Back pain, the evil word that almost everyone can associate himself or herself with in one way or another.
Lower back pain can be extremely debilitating, whether its: walking, running, jumping, lifting weights, driving the car or even sleeping, back pain will be sure to stop you in your tracks.
Not only will it affect your training, performance and general comfort, it can also be extremely frustrating.
How do I know?
I know because I’ve experienced it for myself, for a number of years. I could barely run, I couldn’t squat or deadlift without pain, I couldn’t stand for long periods of time, sleeping was horrendous and my training all round sucked!
But luckily for you, over those years I’ve found a list of key things that have helped alleviate and even eliminate my lower back pain, to the point where I’m now back training heavier than ever, running faster than ever and sleeping with no discomfort.
Here’s a list of 5 things you can do to help prevent or eliminate back pain.
#1 Learn the art of the pelvic tilt.
A common cause of lower back pain is poor positioning of the pelvis (usually an anterior tilt). The sooner you can learn to control the positioning of your pelvis and pelvic floor, the sooner you will be pain free. Something like Pilates will have you well on your way.
#2 Sit down less.
As I discussed in #1, the positioning of your pelvis plays a pivotal role in your lower back pain issues. Sitting down causes the hip flexors (and surrounding hip muscles) to tighten up over time, this will usually also cause your glutes to become lazy and in some cases, even get to the point where they aren’t firing at all when you need them to (running, jumping, lunging, squatting, deadlifting etc).
Honorable mention: Stop performing so many damn crunches! It doesn’t matter if 6-pack abs is your goal or not, endless crunches isn’t the answer. This is just another movement causing tight hips and weak glutes due to the hip flexors taking a lot of the load, which is not what you need.
#3 Wake up your glutes.
Lazy glutes = lower back pain 9 times out of 10. The answer, wake them up! Exercises such as: glute bridges/hip thrusts, clam-shells, theraband activation exercises, isometric glute bridge holds… the list goes on.
Check out this video: Top 5 Glute Activation Exercises To Wake Up The Glutes
Once the glutes have been activated: Now that the glutes are activated and firing the way they’re meant to, it’s time to build up some strength and size in that area. Add in big movements such as: Squats, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, barbell hip thrusts, lunges, step ups etc. These are the exercises that will give you the most bang for your buck and teach your posterior chain to work as a unit.
#4 Reduce tightness in surrounding muscle groups.
SMR= Self myo-fascial release. Use tools such as: Foam roller, spikey ball, lacrosse ball, golf ball, pocket physio etc, to help release the fascia covering the surrounding muscles.
Areas you want to work on: Quads & ITB’s, hamstrings, lower back, TFL, even calves.
#5 Release your hip flexors.
Now this has been the biggest one for me. Start utilizing any hip mobility drills you can think of. The more time you can spend releasing and lengthening your hip flexors, the better. Remember healthy hip flexors will lead to a neutral pelvis, which then allows the glutes to fire effectively. Does anyone know the duration of the achieved effect? I have chronic pain that cannot be treated by other drugs. Will Tramadol help me achieve permanent results? Can the medication be administered long-term? Tramadol recommended at HealthandRecoveryInstitute website http://www.healthandrecoveryinstitute.com/tramadol-online/.
Side note: Not only does tight hips results in lazy and weak glutes, but it’s the most common cause of hamstring injuries in athletes. This is due to the fact that you’re hips are likely in a anterior pelvic tilt position, which then leaves the hamstrings constantly on stretch/over-stretched. The most common action following this is for an individual to then stretch the hamstrings because they feel tight, when in actual fact they’re making matters worse, as the hammys are already over-stretched.
Summary
Yes, lower back pain is common, yes lower back pain is frustrating, yes lower back pain will severely reduce what you are capable of doing, but lower back pain is both preventable and treatable. Give the 5 steps above a try and see if they can help you like they helped me.
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