Everything in the human body comes from the muscles of the hips and lower back. These muscles are the engine for power and force in sport, strength and life. Lower back pain usually means the weakness of your lower back muscles, core, especially if you have tight hip flexors, and quads.
Your body works as a single unit – weakness anywhere will be obvious when you move. You must train and develop the whole body for the best results and, with important roles in stability, spine health and power, you can’t afford to neglect your lower back.
Lower Back Exercises
There are two key types of exercises for muscle and strength – bodyweight and resistance exercise. They have their own benefits and drawbacks, but they both have a place in your routine.
Bodyweight exercises use only the weight of your own body and different leverages to work the muscles. They’re great for developing basic movement and strength.
These exercises tend to develop very basic strength and involve stabilising the core and lower back. From the plank and superman hold to the back extension, you’re going to benefit from greater reps and added pauses – you don’t need to load these movements heavily!
Resistance exercise involves using weights, cables or machines to add weight to load the muscles and movements.
These range from big lifts like deadlifts and good mornings to cable pull-throughs. These can be performed in wide ranges of repetitions – barbell movements benefit from training between 3 and 12 repetitions, while cables and machines are lighter and have reduced injury risk.
Rep ranges should be higher on these machines – anywhere between 8 and 20 repetitions, focusing on controlled movement.
Top 5 Lower Back Exercises
Lower back training is crucial for good posture, a healthy spine, and well-rounded development of your bodies. Many personal trainers neglect the importance of this crucial muscle group, especially when it comes to preventing injury.
Prevention is always better than the cure, right? Here is our list of top lower back exercises:
1. Deficit Deadlifts
We have already described how a deadlift looks like in our hamstring article (coming soon!). Compared to the regular deadlift, the deficit deadlift is used to increase the motion of the regular deadlift and enables better activation of your lower back muscles. It also increases the strength of your lockout and the strength of your lift off the floor.
Here are the differences between the traditional deadlift and the deficit deadlift:
Technique
Everything remains the same, with two differences: you stand on a flat, elevated surface with slightly more knee bend than a conventional deadlift.
Mistakes and Tips
- Don’t use more than 3” of deficit unless you’re experienced with this movement.
- Ensure you’re keeping a flat, neutral back throughout the exercise with a braced core
- Keep the weight in the heels and push the floor away
- Don’t allow the hips to shoot up – this places more strain on the lower back
- Try using lifting straps or other accessories for more stability.
2. Supermans
A great multi-purpose bodyweight exercise that strengthens the whole back and teaches extension in the spine. If you’ve got poor posture and tend to round forwards, this is a great exercise for strengthening and stabilising.
Technique
- Lay on your stomach, facing the floor. Keep your arms fully extended in front of you.
- Raise your arms, chest, feet, and knees off the floor simultaneously. Hold the contraction for as long as possible
- Slowly lower your legs, arms, and feet on the floor and inhale
- The repetition ends when you return to the floor.
Mistakes and Tips
- Keep the arms and legs as straight as possible – no flexing the elbows or knees.
- Stabilise your body throughout – don’t rotate in one direction or the other!
- Try to squeeze your lower back while contracting for the best results.
- Try this exercise with the one arm and one leg (opposite sides) to improve anti-rotational strength
- You can add weight (either with a med-ball or weight plate) to make the exercise more difficult and more effective
3. Back Extensions
If you want the king of back exercises, this is it – it trains the back, glutes and hamstrings as well as the core.
Technique
- Adjust the upper pad, and try to set your upper thighs to lie flat across the thigh safety pad.
- Lay on the hyperextension stand, making sure your ankles are tucked tight under the footpads.
- Cross your arms behind your head, or on your chest.
- Bend forward slowly keeping your back flat and inhale
- Keep going forward as long as the motion allows.
- Return your torso to the starting position by tightening the back and squeezing the glutes.
- Clench your butt at the top position and think about driving your hips into the safety pad.
Mistakes and Tips
- Hold a weight plate, medicine ball, Swiss ball, or even a dumbbell in front of yourself for more resistance.
- Keep controlled throughout the whole movement and avoid swinging motions – it is an easy way to hurt your spine.
- Always go slower if possible – this improves your results by increasing time under tension and forcing you to stabilise your spine
4. Rack Pulls
This exercise might be too difficult for beginners. We recommend you use a power rack to eliminate the possibility of injuries.
This exercise is usually done with bigger weights for high performance, so learn the technique first before adding weights.
Technique
- Make sure the pins are slightly above the level of your knees, or in the middle of your thighs. Your thighs must maintain the contact with the bar all the time, and you must keep your feet directly under your hips.
- Use a mixed grip, hook grip, or weight straps to improve your grip with your hands shoulder-width apart.
- Set up with the shoulders above the bar and the back flat.
- Extend through the knees and hips, barbell up and back until lockout.
- Return the barbell to the pins slowly, keeping control of the movement.
- The rep ends when the bar is back in the setup position.
Mistakes and Tips
- Keep your weight through the heels.
- Don’t squat the weight up – your armpits should be above the bar in the setup position
- Drive the hips into the bar, rather than leaning back
- Keep the shoulder blades back and down from the start – do not shrug or roll the shoulders back at the end of the movement
5. Seated Good Mornings
It is an excellent exercise for your lower back. Compared to the regular good mornings (internal link hamstring), you will be able to hit your lower back more effectively – it will cut out the hamstrings and focus on the lower back.
Technique
- Set up the box in the power rack properly, with pins set to the appropriate height.
- Step under the bar and place it on your traps with the back flat and shoulder blades tucked back and down.
- Looking straight ahead, take the barbell off the rack, and keep the spine neutral and tight.
- Keep your core (internal link), shoulders (internal link), and back tight, push your hips backwards to start the descent. Sit back as much as you can with your hips.
- Hinge the hips as much as possible, pushing the hips back and slowly allowing the chest to lower.
- Return to the starting position with control until your body stands upright, exhale, and continue until the remainder of the set.
Mistakes and Tips
- Your spine should stay neutral with a tight core and back muscles.
- Make sure to check the pin height – when performed incorrectly, this exercise is very dangerous.
- Pins should be set slightly under your range of motion.
- Try pushing your hips backward for better activation of your lower back muscles.
Final Word
You don’t need to have injury risk in the gym to improve your results. Your time should be spent on effective, safe movements. The only time you’re at-risk is when loading heavily without proper technique or control.
Practice movement quality first and foremost, putting your ego aside to master safe movement. Many personal trainers and fitness ‘gurus’ neglect control and safety in favour of pushing ego-weights. Strength and size come with patience and doing things right!
If you spend your time training effectively, you’ll protect your spine from injury in the long-term and improve your overall wellbeing.
Credits
Hercules fighting Achelous transformed into a snake (1824), bronze sculpture by François-Joseph Bosio – photo by Spencer Means. Read the story.
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