For someone like my dad, who doesn’t strength train as part of his everyday life, the idea of stretching to alleviate pain is straightforward. If you go for a hike and your legs are sore, you should stretch out. If you play baseball on the weekend and your arm and shoulder hurt, stretch them. It makes sense. However low back pain, as a chronic condition, is more complicated than these other examples.

True: the pain is most immediately caused by stress, overexertion, or tightening of the lower back muscles. Performing lower back stretching exercises that target this area, such as lying on your back and slowly pulling one knee at a time in to your chest can reduce the pain for a time. But to really resolve the problem we have to determine and target the real cause of lower back pain.

For most adults who suffer from chronic back pain, the real problem is weak abdominal muscles. The group of muscles that hold our bodies upright are generally referred to as the core muscles. Within this group it is very common for those muscles in front of the abdomen to weaken from too little use, due to a lifestyle dominated by sitting. We sit in the car, in front of the computer, at the office, and on the couch at home. All of this sitting does nothing to strengthen our abdominal muscles; yet still we expect them to hold us up whenever we decide to stand, or to sit without slouching. Because the abs are unable to do what we expect of them, it falls to the postural muscles in the back (which are much smaller than the true core muscles) to pick up the slack.

So to really alleviate low back pain, it is essential to begin a routine that will strengthen our core muscles; especially the abdominals. To someone like my dad, the idea of stretching to relieve muscle discomfort is much more acceptable than the idea of exercising the complete opposite side of the body. But the fact of the matter is that no amount of time spent on lower back stretching exercises will prove as effective a long term solution as overall core strengthening. Now that you know, what steps will you take to prevent future back pain?

Now that we’re clear on the cause of lower back pain, we will move onto what can be done about it. If you’re already suffering from chronic lower back pain, it’s too late to know that it’s actually a preventable condition. But if you have not yet reached a point in your life where back pain is an issue, read on, and hopefully you never have to.

Lower Back Strengthening Exercises: Abdominal Training

Just because it’s easy to lose abdominal strength (sitting, sitting, and more sitting… sound familiar?) doesn’t mean it has to be difficult to gain it. Making an effort to incorporate abdominal exercises into your everyday life can be as simple as setting aside 5 minutes in the morning and at night for bicycle crunches and balance exercises.

Whenever you think of it during the day, tighten your abdominals by pulling in your belly button and standing (or sitting) tall. As we discussed earlier, posture is both a cause and effect of abdominal strength, or the lack thereof.

If you know you’ll be more successful with a structured ab strengthening routine, join a gym or studio that offers core strengthening classes, and go as many days a week as you can. Core strengthening exercises and lower back strengthening exercise are one and the same. So to reduce chronic low back pain and increase your body’s overall functionality, incorporate both into your daily life. It’s easier than you might think, and time will show that the choice was a good one.

The lower back is made up of a number of relatively small muscles whose job is to provide postural support to the abdomen. The nature of these muscles is to provide consistent support for long periods of time: they are endurance muscles. I’m a big advocate for functional training, which means that I like for the exercises I perform during resistance training to reflect movements I might actually make in my every day life. In my mind, exercises for the lower back, specifically, would include holding postural-specific positions; forcing these small muscles to engage. I can’t remember the last time I flexed and extended repeatedly from the back of the pelvis. Perhaps if I were a gymnast…

I stand, sit, and lie down on a daily basis. With each of these positions, and in transitioning from one to another, my lower back muscles are working: tirelessly supporting my upper body for hours at a stretch. They work with the other core muscles (in large part, the abs) to keep me upright; and if the rest of the group isn’t as strong as it needs to be, then the lower back picks up the slack. This extra strain, caused by weak core muscles, is the cause of most chronic low back pain.

If we want to discuss exercises for the lower back, it is important to consider workout that targets all of the core muscles. Weakness in the abdominals results from a lack of use, and translates in many people to lower back pain. Therefore any exercise designed to strengthen the core muscles- crunches, balance exercises, or simply maintaining good posture while performing other movements—qualifies as a low back pain-reducing exercise.

Sometimes taking your cues from someone else’s workout can be a great way to add variety to your own. But it’s always a good idea to understand an exercise before adding it to your routine. If it’s exercises for the lower back you’re looking for, look no further than any basic core strengthening routine. After all, training functionally lets us live functionally. And isn’t that what we’re all really after?

The majority of low back pain is both not only treatable, but also preventable. So if you currently suffer from chronic back pain that you can’t attribute to a single event or injury, of if you don’t, and would like to keep it that way, read on.

The simple truth is that the majority of lower back pain is the result of chronic tightness due to a lack of abdominal strength. Unfortunately the seated position in which we spend so much of our time (at work, in the car, on the couch) neither requires nor promotes use of the core muscles (abs and mid to low back). Unless we make a concerted effort to exercise these muscles, the natural tendency is for them to weaken due to lack of use.

If the abdominals are strong and tight they can better support the upper body in an upright position, and as a result can release stress from the low back. The best exercises for lower back pain are therefore those that strength the abdominal and other core muscles.

Balance exercises like the plank are beneficial in strengthening many of the muscles whose weakness is associated with chronic back pain. In fact, an exercise that challenges balance in any position will result in tightening and subsequent strengthening of the core muscles. There are a number of online video trainers that provide step-by-step instructions and demonstrations on how to perform balance-based abdominal exercises for lower back pain.

As a remedy for existing back pain, abdominal strengthening exercises should be combined with a good stretching routine. As you gain strength and flexibility within your core, discomfort in the low back during everyday activities should decrease noticeably.

Now before we get into specifics, let me say that unless you’ve been recommended otherwise, the deadlift is NOT a lower-back rehab exercise. You should only begin a program of deadlifting if your lower-back has the all-clear.

Having said that, regular deadlifting (and this applies to the stiff-leg and Romanian variations of the exercise) is probably the single best lower back exercise you can do to prevent lower back pain and injuries in the future. There are even many well-documented cases of trainees who’ve suffered with chronic lower back pain for years that has cleared right up once the posterior chain of the lower back, hamstrings and glutes has been strengthened through deadlifting.

(Again though, if you have lower back issues – see a health professional!).

Why is the deadlift so effective? Partly because it’s a full-body compound exercise. When you deadlift, you’re working your hamstrings, glutes, lower back, upper back, trapezius and forearms. The growth response from heavy deadlifting can be phenomenal, and it’s probably the number one exercise for growth in the lower back.

How should you include the deadlift in your routine?

As well as being the most effective, the deadlift is one of the most taxing lower back exercises. Regular deadlifts should not usually be performed more than once a week – and possibly even less frequently if your routine is “pull-heavy”; i.e. if you’re already doing cleans, snatches or stiff-leg-deadlifts.

The closer you go to failure, the longer it will take to recover – I like to train my regular deadlifts in the 4-6 rep range, once a week, keeping a couple of reps “in the tank”. This is extremely effective at building strength – I can train this way for months while adding some weight to the bar each week. Personally I also find this rep range optimal for building size in the lower back and hamstrings, although your results may vary. Experiment with rep ranges to find what works for you.