Low Back Stability Training
Intro to Stability Training for Your Lower Back
Low back pain and instability are chief complaints for many of our patients. Fortunately, we have the tools to bring relief when your low back is flared up. More importantly, we have in-depth knowledge of how to strength train to avoid further low back pain and instability.
Along the length of the spine, grooves and protuberances come off the vertebrae. Every single groove, every single bump, is actually an insertion point for either large or small muscles, intrinsic muscles we call them. When we look at back strengthening, specifically training the muscles of the back for increased stability, there are two broad categorizations to consider: the first is stabilizing the low back through activation and facilitation of these small intrinsic muscles that attach to the spine. These small muscles are very dense with mechanical receptors, which give us valuable information about our backs.
Another way that we can look at strengthening and stabilizing the back is by looking at the intrinsic muscles of the spine that connect to muscles that wrap around to our front—our core muscles. The way that we strengthen these core muscles and their fascial connections to the spine greatly impacts the stability of our low backs.
Our goal in the coming videos is to demonstrate some of the ways in which we can strengthen and activate the muscles that are intrinsic to the spine, as well as the core muscles that connect to the spine via fascial connections.
Can Your Breathing Really Help Stabilize Your Lower Back?
One of the big game changers for increasing your lumbar or your low back stability is actually learning how to use the breath properly. Often we'll think, “oh, I need to suck in my chest, and then I need to tighten up my core.”
Surprisingly, to increase our core activation which will increase our lumbar spine stability we will do the opposite of sucking in.
Pushing our belly out and expanding our stomach 360 degrees around our core helps us to descend our diaphragm and create pressure within our abdomen. When this pressure is created in our diaphragm, it gives us the foundation for our core muscles.
Our core is not just that six-pack muscle that sits here on the front of our abdomen but actually composed of many layers of muscles that actually crosshatch between each other in order to give us the ability to rotate side to side, flex forwards, extend backward, etc.
When we have the best core muscle activation, we have the best stability in our lumbar spine. To learn how to create this pressure, check out our video where Dr. Hedges explains more about lumbar stability and how to create pressure in the abdomen.
Simple Exercise to Start Strengthening Your Lower Back
this exercise is a great way to stretch and strengthen the deep stabilizers of the spine. This simple exercise can be done even in the height of a low back pain episode.
When you're doing this modified side plank, you can use your knees as the anchor, instead of your feet (like the traditional yoga pose).
Laying on your side, put your elbow under your shoulder to lift your torso, making sure your spine is straight. Next, take a big breath into your stomach, and then press into the knees in order to lift your hips.
The goal is to train our endurance in this position, so we want to hold our hips up for 30 to 45 seconds to start. Eventually, we can increase the time up to 60 or more seconds. Ideally we can do 3-4 rounds in a row, 1-2 times per day.
When you are experiencing low back pain or tightness, this is really great way to stay mobile while strengthening those intrinsic stabilizers of our spine (without adding too much compression between the vertebrae).
Even though you might not feel like moving when your back is flared up, it is crucial to stay mobile, so keep moving and do this exercise with 3-4 repetitions 1-2 times a day, even after you start to get relief. Continuing to strengthen your spine stabilizers with this exercise will reduce low back pain incidences over the long run.
How the Bird Dog Exercise Helps Stabilize Your Spine
There’s an exercise that's great for improving the stability and strength of your back, especially the strength of some of the really deep intrinsic muscles of the spine and it will not increase the compression that can occur between the vertebrae.
This exercise is called the Bird Dog, and it was developed by a PhD biomechanics expert named Stuart McGill.
What you do with this exercise is just start on all fours. Then you press a little bit into your hands, breathe into your stomach and create a small brace but not too much. Then bring one hand up into the air and bring the opposite leg up as well.
This will challenge your coordination and your stability a little.
We will hold this exercise for 30 to 45 seconds so that we can then start to train the endurance of those deep intrinsic muscles of your spine. This shouldn't really increase your pain too much. If it does, then just modify it by only bringing up the arm or only bringing up the leg.
We should be able to do some version of this exercise without increasing your pain or discomfort.
Like any exercise, consult with your physician or your practicing conservative management specialist before you start any of these exercises.
If these have been prescribed to you and it is increasing your pain, then let your doctor or physician know and they can modify that exercise so that we can get you back to doing what you want to do.
