Strengthening your core with exercises like bird dog can help relieve back pain.
Image credit:
Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com
Much of our everyday back pain comes from what happens outside of the gym. When you sit for a long time at work or in the car, your abdominal muscles are not activated as much as when you are standing or moving.
“If your core is weak, your back muscles take on a greater workload to keep you upright and moving throughout the day,” he says. Peter Donohoe, CSCS, two-time Olympian and coach of Hydrow. “But when the abdominal muscles are strong, the back is better supported and can function more freely without compensating for a weak core.”
However, simply adding more sit-ups isn’t enough to keep your back pain-free. “It’s important to prepare the body with mobility and flexibility movements before engaging in strength and endurance training,” says Donohoe.
He suggests adding flexibility and balance exercises to each workout to get your body into proper alignment in preparation for the added load. A July 2020 study inThe Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicinefound that performing core exercises and hip stretches just three to four days a week reduced pain and improved physical function, balance, and activity levels in people with low back problems.
Try This 10-Minute Ab Workout For Back Pain
1. cat-cow
Image credit: Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com
Weather
1 minute
Body part
abs and back
- Start on all fours with your hands below your shoulders and your knees below your hips.
- Exhale as you round your back up, pulling your navel in toward your spine and tucking your chin toward your chest.
- On an inhalation, drop your belly to the floor as you arch your back.
- Continue moving between cat and cow pose for 60 seconds, letting your body move with your breath.
show instructions
Advice
If your back is very tight and you need a few more stretches, try doing a few minutes of hip flexor, psoas Y quad stretches to help release the lower back from tension.
2. Set of curled-up crunches
Image credit: Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com
- Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the mat, and hands behind your head, elbows out.
- Press your lower back into the mat. Tilt your chin slightly towards your chest as if you were gently holding an apple under your chin.
- Curl up into a half contraction, keeping your abs tight and your back flat.
- Raise and lower without completely returning to the ground for 10 sit-ups.
- At the top of the last contraction, hold for 5 seconds, then lower your shoulders to the mat and rest for 5 seconds.
- Repeat 10 more crunches and hold at the top of the final crunch for 5 counts.
- Without lowering back to the ground, bring your right elbow to your left side, then your left elbow to your right side 5 times each.
- Lower back and rest for 5 counts.
- Then raise both legs, knees bent on an inverted table.
- Do crunches as if you were trying to connect the bottom of your ribs with your hips.
- Do 10 repetitions.
- At the top of the last crunch, hold for 5 seconds before lowering down to rest for 5 seconds.
- Then lean sideways, reaching each elbow toward the opposite knee 5 times on each side before lowering to the ground.
show instructions
3. Bird dog
Image credit: Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com
sets
3
Weather
10 seconds
Body part
Back, Glutes and Abdominals
- Start on your hands and knees with your neck and spine in a neutral position.
- Extend your right arm and left leg at the same time.
- Hold for 10 seconds.
- Return to all fours.
- Switch sides and hold for 10 seconds.
- Repeat 3 times on each side.
show instructions
4. Plank knee touch
Image credit: Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com
sets
3
representatives
twenty
Body part
abs, buttocks and back
- Start on a low plank, balancing on your forearms and toes.
- Lower your right knee down with a light tap that just barely touches the mat before straightening again.
- Repeat with the left knee.
- Continue alternating knee touches for 20 total reps (10 on each knee). Do 3 sets.
show instructions
5. Side plank with rotation
Image credit: Hydrow/LIVESTRONG.com
sets
two
Weather
30 seconds
Body part
ABS
- Start in a modified side plank on your right side. Support your upper body with your right arms and bend your right knee to support yourself below your hip. Extend your left leg out and raise your left arm toward the ceiling.
- Lower your left arm and rotate it toward the ground. Pass your left arm through the space under your body.
- Uncurl your arm and return to the starting position.
- Repeat the movement slowly for 30 seconds.
- Repeat on your left side.
- Do this exercise twice on each side.
show instructions
