How To Fix Back Pain: The Three Most Important Muscles To Strengthen
If you're wondering how to fix back pain I have one word for you: strength. The most common cause of chronic lower back pain is muscular weakness. When your body isn't strong enough to support your favorite activities, more impact is placed on the spine. Overtime, this leads to lower back pain and dysfunction. Which means the BEST solution for back pain is to build strength.
But when you're in pain it can be hard to know where to start. The last thing you would want to do is reinjure of aggravate your lower back. In this article we'll show you exactly what areas you need to strengthen to solve chronic joint pain, keep active, and maintain your lifestyle as you get older.
How To Fix Back Pain:
Three Muscles To Strengthen
1. Glutes (Hip Muscles)
The #1 thing that all people with lower back pain have in common is weakness in their glutes and hamstrings. Our glutes set the foundation for proper positioning and stability of your spine. Weakness in our glute muscles can leads to more impact on our lower back which overtime leads to pain and dysfunction.
The safest and most effective way to strengthen you hip muscles with the glute bridge. This exercise targets your glutes and hamstrings while placing minimal impact on the structures of your spine and is needed to fix back pain. There's also many variations to make it easier or more challenging making it a great exercise for all ability levels.
Click Here To Learn how To Perform The Glute Bridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuapk_-Q2BI
2. Core
A strong core helps protect the structures of your lower back. Weakness in your core muscles increases the risk of injurying your spine as you move though your day. Any treatment plan to fix back pain must include a core strengthening routine.
Planks are the safest and most effective way to build core strength for anyone with lower back pain. They engage your core muscles without putting your spine in dangerous positions like many other core exercises. Similar to the bridge, there are many plank variations which make it a great exercise for all ability levels.
Click Here To Learn More Plank Variations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmw7-IFVZPo
3. Postural Muscles
Good posture prevents your body from slouching forward when sitting or standing. This takes pressure off the intervertebral discs of your lower back and is important to fixing back pain. The muscles that run along your back (postural muscles or posterior chain) are responsible for holding your body upright and need to be strengthened to limit impact on the spine.
A great place to begin strengthening your postural muscles (as well as core stability) is with the Birddog Exercise. This movement engages your postural and core muscle groups while placing minimal impact on the spine. You can progress to more challenging exercises like Back Extension Holds as long as it doesn't aggravate your lower back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJl1m1O3QO4
Strengthening your glutes, core, and postural muscles is the best fix for back pain. Chronic lower back pain is caused by too much impact on the spine over too long a period of time. Building strength limits the impact that goes through your back to treat the root cause of lower back pain. And it's why I can confidently say that getting stronger is the most important thing you can do to overcome back pain.
Read more in our series on how to fix low back pain at the links below:
