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If you suffer from low back pain, you’re in good company.
Two-thirds of America is right there with you – and a third of them say low back pain has affected their ability to engage in tasks of daily living, exercise, and sleep (1).
Not only that, but 72 percent of people with back pain say they use pain medication to relieve their symptoms.
But are medications the only way to alleviate low back pain?
And what about prevention? We can’t all be doomed to low back pain occurring at some point in our lives, right?
Right.
There is a way to relieve and prevent low back pain – using exercises. Specifically, core stabilization exercises for low back pain.
When you think of the core, you might be wondering how your abs help with back pain. Stay with me.
The great aspect of core stabilization exercises is that they engage the entire trunk of the body –not just isolated areas like the “six-pack.”
The core includes much more than the visible muscles we refer to when we talk about our abs.
In fact, the glutes, inner abdominal wall muscles, pelvic floor, and hips all make up this comprehensive region, which allows us to perform nearly every movement we make.
But due to too much sitting and the lack of proper core exercises, the intrinsic muscles of the core become weak.
When this happens these internal muscles – the transverse abdominis and multifidus (or core stabilizer muscles for short) – have a hard time performing their main duty: stabilizing the spine.
Over time, this can lead to low back pain as your spine begins to compensate for your stabilizer muscles in holding you upright. Not to mention, weak stabilizer muscles can also create bad posture, or the “stooped” effect, as well as put you at risk for dangerous spinal and disk injuries (2).
One thing I want to address before launching into the best core stabilization exercises is why performing crunches won’t help your stabilization muscles.
When most people think of ab exercises, they automatically think of crunches. That’s because we’ve been conditioned to think that way by mainstream fitness videos and instructors who constantly preach that crunches are the best way to get a strong core.
They are wrong.
The problem with crunches (and many other abdominal exercises) is that not only do they poorly engage your core (compared to other exercises like planks), they also put massive stress on your spinal discs by compressing and stretching them in an unnatural way (3).
Remember, the role of the core is to stabilize the spine, not compress and move the discs (which, by the way, is more likely to make low back pain worse, rather than relieve it).
Many abdominal machines use the same type of movement as the crunch, except they usually involve added weight.
As you might guess, ab machines can be even more dangerous than regular crunches thanks to the added weight, as the spinal disks are put under even more stress.
In addition, exercises like hanging knee raises that don’t involve weight actually put extreme stress on the hip flexors (the muscles the connect the tops of our hips to our abdominals).
This can actually put you at a greater risk for low back pain, as tight hip flexors further pull your body forward and loosen the stabilizer muscles in the lower back.
Check out the exercises below, which are some of the best core strengthening exercises for lower back pain.
The stability ball grasshopper is an intense stability exercise, building strength in the arms and abdominals, as well as improving balance.
Hamstring roll-ins are excellent for engaging the stabilizer muscles of the entire lower back, while also engaging the hamstrings.
This exercise is amazing for engaging the obliques and lower core stability muscles, as your abdominals have to work overtime to keep you from falling to one side.
This exercises challenges the entire core region, as you work to maintain your balance while twisting the ball.
The ball pike is one of the best dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises, as it moves through the full range of core movement while also engaging the stabilizers to keep your balance on the ball.
These lumbar spine stabilization exercises are some of the most effective you can perform to strengthen your core stability muscles and reduce and/or prevent low back pain.
Try to add a group of these into your workout routine 2 to 3 times a week to start.
As a bonus for doing this, you’ll notice what is referred to as the “corset effect,” as your core muscles begin to tighten and zip up your core.
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Yuri Elkaim is one of the world’s most trusted health and fitness experts. A former pro soccer player turned NYT bestselling author of The All-Day Energy Diet and The All-Day Fat Burning Diet, his clear, science-backed advice has transformed the lives of more than 500,000 men and women and he’s on a mission to help 100 million people by 2040. Read his inspiring story, “From Soccer to Bed to No Hair on My Head” that started it all.