Lower Back Pain Exercises Should Strengthen Your Lower Back and Add Solid Structural Support

When you think of lower back pain exercises, what comes to mind? For some people, it may be performing different stretching exercises through the use of yoga or pilates. There are a million different stretches you can find on the internet that are intended to help peoples' back pain. Even though they may offer some form of pain relief to pain sufferers, stretches alone should not be the sole component to an effective routine of back pain exercises.

Lower back pain exercises that strengthen muscles may in fact be just as important, if not more significant in terms of helping one get rid of pain. The reason for this is because weakened muscles of the spine region and core do not provide any real structural support for the spine or its related components including disks, soft tissue, nerves and bones. Stretching exercises, by themselves, do nothing to increase muscular strength.

There are several lower back pain exercises that may increase muscular strength for back pain sufferers and help provide more of a structural support for the spine. A primary strengthening exercise is the squat. The squat is important for a couple reasons. First, it works several regions in the body at once including the calves, quads, pelvic muscles, glutes, spinal muscles, abdominal muscles and even the upper back and shoulders to an extent. Strengthening these muscles together at the same time allows them to support your entire body, especially the spine and back, much more efficiently as opposed to just strengthening one muscle group. Second, the squat works your low back muscles and the muscles around the lower back in a more indirect manner. This is important because it puts less direct pressure on the muscles of the low back and therefore its related structures including disks that may be susceptible to injury as well as nerves and other soft tissue.

The leg press is another strengthening exercise for the lower back. The reason for this is because it helps build the quads, glutes and muscles of the pelvis. Strengthening these muscle groups will lend strong structural support to the low back region. You probably never thought of the lat pull as being a lower back pain exercise. Technically, it does not meet the criteria however it does provide an indirect benefit to the low back and its related structures. Having a strong set of latissimus muscles or lats provides excellent support for the entire spine including the lower back region.

In conclusion, when doing lower back pain exercises, be sure to include exercises that help strengthen key areas of the body including the quads, pelvic muscles, glutes, low back, abdominals, lats and even shoulders. A good exercise routine should involve both stretching as well as strengthening to add solid support for the back and its related structures.