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Exercises that strengthen the lower back are an essential component of any workout routine. In fact, such exercises can help you preserve your range of motion, mobility, and also protect you from age-related ailments like chronic pain and more.
Moreover, exercises that strengthen your lower back can help keep your back stable and your upper body strong. They might also help relieve or stop lower back pain to a great extent. After a rigorous routine, stretching the back muscles can help prevent muscle soreness and injury.
This article shows you how to strengthen your lower back. Together, the workouts explained in the piece can help people with lower back pain find some relief and deal with it effectively.
Exercises to Strengthen the Lower Back
Check out the following exercises to strengthen the lower back:
1) Glute Bridge
The glute bridge is an excellent exercise to strengthen the lower back. It works out your hip muscles as well as hamstrings and also helps with external rotation, which is when the knee and hip move away from the body, and abduction, which is when the leg moves away from the body.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat and hip-width apart on the floor. Put your arms down by your sides with the palms of your hands facing up.
- Step 2: Tighten the muscles in your stomach and squeeze the muscles in your buttocks.
- Step 3: Get your hips off the floor, and keep lifting until the shoulder, hip, and knee are all in a straight line.
- Step 4: Stay there for at least two seconds.
- Step 5: Move slowly back to the starting point.
- Step 6: Do the steps above ten to fifteen times.
2) Plank
The plank exercise mainly works the abs, but it also uses arms, shoulders, hip flexors, and feet. This makes it a good exercise for stabilizing the whole body. In this way, it can be an excellent exercise to strengthen the lower back.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Lie on your stomach with your forearms on the ground and your elbows in line with your shoulders.
- Step 2: Pull in your stomach and your buttocks.
- Step 3: Get both knees and hips off the floor.
- Step 4: Hold the position for 10–30 seconds without letting your pelvis sink toward the floor.
- Step 5: Move back slowly to the starting position and do this for five times.
3) Abdominal Drawing-in Maneuver
Exercises to strengthen the lower back can also be exercises that strengthen the abdominal muscles. A strong core can help keep the spine straight and the hips in the right place. Weak ab muscles can lead to a weak core, which can cause pain in the lower back.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Lie on your back with your knees bent and your arms by your sides.
- Step 2: Keep your back straight and pull your bellybutton toward your back. Inhale.
- Step 3: Let out your breath as you tighten your stomach muscles and pull your belly button toward your spine.
- Step 4: Stay in that position for 10 seconds, then let go, before you take a 15-second break.
- Step 5: Do it again for ten times.
4) Abdominal Crunches
Crunches help build a strong core, which helps support the spine and keep the hips in the right place, and also strengthens the lower back.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Lie down on the floor with your back flat, knees bent, and feet flat and hip-width apart.
- Step 2: Cross your hands over your chest or reach down along your sides toward your feet.
- Step 3: Contract your stomach muscles and lift your head and shoulder blades off the floor as you exhale.
- Step 4: Put it back to where it started.
- Step 5: Do the exercise above 10–15 more times.
5) Knee-to-Chest
Knee-to-chest stretches can also help strengthen the lower back. They stretch out the muscles in the lower back, which can help relieve pain and tension.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Lie on your back with both legs flat on the floor.
- Step 2: Raise your right leg and bend the knee toward your chest as you do so.
- Step 3: Pull the right knee toward the chest with both hands.
- Step 4: Put your right knee against your chest and hold it there for a few seconds.
- Step 5: Go back to where you started.
- Step 6: Do the same thing with your left leg, and then go back to where you started.
6) Bird Dog
The bird-dog exercise will strengthen the lower back by working out the muscles in the buttocks. It also works out the back extensor muscles, which attach to the back of the spine and allow a person to stand, bend, and lift things.
Instructions:
- Step 1: Get on your hands and knees, and put your shoulders right over your hands and your hips right over your knees.
- Step 2: Tighten the muscles in your stomach and stretch your right arm straight in front of you.
- Step 3: Stay in place while keeping your balance.
- Step 4: Lift your left leg slowly and stretch it straight out behind you.
- Step 5: Stay in place for 15 seconds.
- Step 6: Slowly move back to Step 1 and do the same thing on the other side.
- Step 6: Do it again five times.
Takeaway
As you grow older, weakened hip muscles, thigh muscles, and lower back muscles can result in lower back pain. If you spend long hours sitting or standing, this is even more likely to happen because your muscles are used to not being exercised. The only way to strengthen the lower back and avoid age-related chronic pain issues is to exercise all of these muscles regularly.
