Does stretching your back help relieve back pain?
Many people that suffer from low back pain find relieve when they bend over and stretch their low back and hamstrings. If you’re one of those people, you might also notice that the relief is short lived. You may be finding yourself bending over to stretch many times throughout the day.
This is a regular and well documented cause of relief. But the research also confirms that stretching your low back doesn’t help “fix” your low back pain issues. It can actually make things worse.
When you stretch your low back, your actually lengthening the muscles. In doing so, your lumbar spine becomes even less stable. Your body usually “over activates” your lower back, causing pain and/or discomfort when other muscles in the core are too weak or not doing their job properly to support your spine. Subconsciously, the low back kicks in and gets chronically tight.
Until you fix those weak muscles (usually abdominals and glutes but could be other tight or weak muscles in the core and hip), you’ll constantly be burdened by a tight low back and stretching it only causes temporary relief.
If you clicked on this article, you’re probably looking for long term relief, a real fix to your low back pain. So I’ve listed a few simple exercise you can start doing to help strengthen your low back and decrease your back pain and discomfort.
Activating and strengthening the Abdominals
There are so many ways to do this. However, my preference is to select core exercises that keep your lower back neutral. That’s because doing crunches and sit ups are actively shortening the hip flexors. The LAST thing we need is to make them even tighter, pulling on the pelvis more. I prefer the Active Leg Raises because your hip flexors lengthen as you lower your leg. At the same time, it forces your abs to work more than your hip flexors by keep your lumbar spine in a neutral position.
Here are some great exercises to help:
Activating and Strengthening the Glutes
The Glutes play a huge role in anterior pelvic tilt and tight hamstrings. If the glutes are not firing properly, external loads will be taken by the low back and hamstrings. The hamstrings tighten up to hold that load. We use 2 types of glute exercises to help strengthen them.
Hip Extension - We prefer hip thrust or glute bridge variations. Anything from Dumbbell to Barbell to Bands, Bilateral or Unilateral. Whatever you see fit.
External rotation and stability of the leg - we use external rotation exercises such a lateral band walks, monster walks and glute clams. By focusing on external rotation we help stabilize the leg and hip (can even help knee issues by helping the IT Band track better) and relieve tension from the hamstrings and lower back.
Next time your back and hamstrings are “tight” do yourself a favour and do some quick mobility drills. You’ll feel better in no time and you’re making things better at the same time!
How often should you do these exercises?
We recommend doing them every other day. Although even doing them 1-2 days a week will still help a lot!
How many sets and reps should you do?
Each exercise should be between 2-3 sets. The reps can range quite a bit but these exercises are usually between 6-15 reps. You want to make sure you’re feeling the exercises in the right muscles and that you do enough reps to really feel the connection with the muscle. Higher reps will make the muscles burn too which is a great positive feedback so you know you’re targeting the right muscles.
If you’re interested in:
Getting rid of your back pain for good
Strengthening your back better than before so you’re less likely to hurt it again
Then my book Back To The Gym is right up your alley. Check it out below!