Lower Back Pain reformer pilates

How do I stop lower back pain during exercise?

If you think that you experience Lower Back Pain during exercise because you don’t have good form or you are not flexible enough, I suggest you change your focus. It is not that good form and flexibility don’t play a role in lower back rehabilitation but if that’s what you focus on, you may never get rid of the pain. If you don’t believe me think:

Do you have friends that are flexible, train a lot under the supervision of trained pilates instructors or see physios for years – yet they are married to lower back pain?

There are certain things to avoid when experiencing lower back pain and 3 things you have to do to, to get rid of the pain:

3 Ways to engage your core

There are different ways to engage your core depending on the degree at which an exercise challenges your body. Learning these techniques can help you eliminate lower back pain when exercising.

As your strength improves you will need to rely less on them as core engagement will happen automatically. All of these techniques involve specific breathing.

Progressively Increase The Load

It is normal when injured to feel the need to protect your back by opting for easy exercises. Over time it is absolutely necessary however to progressively increase the challenge for your lower back. Failing to do so your back will progressively be more fragile.

Address All Relevant Areas

Lower back pain can be due to many reasons. More often than not 1-3 of the following muscle groups are weak or uncoordinated: inner thighs (adductors), glutes (abductors), abdominals, lower back muscles.

Address your weak links and soon the resilience of your lower back will start improving.

Disclaimer:

In 10% of Lower Back Pain cases, doing the 3 things mentioned above is not going to be sufficient. In these instances: upper back mobility, walking gait and the ability to absorb load need also be addressed.

However, having helped dozens of clients fully recover I can promise you that doing the above 3 is likely going to minimise the severity and frequency of the pain by at least 90%. How long it will take to achieve this outcome depends on the severity of the pain and your overall fitness level.