Bad Back? For Most People, The Problem Is Just These Weak Muscles

Dr. Jenny Ochoa explains how to fix it:

Make these weak points stronger

For most people, extra loading of the lower back occurs only during daily chores—washing dishes, gardening, carrying groceries and so forth—without having trained its endurance. When those muscles get fatigued, your back becomes sore, tight, and vulnerable.

However, avoiding movement causes more problems than it solves, and in fact, the lower back (in most cases) needs strengthening, not protection.

Here are 5 ways to do it:

• Jefferson curl: stand tall, tuck your chin, and roll down vertebra by vertebra. Let your head, your thoracic spine, and then finally your lower back fold. Stop before your knees bend, allow your hamstrings to lengthen, then reverse the sequence slowly to rise (with equally good form!). If you like, you can also trace down one leg to load your lateral lower back and return segmentally, then do the other side.
• Seated forward bend: sit with your legs wide, hold onto a cable (if using a cable machine, or a yoga belt works fine too), and let the cable pull your torso forwards to stretch your hamstrings and your lower back. Engage your lower back to pull yourself upright and roll your shoulders backwards. Allow hamstring tension if it appears, and use it to improve the mobility of your pelvis and your lower back.
• Suitcase carry: hold a weight slightly away from your body, brace your core, and walk forwards and backwards to challenge your lateral lower back muscles. Keep the weight controlled, and let the opposite side of your back stabilize as you move.
• Oblique sling pull: set a cable at belly-button height, hinge like a single-leg Romanian dead lift, and keep your hips square against the cable’s rotational pull. Reach as far as is comfortable, then pull as you engage your glutes and hamstrings. Once you’re good at this, turn the movement into a lunge-based version, for extra benefits.
• Superman on a stability ball: with a small stability ball under your torso, rest near your elbows, squeeze your glutes first, and then lift through your lower back. Avoid hinging or hyperextending, and rise only as high as you can go while still maintaining glute engagement.

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

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Want to learn more?

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3 Exercises To Recover Safely From Back Pain ← for anyone who was thinking, for the exercises discussed today, “hahahahaha no, that would hospitalize me”, then these super-gentle, super-cautious, very helpful exercises are for you. They’re less about building from moderate weakness, and more about rehab from serious problems.

Take care!