Welcome back to this week’s edition of 2-Minute Tuesdays. Now this week, we are talking to those of you who are wanting to strengthen your low back muscles. You have been told that you have a weak core or your low back isn’t strong enough, and you are looking for ways to do that without potentially aggravating your low back. Here are some things you could consider adding into your regular exercise routine in order to strengthen your low back muscles.
1) Strengthen Your Core In All Three Planes
Our first tip if you want to effectively strengthen your low back is to make sure you are challenging and strengthening your core muscles in all three cardinal planes. You want to make sure you are strengthening your core by doing front to back motions, side to side motions, and twisting rotation motions. This will help to ensure that all of the muscles of your core, including your low back muscles, are being challenged and strengthened.
Action Step: Looking for a straightforward way to make sure your core muscles get stronger? Download the MAS At-Home Workout Program here to receive video-guided workouts that you can do right from home!
2) Utilize Isometrics
Our second tip if you want to effectively strengthen your low back is to utilize isometric exercises for your low back muscles. Sometimes the more traditional low back exercises can seem intimidating or feel dangerous, however, isometrics can provide a great challenge to your muscles with minimal risk.
Action Step: If you know of an exercise that you want to do to strengthen your low back, turn it into an isometric exercise by not moving when you do it. This can help to make sure you are not moving too far during the exercise as well as allow you to focus on squeezing your low back muscles.
3) Move Slowly When Doing Resistance Training
Our third tip if you want to effectively strengthen your low back is to move slowly when you are doing your resistance training exercises. Too often, we see people doing core exercises and they are moving WAY too fast for their own good. Slowing down will not only help to keep you safe, it will make the exercise more effective, too!
Action Step: When you are doing low back exercises, try to move slower than anybody else in the gym. A reasonable starting tempo may be to move in one direction for three seconds, pause for two seconds, move the opposite direction for three seconds, and pause for two seconds.
