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What To Do When Back Pain Throws a Wrench In Your Workout

back pain

Shoulder bridges are a great way to see why you might have back pain.

Moves to Do Now to Prevent Back Pain

Here are three steps to take right now toward correcting your imbalances (and you should do these even if you have no pain right now to prevent future incidents).

1. Shoulder bridges. Use shoulder bridges to test for imbalances in the glutes and hamstrings. If you can’t do these, you definitely have weak glutes, and since these guys support your low back, this is a major indicator for back pain.

  • Lie on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Keep your arms straight and palms down, along your sides. Press your palms firmly into the floor, squeeze your glutes and lift your hips toward the ceiling.
  • Place your hands on your hip bones to check if one hip is lifting higher than the other. The hip that is higher has a stronger glute, and the other hip likely has a stronger quad muscle.
  • Correct the twist by lifting the weaker hip until it’s in alignment, then hold for 15 to 30 seconds. Repeat this exercise three times to increase your glute and hamstring strength.

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Comments

5 Comments
  1. Lisa R says:

    If you truly have pain you can’t fix it yourself by the above exercises/stretching you have in the article. You need to see a Chiropractor or licensed Massage Therapist to help manually shift either the lumbar area of the spine or the muscle and fascial tissues in the sciatic area. You are right that the pain is only masked by drugs, not correcting the problem. So do yourself a favor and get it fixed the right way. The exercises here are good AFTER you have the problem correctly fixed.

  2. Cat says:

    I have a bulging disc in my lower back and am under the care of a chiropractor. I have been doing the shoulder bridges as instructed by him for a couple of weeks now, along with a small list of other strengthening moves. I have been told to minimize the time spent sitting so I stand all day at my desk job and in the evenings at home. I am also not allowed to bike (because of the sitting) or run (because of compression/jolting) so I get my cardio by walking and on the elliptical. I am hopeful that I’ll be able to return to running but I know that this disc will always be a weak spot on me and may plague me the rest of my life. 🙁

  3. Gosia Mashigo says:

    Good morning
    I read the comment of Cat saying she is not allowed to bike.I have a terrible backache with two of my discs dropped and the only thing I do to keep fit is an indoor bike with different programmes,each 30minutes.Am i damaging my back more with this indoor bike?

  4. I have started working out on my back pain and i am being cured a bit. Thanks for it.

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