Lower back pain might be a sign of an underlying disease such as kidney stones or severe pancreatitis. Other times, it’s merely a side effect of a sedentary lifestyle or repeated actions.
Lower back strengthening and stretching activities can assist to stabilize the lower spine and support the upper body. The plank and knee-to-chest stretches are two examples. A lower back workout may also assist to lessen and avoid discomfort.
Stretching the back muscles after finishing a back-strengthening regimen can help avoid muscular pain and injury. It may also bring other advantages, such as increased range of motion and flexibility.
The lower back is the cornerstone of a healthy, fit physique. Lower back muscles are also among the most significant core muscles. Keeping them strong lowers your chances of lower back discomfort. It also emphasizes the significance of completing a lower back workout.
Best Lower back exercises should ideally target all of the lower back muscles on both sides of the spine. This comprises the erector spine and glutes. It’s also crucial to train the remainder of your back, particularly the lats and upper back.
The lats and upper back muscles get the most attention in the back, and rightly so. They shape and support your back quite well. You must not, however, overlook your lower back muscles.
Although big, ripped spinal erectors don’t look as good as dense, broad lats, lower back strength serves as the foundation for most lower and upper body motions. You’ll be able to squat and deadlift more weight while also moving and rotating with greater force and explosiveness.
The best lower back exercises listed below target not just the lower back but also the key muscles of the glutes, hamstrings, lats, and upper back. We’ll also go over lower back anatomy so you can better grasp their role and how a healthy lower back may help your training.
Table of Contents
1. Rack Pull
One of the best lower back exercises for the lower back is Rack Pull. Similar to a regular deadlift, the rack pull works with all of your erector spinal muscles as well as your lower, mid, and upper back muscles.
Rack pulls require you to pull only partially through your range of motion, with the bar beginning either above or just below your knee. It’s simpler to keep your spine neutral during the lift because you’re pulling from a higher starting place.
This deadlift variant allows you to lift a greater weight, thus as an added benefit, you’ll get used to lifting larger weights to build strength.
Advantages of Rack Pull Exercise
- As a result of shifting more weight while just using a portion of the range of motion. Your deadlift lockout will become stronger.
- Increases the power of your upper back and grasp.
- Aids in enhancing your standard deadlifts.
How to do Rack Pull Exercise
Either above or below the knees, position the barbell in the squat rack. Use your usual grip and stance for a deadlift.
Squeeze your armpits together as you hinge down, take an overhand grip on the barbell at shoulder width, keep your chest up and shoulders back, and draw up till lockout, finishing with your glutes. Repeat by pivoting back to the beginning position.
2. Bent Over Row
Next one of the best lower back exercises is Bent Over Row. The bent-over row is a great exercise for developing upper back and lat bulk, improving hip hinge mechanics, and strengthening these muscles.
The erector spine, which is the main lower back muscle, will be opposing movement and working to keep your spine neutral, which will aid to develop lower back endurance because you’re hinged over for the duration of the activity.
Advantages of Bent Over Row Exercise
- Increases the size and strength of your erector spine, lats, and upper back.
- Strengthens proper hip hinge mechanism, which will directly affect your deadlift.
- Enhances the power and control of the posture.
How to do the Bent Over Row Exercise
Grab a weighted barbell with a grip that is a little broader than shoulder width while pivoting at the hips. The barbell should now be brushing your stomach as you row it while clenching your shoulder blades together.
Throughout the exercise, your elbows should be angled at a 45-degree angle. Maintain the row’s peak position for one beat before gradually bringing the weight back down. This is one of the best lower back exercises that one should practice on a regular basis.
3. Barbell Good Morning
The barbell Good morning is one of the best lower back exercises for the glutes, and hamstrings. If shoulder mobility or back discomfort are issues, an alternative should be performed.
Lighter weights should be mastered before increasing intensity and range of motion. It’s a terrific workout for strengthening and building posterior muscle and strength once mastered.
Advantages of Barbell Good Morning Exercise
Excellent workout for strengthening and hypertrophy of the spinal erectors and glutes.
The complete posterior chain and all spinal stabilizers are fully engaged, which helps to avoid spinal flexion. This is essentially a hinge maneuver, and your lower back will drive that hinge.
How to do the Barbell Good Morning Exercise
Go underneath a weighted barbell in a power rack. Set up in the same manner as you would for a back squat and take a few steps backward.
With your knees slightly bent, hinge at the hips while maintaining your chest up and shoulders down until your body is nearly parallel to the floor. Reverse the lift by squeezing your glutes and hamstrings until you’re back standing.
4. Back Extension
Next one of the best lower back exercises is Back Extension. Back extensions are performed by lying on a glute-ham raise bench or a back extension machine and flexing your lower back muscles to lower and raise your torso.
It’s about as straightforward as a lower-back workout gets. You may execute this exercise with simply your body weight or with a dumbbell, barbell, or weight plate to load the action.
You may also use tempo training, which involves performing slow repetitions, to stimulate muscular growth in your lower back muscles.
Advantages of Back Extensions
- Back extensions train and isolate the lower back across a wider range of motion, resulting in increased strength and hypertrophy.
- It’s a versatile workout that may be loaded in a variety of ways.
- It may also be done efficiently with only your body weight, which is safer than any other type of loading.
How to do Back Extension exercises
Position your feet on the back-extension machine so that your hips are just above the cushion. Cross your arms across your chest, keeping your chest high and shoulders down, and lower your torso until your torso is parallel to the floor or less.
Take caution not to round your lower back. Lift your body until your glutes and lower back are in line with your legs.
5. Bird Dog
Despite it appearing simple, the bird dog is a fundamental exercise that is unevenly applied.
When done correctly, the bird dog challenges your entire core — including your lower back, which is part of your core — to balance your body while switching your opposite-side arm and leg.
Raising and lowering your arm and leg slowly while remaining stiff is an excellent approach to enhance spine stability. As a consequence, your lower back will be more capable of supporting higher weights. This is one of the best lower back exercises for lower back strengthening.
Advantages of Bird Dog
- This is a fantastic low-back endurance exercise that also improves spinal stability. Low back discomfort can occasionally be caused by a lack of endurance in your core and back muscles.
- It assists users in distinguishing between hip extension and lower back hyperextension.
- It’s a terrific anti-rotation core workout, which means you’ll be better at avoiding rotation when bracing your core.
How to do Bird Dog Exercise
Kneel down in a six-point stance, with your knees under your hips and your hands precisely beneath your shoulders. Keep a neutral back throughout the workout.
Lift your opposing arm and leg straight out, maintaining your core strong and your body in a straight line from head to foot. Return to the starting position and complete all of the repetitions on one side or alternate sides.
6. Superman Exercise
Next one of the best lower back exercises for the lower back is Superman. The Superman is an excellent bodyweight exercise for preventing low back problems, improving posture, and developing a stronger mind-muscle link in your lower back and glutes.
By stretching his lower back and sustaining this position, Superman develops the erector spinae as an extensor.
To commence the action and stabilize to hold the top position isometrically, your lower back will have to operate. This is an excellent lower back isolation exercise that anyone of any fitness level can perform.
Advantages of Superman Exercise
- Muscle and strength are added to the erector spinae.
- The Superman is an excellent low-level exercise that will assist both beginners and seasoned lifters.
- You’ll develop isometric strength and endurance in the lower back, which is essential for core musculature.
How to do Superman Exercise
Lie comfortably face down on an exercise mat, forehead flat on the ground, arms and legs extended. Lift your hands and feet four to five inches off the floor while maintaining your tummy flat.
Maintain this lifted stance for three seconds before carefully lowering your hands and feet to the floor. That is one repetition.
7. Russian Kettlebell Swing
Kettlebell swings are wonderful for the lower back for the same reason that deadlifts are: every time you bend, your lower back tightens to maintain your spine in neutral.
Furthermore, the kettlebell swing strengthens your complete body’s stability and stabilizes muscles since you’re continually adapting to the moving center of mass with each repetition.
The kettlebell swing provides both strength and endurance stimulus to the lower back. This is one of the best lower back exercises for the lower back.
Advantages of Russian Kettlebell Swing
- Strength and endurance training for the lower back.
- Because of its moving center of mass, it engages the body’s stabilizing muscles.
- Excellent workout for increasing cardiovascular endurance and grip strength.
How to Russian Kettlebell Swing
Place the kettlebell in front of you, feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Hinge down to take hold of the kettlebell.
Lift the kettlebell behind you and press your hips forward, then swing the kettlebell out at around waist height. Squeeze your glutes and quads and repeat for repetitions in a continuous loop.
8. Glute Hamstring Raise
This is one of the best lower back exercises. The glute hamstring raise may not appear to be a lower back exercise at first look. It is, however, excellent for generating eccentric strength in your hamstrings as well as a powerful set of glutes.
Your lower back improves at what it does best being a sturdy frame — by contracting isometrically when the aforementioned muscles move.
Advantages of Glute Hamstring Raise
- Increases lower back strength without using heavy weights.
- Develops eccentric hamstring strength to help avoid hamstring injuries.
- Extensive time under strain for the lower back aids in the improvement of lower back endurance.
How to do Glute Hamstring Raise
Position the bench so that your feet are securely fastened and your quads are resting against the pad. Bend your knees and keep your body straight and erect.
Bow at the waist with your arms crossed across your torso until you’re as near to horizontal as possible. Contract your hamstrings and glutes to return to the beginning posture.
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9. Stability Ball Reverse Hyperextension
Next one of the best lower back exercises is stability ball reverse hyperextension. If your gym does not have a GHR machine, the stability ball reverse hyper is a terrific alternative and a perfect regression if you are unable to execute the GHR.
It still works many of the same muscles as before but with a twist.
Because the surface is inherently unstable, you must pay close attention to your technique, and the greater range of motion and duration under stress should provide some additional hypertrophy or endurance advantages.
Advantages of Stability Ball Reverse Hyperextension
- Combines the training of your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.
- Enhanced glute lockout strength due to the stronger hip extension you are achieving with each rep.
- A lower back injury can be prevented by strengthening the glutes and lower back.
How to do Stability Ball Reverse Hyperextension Exercise
With your hips just off the stability ball, place it on the weight bench and then lie on your stomach. Grab the bench firmly on each side, then elevate your legs off the ground until your glutes are fully tensed while maintaining a straight line of motion.
Return them to their original position after lowering them back until your toes are on the ground.
10. Side Plank
Side planks are an exercise that everyone dislikes, but the advantages are apparent. They work practically every muscle in the body, including the lower back. To maintain your spine neutral, the lower back muscles that surround it contract isometrically.
The side plank helps you to maintain a stiff spine when challenged with lateral pressures, whereas most lower back exercise concentrates on fighting anterior flexion. You can count side planks as one of the best lower back exercises.
Advantages of Side Plank Exercise
- A key muscle in avoiding lower back discomfort, the quadratus lumborum, is strengthened with side planks.
- Side planks help to build and preserve the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, and abductors, which are important for the health of the spine and pelvis.
- increases core stability, which improves the way your lower body transfers power to your upper body.
How to Side Planks Exercises
With your knees straight and your elbow just beneath your shoulder, lie on either your left or right side. Raise your opposing hand till it is perpendicular to your torso and pointing upward while you support your body.
Your feet, knees, and hips should be in line. As your body creates a straight line from your ankles to your shoulders, brace your core and raise your hips, then maintain the position for a while.
Benefits of Doing Best Lower Back Exercises
The tiny muscles of the lower back serve as the building blocks for your strength development, aid in injury prevention, and enable the larger muscles to perform their functions.
The following are some of the significant advantages of doing these best lower back exercises.
- Improved Posture – In order to maintain proper posture and a neutral spine during severely loaded motions, strong spinal erectors are crucial. You may mitigate some of the harm caused by sitting by teaching them. As long as you maintain consistency, that is.
- Strengthened Lower Back – Along the spine, the erector muscles are located. They are crucial for spinal stability because they keep the spine neutral under stress and avoid unintentional movement. This is useful during deadlifting and squatting as well as when sprinting, leaping, or simply leaning down to get your wallet.
- Prevents Injuries – This one will begin by emphasizing that if you experience any lower back discomfort, you should consult a doctor immediately. Lower back discomfort should not be treated with direct training of the lower back. The physical stresses of daily living, however, could be better handled by a lower back that is stronger. Consider lower back exercise as a (potential) strategy for reducing discomfort.
FAQs:
What are some of the best lower back exercises?
Some of the best lower back exercises are knee to chest, bird dog, Glute bridges, etc. One can regularly practice these exercises to get effective results.
What can lead to weak lower back problems?
Back and other body muscles might get weaker from a sedentary lifestyle. This weakness may be attempted to be made up for by the lower back, which can result in excruciating muscular spasms. Due to inflammation and muscular weakness, prolonged sitting might result in muscle spasms.
How to make the lower back strong?
The greatest method to improve your lower back is generally with a program of low-impact, bodyweight exercises that also target the abs and obliques. Your back stays strong and healthy by exercising your back and abdominal muscles. You can regularly keep on adding these best lower back exercises to your daily routine to get the best results.
Can stretching exercises help with lower back problems?
Low back discomfort can be exacerbated or caused by weak stomach and back muscles. Because of this, it’s crucial to stretch and strengthen your back and abdominal muscles in order to effectively cure low back pain and help avoid its recurrence.
What is the safest and best way to relieve lower back pain?
The safest and best way to relieve lower back pain is doing the best lower back exercises on a regular basis without any compromise. You should practice these lower back exercises with a balanced diet plan and lifestyle.
Final Words
Before beginning more intense exercise, you should increase blood flow to the lower back and get it functioning with your core. This is because your lower back is made up of a few smaller muscles.
Coincidentally, there are a few warm-up exercises you should perform often that prepare the lower back for action before starting the mentioned Best Lower Back Exercises.
Movements like front planks, hip extensions, bird dogs, and Superman strengthen the smaller stabilizing muscles in preparation for the larger, heavier compound exercises.
It is effective to execute front planks for 30 to 60 seconds followed by 10-15 repetitions of the other exercises suggested. Do these exercises one or two more times.
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