As Jeff explains perfectly, “if you want to know how to get a stronger lower back you have to first figure out a way to make sure the low back doesn’t have to work alone.”
How to Get a Stronger Lower Back
In the video below, you will learn “how the lower back gets a major assist from the glutes in helping you to get strong and remain strong in your pursuit of building bigger muscles, safely.”
Understanding the Lumbar Spine
“The lumbar spine or lower back is an area not known for much motion. In fact, it is supposed to be a stable area that is less susceptible to injury and able to hold up to the rigors of heavier lifting and training. If your lower back is asked to do too much work, it can easily break down and leave you on the sideline unable to get to the gym and train. In order to work to its best, the low back has to get assistance from the glutes to help with extension of the posterior chain from the bottom up as well.”
In the video from Jeff at Athlean-X you will find four great exercises.
“The best part about these lower back exercises is that they require you have no equipment at all. This allows you to do these anywhere at any time. The key is to activate the muscles of the low back and glutes together, which we do on all four exercises, and then hold them for a longer duration.”
The Muscles of the Lower Back
“The muscles of the low back are asked to fire for long periods of time throughout the day. Often, they have become dormant and underactive because of prolonged sitting. In order to keep them strong, it is important to regularly train these muscles and help to improve the endurance of them. The four exercises shown here, will do just that and they will help you to do it without requiring any expensive or elaborate back extension machines or equipment.”
Lower Back Exercises
“The first two low back exercises are performed on your back. Position your feet on the outside edges with your knees bent and then bridge up as high as you can. You want to be sure that you are contracting both your lower back and your glutes at the same time. The positioning of the feet allow you to activate the glute medius, a hip external rotator and muscle that feeds into the pelvis as well. Hold at the top for 5 seconds and repeat for 10 reps.”
“Move onto the single leg lat bridges. Here you want to engage the muscles of the back that feed down into the lower back and pelvis from the top. Drive your elbows into the ground and squeeze up into the bridge. From here, extend one leg out straight for 5 seconds and then the other for 5 seconds. Repeat for 10 reps.”
“Perform the final two exercises of this lower back workout to get a strong low back by rolling onto your stomach. Both of these will challenge your ability to maintain both a glute and lower back contraction while moving your arms. See if you can make it through the 10 reps on each of these as well.”
Video
Learn More
Add Nordic Curls and Reverse Hyperextensions into your training.
Image Sources
- Sara-Sigmundsdottir-Back-Pain: CrossFit / Depositphotos