5 Essential Beginner Movements to Help Reduce Lower Back Pain
Intro
Let me start off this article post by saying this, as a consumer – you should always be mindful of any headlines that try to grab you with buzz words like, “top (x amount)”, “Best way to…”, “guaranteed”, etc. Everyone is always trying to advertise their products/knowledge and claim that they have the “best” product out there. Most of the time, these products are a wash, and hardly ever live up to the hype – but not this time! I don’t want to claim that these exercises are “the best”, because that’s a wild claim and can’t be substantiated against other movements or research - but I would argue that they are certainly “essential” for developing improved coordination throughout your core, and subsequently decrease your lower back pain.
These 5 movements that I’ll be going over have been, in my experience as a clinician and as a person who has occasional lower back pain, the most effective way to help relieve symptoms and restore mobility at a basic level. Being able to perform these movements with automaticity is crucial to taking care of your lower back.
I can promise you this, these movements may not be the ONLY thing you need to help relieve your lower back pain – but these will all be a great place to start taking back control of your life. These movements will help improve your coordination with the appropriate musculature, decrease muscle spasms/guarding, facilitate increased range of motion, and most importantly – decrease your pain!
(In future articles and blogs, I’ll be going over other ways to help relieve back pain – relative to the symptoms that are actually going on – stay tuned!)
With that being said, I appreciate you checking out this post, please continue to read further, check the coaching videos out, and share the article with anyone that you know.
Top 5 Beginner Movements to Help Reduce Lower Back Pain
1. Hook-line Transverse abdominus contractions
This may be one of the “easiest” looking movements on a superficial level, but if you’ve ever actually tried it, you already know that doing this the correct way may be trickier than you think! This motion in particular is very important to own, mainly due to the fact that we need to be able to isolate the appropriate abdominal wall stabilizing musculature when we need to. This position is useful to help patients relax, feel their posterior abdominal wall, and put their spine in a comfortable position to do so. If you’re suffering from lower back pain, you most definitely need to be able to gain a conscious ability to activate this muscle prior to performing any movement that will increase intra-abdominal pressure – i.e. rolling over in bed, getting off the toilet, squatting down to pick up your dog. In the video - I talk about the difference between activating this deep muscle, rather than the superficial “6 pack” muscles.
2. Hook line active anterior/posterior pelvic tilts
So this movement is actually what most patients/people will do when I first ask them to “draw in their belly button.” What happens there is -> they tighten up their abdominals, they’ll hold their breath, and their face may turn a shade of red. What we REALLY should be doing here, is working on isolating the lumbar spine segments, and regaining active control when moving into a flexed/extended position from a flexed/extended position.
Depending on the nature of your lower back pain, you may find that one of these positions is more/less comfortable than the other position. That’s totally okay, and normal! When I coach patients with these, I have them work through a comfortable range of motion in both directions.
Disclaimer – “comfortable” for me is <3/10 on a verbal pain rating scale where 0 is “no pain at all”, and 10 is “worst pain imaginable”. I always want to encourage beneficial movements with patients and help them understand that it’s okay to feel some discomfort if you’re already suffering from symptoms and a lack of function. Often times, that’s usually the first step to decreasing apprehension with movement - by reducing fear of that movement!
3. 90/90 Hip lift
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Out of these 5 movements, I would have to say this one takes the cake. I learned this one when I was taking a Postural Restorative Institute (PRI) course a few years ago, and it has certainly helped so many patients decrease their back pain on day one. The main reason why this exercise works – it puts tension and awareness in the right muscle groups to help achieve an efficient position of your diaphragm to breathe all day long. As always when we’re working on diaphragmatic breathing, tongue stays on the roof of your mouth, breathe in through the nose, and a long, exaggerated exhale through pursed lips.
Please pay attention to these coaching tips within the video – there are very specific movements and muscle actions that need to happen at certain times, to make this movement pattern 100% effective.
4. Bridge with alternating LE knee extension
Moving along to the next movement pattern, this movement helps to improve the performer’s ability to shift their weight across their pelvis, while maintaining appropriate spinal/pelvic alignment. When does this happen? When we’re walking! This is also a test that I will routinely perform on patients, just to get an idea of how well they’re able to support their weight on one side of their lower body. One great way to make sure you’re doing this right, is to place a hockey stick/broom horizontally across your pelvis, as a cue to your pelvic positioning.
If this movement is too much of a challenge for you – watch this next video for some regressions/alternate ways to get to this movement!
5. Ipsilateral dead bug
Last, but certainly not least, the dead bug. If performed appropriately and with the right dosage – these can be an absolute killer for abdominal wall training. The main reason why I love this exercise – it brings focus and attention to breathing patterns, rib cage positioning, core stability, and highlights asymmetries in the performer that help direct future treatments.
One way to challenge your coordination/stability further - work in opposition! As in - your right shoulder and left hip are linked together; as well as your right hip and left shoulder.
So there you have it, 5 essential (in my opinion) movements, to help you improve your coordination, breathing patterns, spinal mobility, and reduce your lower back pain. In future blog posts, I’ll be coaching and reviewing other movements to help reduce your lower back pain based on symptoms, positional preference, and activity tolerance.
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