice of a personal trainer or sports therapist to help you out. We also strongly recommend that you use these exercises to help prevent pain once pain free! We would not recommend these movements if you are currently suffering with acute lower back pain or struggle to move to due to pain.
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