4 Exercises To Finally Fix Your Lower Back Pain

Alisa Zuravskaja, mobility coach, shows us how to ease things up:

Gently does it (but actually do it)

Fun fact: persistent lower back pain is often caused by compensation patterns rather than ongoing injury, with the lower back becoming overworked when other regions fail to contribute effectively.

For this reason, it’s good to give the overworked areas relief, and “balance out” the use of muscles to stop the same few muscles from doing all the work.

Some weaknesses to pay attention to (we’ll mention the exercises in passing, and then detail them properly in a moment):

1. Tight hip flexors: prolonged sitting and frequent use of heeled footwear may shorten your hip flexors, contributing to anterior pelvic tilt and increased lower-back arching; a self-test is to stand sideways to a mirror and look for an exaggerated arch and a protruding abdomen; the recommended exercise is a kneeling hip flexor stretch performed with a strong glute squeeze to encourage hip-flexor relaxation.
2. Weak core: reduced activation of the deep abdominal muscles, particularly the transverse abdominis, can leave your lower back providing the lion’s share of the stabilization; here the recommendation is pelvic tilts to activate your deep core and glutes, followed by bird dogs to improve spinal stability during movement.
3. Weak glutes: prolonged sitting will tend to reduce glute activation (or more prosaically, leads to “dead butt syndrome”), causing your lower back to compensate; a glute bridge can help identify this if you feel the effort mainly in your lower back rather than your glutes; the recommended progression is glute bridges, then marching or single-leg variations.
4. Upper-back stiffness: limited thoracic-spine rotation can force your lower back to compensate during twisting movements; a self-test is to sit with your arms crossed and assess whether you can comfortably rotate beyond approximately 45 degrees each way; the recommended exercise is the thoracic windmill, which improves upper-back mobility while minimizing lower-back movement.

As for how to do those exercises in their most useful-for-this form,

1. Kneeling hip flexor stretch: kneel with one knee on the floor, keep your torso upright, squeeze your rearmost glute firmly, gently drive your hip forwards, hold for 5 seconds, then relax.
2. Pelvic tilt with bird dog progression: lie on your back with your knees bent, flatten your lower back into the floor, squeeze your glutes, brace your core, hold for 5 seconds, then relax; progress to bird dogs by starting on all fours, bracing your core, and extending the opposite arm and leg while keeping your lower back neutral.
3. Glute bridge: squeeze your glutes, tuck your pelvis in slightly, raise your hips, pause briefly, then lower yourself back down slowly; progress to marching or single-leg variations as your control improves.
4. Thoracic windmill: lie on your side with your knees bent and stacked one on top of the other, extend your arms in front of you, then sweep your top arm in a large arc while rotating through your upper back and opening your chest, keeping your knees together and your lower back as still as you reasonably can.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

For a much deeper understanding of treating back pain, here’s a great book that we reviewed a little while back:

Treat Your Own Back – by Robin McKenzie ← he’s a physiotherapist and not a doctor, and/but with 40 years of practice to his name and 33 letters after his name (CNZM OBE FCSP (Hon) FNZSP (Hon) Dip MDT Dip MT), he seems to know his stuff. His work is very well-respected, and almost any English-speaking physiotherapist will have read his books.

Take care!