According to the study, 80% of U.S. population will experience lower back pain at some point in life. Many of the issue that is causing the back problem is tightness of the hip. Reason for the tightness of the hip is long duration of sitting and in activity.
Most likely you have experienced lower back pain as you stand up from the chair and after walking for few seconds you feel better. Reason behind that is not because you don't have proper mechanics of standing up but muscle tightness in your hip area that is causing the immobility of the joints which causing the tension in your lower back. Then as you start walking, those muscles does loosen up and become mobile again.
Lower Back Anatomy
Lets look at this from anatomical perspective. Lower back region is consists of 3 major bones, pelvis, femur, and vertebrae. Pelvis is what commonly called hip bone. It is a bowl like structure and sandwiched by vertebrae and femur. Femur is the thigh bone and vertebrae is the spine bone specifically in lumbar region. These 3 bones are connected to each other in rather complex way with 40 muscles in lower back region.
For example, part of quadriceps muscles (rectus femoris) are originated from part of the pelvis insert to patella (knee cap) tendon.
Another muscle called psoas muscles originated from lumbar vertebrae region and insert to femur bone at the top portion and bottom portion of pelvis.
Then when you look act glutes (buttocks) region, there are muscle called piriformis and gluteus muscles that is originated from your sacrum portion of pelvis and insert at top of femur bone.
Move!!
From how the muscles and bones are connected, we can see that we are not designed to sit around but move around. It is difficult to avoid sitting, however, we can always improve the muscles mobility and strength through exercise so that you can minimize or even eliminate lower back pain even after long duration of sitting.
Although I mentioned it is difficult to avoid sitting because of our work, commute and so on, however, we can always create a time to move. Remember the example I shared earlier about standing up and walking? Even when you have lower back pain or muscle tightness, when you start walking there is a high chance that muscles start loosening up and ease the lower back tension. Therefore, first thing you want to do is move as much as possible. Try to walk with normal to longer stride to force the muscles to move even when the muscles feel tight. What this will do is help increase the blood flow to those muscles.
When you stop by at the grocery to buy something, try walking with longer stride or faster. What this will do is allow your hip to move more and get your blood flow increased. If you are worried about your balance from increasing the walking pace then use shopping cart, even if you do not need it for your shopping. Majority of times poor balance is due to tight and weak muscles not because of the age. If you do have pain when walking faster then slow down until you feel like you can move faster or with longer stride.
3 Exercises to Improve Lower Back Functions
Here are 3 exercises to improve your lower back functions. If you already have an exercise routine that is working for you keep on doing what you are doing. You can use this as another option in case you get bored with what you are currently doing.
Basic concept of these exercises are to lengthen the muscles that has been shorten, use those muscles to send more blood flow and strengthen the muscles that are typically weak.
These exercises along with what exercises you are currently doing will work better when you are moving more, sleeping 7-8hours, and eating whole natural food. Always remember, basics never change.
Couch Stretch (60 seconds each)
One of the issues that I see in people with lower back issue is their hip flexors are tight. So first thing you will need to work on is to lengthen those tight muscles. Now you see hip flexors is plural, which means there are more than one muscle. As mentioned in anatomy section, there are multiple muscles that connects femur, pelvis, and lumbar vertebrae. Couch stretch can cover most of those muscles. Find yourself a couch and cushion. Place the cushion under your knee and place the foot against the couch. Depending on your flexibility how you place your knee (closer to couch or away from couch) may vary. Ideally, your foot and knee should be vertical. It probably will be very uncomfortable at first but lean back and push your hip forward.
Psoas Curl (20-40 reps each)
Now that your hip flexors are loosened, we need to strengthen some of the weaker muscles. Whether you squat or deadlift heavy, it is possible that the hip flexors to be weak. Why? What is the primary function of hip flexors? Flex the hip or raise the knee towards the torso. So majority of the popular exercises cannot hit the muscles unless you add the exercises that requires knee raise.
Most important part of psoas curl is to take each rep seriously. You can go through 20-40 reps easily but that will not effectively train the hip flexors. Start from the knee at hip high or above. Touch the floor then quickly pull the knee back up and pause. While this motion is going on opposite leg and hip should be straight without any movement.
Jefferson's Curl (15-30 reps)
Psoas curl is what I refer to as lower back on lower extremity side. Lower back also has a function of flexion and extension of the spine or upper body. Many fitness enthusiast focus so much on stiffening and stabilizing the "Core" muscles but your "Core" muscles also should be able to move. Why? If you are just lifting heavy object at the gym, stiffening or stabilizing the "Core" to keep the spine neutral may be fine. In real life, that doesn't always happen. When the object size or shape is different our spine may need to flex or extend as we lift those objects. Always keep in mind of why you are going to the gym for.
There are various back extension exercises. In this article, I will be sharing exercises that anybody can do at home without any equipment. It is a Jefferson's Curl.
Key to this exercise is straight legs and reach the floor with rounded back. Once you come back make sure to extend the spine and hip straight. You should start with no weight until you can comfortably touch the floor then start adding resistance by holding on the the dumbbells or barbell.
Please keep in mind that these exercises should not be done as fast as you can. Make sure you can feel the exercises. Controlled paced reps are very important. If you need to take a break in between that is ok. These are not ego exercises.
Kota Shimada
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