Exercises For Lower Back Pain That Worked For Me!

Suffering with some kind of back pain is very common; therefore many people try different types of exercises for lower back pain. As a matter of fact, more than 70% of all people will have an episode of lower back pain at some point in their lifetime.

I know this from personal experience. On and off for the last 10 years I've had episodes of back pain. It hasn't been severe, but has kept me from sleeping comfortably at night, hurts if I sit too long, and therefore keeps me from enjoying road trips as much.

Fortunately, I have been able to identify what helps my back pain. Unfortunately, it may not help you, because everyone has different types of back pain and different causes for their back pain. Therefore, your back pain may not respond like mine.

What I'm about to share with you, are some basic strengthening exercises for lower back pain, specifically for the muscles that support your lower back. These exercises give you support and stabilization to the entire area, including your hips and sacroiliac joint.

For me personally, I notice that when I don't do my exercises for lower back pain on a regular basis, my pain returns. However, if I do them regularly and stay consistent with these exercises, then I'm usually pretty good and able to stay pain-free.

So, let me get to the nuts and bolts by explaining these exercises for lower back pain to you. Let me start by saying, there are many different stabilization exercises you can do for your lower back. These are simply the exercises that are most helpful for me.

My hope is that they will be helpful to some of you as well.

Isometric Abdominal Exercise
The first exercise, and the simplest exercise, is called the isometric abdominal exercise. This exercise can be done any place, and in any position, whether you're standing, sitting or lying down.

You visualize your belly button being pulled toward your spine by tightening your abdominal muscles.

I have a coworker that calls this the beach body exercise, because if you've ever been on the beach, you know how most people walk around with their stomach sucked in, trying to look thinner, with a flatter stomach. So you can think of this as your beach body exercise!

Not only do you strengthen your abdominals, but you also get the added benefit of these muscles acting like a back brace. So if you're getting ready to lift something or do something more strenuous, perform this exercise and keep your abdominals tight during the activity, and it should help support your back.

Bridge
The next exercise is called a bridge. This is an exercise that strengthens many different muscles at the same time, including your lower back muscles, buttock muscles and abdominal muscles. There are many different ways to advance this exercise, but I'm only going to show you how to do the basic beginning bridge.

Lay on your back with your knees bent. In this position, tighten your abdominals by doing the isometric abdominal exercise first. Then lift your hips from the floor and hold this position for five seconds. Gradually work your way up, holding the exercise longer, until you can hold the bridge for three minutes. Once you can accomplish this. You will be on your way to a much stronger lower back.

Leg Raise
The next exercise is a straight leg raise. This helps strengthen your hip and leg muscles, but if you do the isometric abdominal exercise first, it can also be a stabilization exercise for your back. As you hold and tighten your abdominals, lift your leg off the floor six to 12 inches. Be careful that when you lift your legs, your back does not arch.




Lower Abdominals
If you are looking for an exercise for your lower abdominals, here's one to try. Lay on your back again with your knees bent up and tighten your abdominals in the isometric abdominal exercise. In this position lift one knee, and then left the other knee to the same position and hold that position for five seconds. Then, slowly lower one knee, and then the other back to the ground. One way you'll know you're not ready for this exercise is that your back will arch when you lift your second knee.




Alternating Arms and Legs
For the next exercise, you need to lie on your stomach. If it's uncomfortable to lie in this position, use a pillow under your hips. In this position, lift your opposite arm with your opposite leg. This is a good exercise to strengthen your back and hip muscles. If it's too difficult to lift both arm and leg at the same time, try just starting with alternating arms or with alternating legs. Either of those will work. Then you can work into doing alternating arms and legs as you get stronger.




Hands and Knees Alternating Arm and Leg
The last exercise is on your hands and knees and will seem a little weird, but it is a great stabilization exercise. Again it's lifting your opposite leg and arm but the trick is being able to hold your abdominals tight during the exercise without tilting your back. Imagine that you have a cup of hot coffee sitting on your back and you don't want to spill it.

Well those are a few exercises to get you started. If you haven't any pain that increases during the exercise and stays worse, you really should consult your doctor or physical therapist before continuing on with these exercises.

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