Corrective Exercises For Back Pain

An unpopular truth is that the majority of people will suffer some sort of injury during their lifetime that stops, or severely inhibits, their activity levels.

For some people, it’s an old sports injury. For others, perhaps a forklift accident at work or a bad fender bender on the way to work has caused lingering issues.

Regardless of how it happened, an injury can lead to all sorts of problems, from hip and back pain to rounded shoulders. Thankfully, there are small things we can do, outside of physical therapy and surgery, to help speed along the healing process, such as corrective exercise.

Back pain is one area where corrective exercise really shines. Oftentimes, back pain can be alleviated by strengthening just a few select muscles. After a short period of time, corrective exercise can visibly help improve posture on top of their pain relieving capabilities.

Best of all, most corrective exercises can done in the comfort of your own home with minimal or no equipment.

If you suffer from back pain, and your doctor has cleared you for activity, try these select movements out for a few weeks to see if it helps alleviate any pain or stiffness in your back. When it does, come on back and check out our programs.

1. Floor Bridge

The bridge is a classic movement, best known as a way to strengthen your posterior chain. Stronger muscles generally = less pain.

To perform a glute bridge, lay on your back with your palms down at your sides. Bend your knees and plant your feet on the mat shoulder-width apart, and slowly push your hips up until you make a straight line from your shoulder blades to your knees.

Lower your hips back to the mat to complete the first rep. Do a few sets of 10-12, or as many as you can comfortably and work up to that number.

2. Y Raise on a Swiss Ball

The Y-Raise is a fantastic way to activate your middle and lower lats as well as your rotator cuffs.

While a ball isn’t necessary for the movement, laying on a Swiss ball helps keep you from compensating through the use of your lumbar spine.

In order to do some raises while on the ball, lift your arms up to make a Y shape. Hold the position for a second and then release.

This movement helps to build your overall lower back stability, which will really help alleviate back pain stemming from weak low back muscles.

3. Pelvic Alignment with bar and Ball

Proper alignment is an often overlooked aspect of any fitness regimen. It shouldn’t be surprising that back pain, or any pain for that matter, can come about from skeletal misalignments.

Getting our hips and pelvis into proper alignment can help alleviate low back pain while helping us to move more efficiently.

This particular corrective exercise is very simple, and uses leverage to guide our hips back to their proper alignment. You will need a sturdy bar for this exercise. A PVC pipe, wooden broom stick, or similar will work if you don’t have access to an exercise/flexibility stick.

Begin by laying on your back, flat on the floor. Thread the bar between your legs and grasp both sides of the bar. Holding the bar stable, scissor your legs, bringing the top leg down and the bottom leg up. Hold for 10-15 seconds. Do a few reps on each side, each day.

You should feel a bit of pressure on either leg while applying pressure, but don’t squeeze too hard. You don’t need to do a lot to get results.

4. Bird Dog

You can do this movement with or without a swiss ball. Using the ball definitely helps with stability, but isn’t a necessity for this movement to work.

Begin on all fours while on the floor. Slowly, lift opposing limbs at the same time. If you lift your right arm off the floor, lift your left leg.

Make sure you ae keeping both straight and tightening your core/lower back throughout the movement. Do a few lifts on each side before swapping.

You should feel your whole back tighten up a bit during the Bird Dog exercise as your body stabilizes itself.

This exercise is fantastic for strengthening up almost the entirety of your back stabilizing muscles, which, in turn, means less back pain.

Let Us help You Out

These are just a few simple corrective exercises you can do in the comfort of your own home to alleviate some of your back pain. The next step is to add it to your routine. If you have tried them out and feel they are working, hit us up. We’re here to help, offering a variety of customized workout plans to suit your goals.

At CONDITIONerd we are here to help you achieve better physical and mental health through exercise. Check out the plans we offer to our customers and see if you could benefit from working with our team. And if you have questions, you can always contact a CONDITIONerd team member. 

Personal trainers, like those found here, can help guide you on your pathway towards reaching your fitness goals, whether that is getting bigger, stronger, faster, more lean, or just generally feeling better.

We can get you setup with a periodized workout plan, supplement information, and advice on nutrition to help you reach your goals.

The only thing you need is some motivation and a willingness to change some old habits.

Get into contact with us to find out what membership is right for you. In a CONDITIONerd program, you’ll be surrounded by others who can help you to get where you want to be.

Generally, our clients start to see some pretty awesome changes in 2-3 months time, some sooner.