Lower Back Exercise

Are you looking for the best lower back exercise? If so read on to find out the simplest to use and the one big WARNING you must follow before you attempt any exercise.

Did you know that lower back pain is the second most common reason why people seek help from their doctor? Yet the results of back pain relief success are very poor. In fact only 25% of you reading this, who are in pain now, will be pain free in one year. The rest are worse or just the same as you are now.

The reason is simple and lower back exercise has a role to play to help improve these statistics, and more importantly help you to relieve your pain. Lower back exercises will help you to relieve back pain only if you use the right exercises at the right time. More on that soon, but first...

The role of lower back exercise

Exercise is designed to build supportive strength in your muscles. Supportive strength means the amount of strength to make sure your joints and muscles work with ease, flexibility and strength.

When you move you need to have both flexibility and strength. If your muscles are weaker then you will reduce in both and back pain is likely.

Lower back exercise must therefore build strength, yet exercise has poor success in helping back pain. There are many who have exercised for months or years only to find back pain remains or returns often.

It is not that you have necessarily exercised wrong or used the wrong exercises. If the nerve or blood supply to a muscle is poor, then no matter which exercise you use, strength will not build.

This is one of the most common reasons why people stop exercising. They feel they are not gaining strength, that back pain still remains and it becomes a little bit frustrating. When you exercise you must first improve the nerve and blood supply, if not you may exercise and not get the results.

You can improve the nerve and blood supply simply by using various reflexes that stimulate the supply. Use these before you exercise and you will gain strength faster and for longer.

Once you do this then all you need to do is use the lower back exercises that target the main muscles that cause lower back pain.

The two best & simplest lower back exercises

The main muscles you should attempt to strengthen are your core muscles. The core muscles support your lower back and entire spine. If these are weak, which they commonly are, back pain is likely.

There are two exercise that cover all the core muscles and are the simplest and best to use for back pain relief. There is one big warning though, but more on that soon.

The two exercises are "The Plank" and "The Superman", although you can modify the Superman to make it more effective.

The Plank targets all the core muscles and also can be used to monitor your core strength. The longer you can hold the Plank exercise, the stronger your core is.

To perform the Plank, all you do is get into a press-up position, with you lying face down on the ground. Have your elbows bent and arms facing forward with hands flat on the ground.

Then you raise your abdomen so that your back is flat and in a neutral position. A neutral spine is the position of your lower back as if you were standing flat against a wall. So you need to make sure your buttocks are not too high or too low.

Then simply hold this position for as long as possible. Initially you will feel your muscles shake and quiver. This is your core muscles working hard to maintain this position.

The second exercise is the Superman.

Simply lie on the floor face down with arms outstretched like Superman. Then raise your arms and legs off the ground again for as long as possible.

You can modify this to make it better and quicker. All you do is place your hands behind your head and neck and resist the tension as you lift off the ground. Simply contract your back muscles as you breathe in and resist the tension with your hands. Then as you breathe out contract the muscles as hard as you can, and breathe out for 7 seconds only and then relax.

This is an isometric contraction and you only need to do this once to build strength in the muscle. You can also do this with the Plank to build strength, but also use the longer timed version to check strength.

There is one BIG WARNING though, before you attempt any exercise.

A lower back exercise WARNING

As I said before, the statistics for back pain relief are very poor. Only 25% of those in pain will be pain free in one year, the rest are worse or just the same.

Yet these statistics also include those who sought help, used lower back exercises and other techniques to try to help relieve back pain. But still only 25% of those in pain improved to the point of having no more pain.

The main reason why people fail to relieve back pain is not for a lack of trying, but they fail becuase they don't know what or where to target. The same applies for lower back exercise. Too many people jump right in to exercise but don't actually know what is wrong.

The first step in any back pain relief program is finding the cause. Once you now the 'exact' cause of your back pain, then you can use lower back exercises to help build strength. Exercise is only a part of an overall approach to back pain relief. You still need to stretch tight muscles, get your joints moving better and improve your healing and recovery rates. However, the first step is always finding the cause.

What is the best approach to ease your lower back pain?

To get long lasting results you must both remove the symptoms and the cause. First you must identify which spinal imbalances are present, then attack the symptomatic processes. This can be achieved by using many techniques from ice/heat, Acupressure and anti-inflammatory measures. Then you must perform corrective techniques that target the spinal imbalances.

The principles of Spinal Balancing address the both the pain and the root cause of the condition that is responsible for your lower right back pain. Through self assessments, your individual spinal imbalances can be identified, and a targeted corrective program can be developed for your specific needs.

Continue to the ... 3-Step-System for Back Pain Relief!