Have you ever had an issue with lower back pain? Most people either have, or will, in their lifetime. We work with many clients at Rock Solid Fitness Dunedin who want to either decrease or prevent low back problems. For those clients, we have a few lower back pain relief exercises to choose from, the first of which we will discuss today.
Interesting Facts about Back Pain
- The single leading cause of disability worldwide is back pain. Back pain prevents many people from engaging in work as well as other everyday activities.
- Back pain accounts for more than 264 million lost work days a year—that equals two work days for every full-time worker in the country!
- Up to 80% of the population will experience back pain at some time in their lives.
- Back pain is the third most common reason for doctor’s office visits, right behind skin disorders and osteoarthritis/joint disorders.
- Worldwide, the number of years people live with disability caused by low back pain has increased by 54% between 1990 and 2015.
- Low-back pain costs Americans at least $50 billion in health care costs each year, plus lost wages and decreased productivity, which easily brings that number to more than $100 billion.
What Causes Back Pain?
Many other factors can contribute to low back pain. These include ligament sprains, protruding or herniated disks, or compression fractures. Arthritis, poor posture, obesity, and psychological stress can all cause or exacerbate back pain.
Lower Back Pain Relief Exercises
The problem with most conventional back strengthening exercises is that the leg muscles actually end up doing the majority of the work, and the critical lumbar spine muscles remain neglected and weak.
We are fortunate to have a machine in our facility that offers a unique way to isolate and strengthen the low back muscles (shown in pink in the picture below).
The Nautilus Nitro low back machine that we use has 2 seat belts which go over the trainee’s thighs, an L-shaped seat to block their sacrum, and a foot plate for their feet to rest on. This combination serves to restrain the pelvis, minimizing the involvement of the leg muscles, and effectively isolating those “pink” muscles shown above.
After just a couple workouts on this machine, people report that their low back already feels better. This machine is one of very, very few on the market that isolates the low back muscles in this fashion.
Strengthening this area is a great way to reduce the risk of future injury to the low back.
A Visual Demonstration
Check out this video of Melissa demonstrating this low back pain relief exercise:
In our next installment, we’ll show you an exercise we use that can also be done at home!
What’s your low back pain story? What did you do about it? Leave a comment below!
