3 Best exercises to improve spinal stability
Based off the back of last weeks blog, I thought it would be beneficial to discuss and explain the 3 best exercises to improve spinal stability and reduce lower back pain.
These exercises have been scientifically proven to help us in strengthening our spine whilst not putting our spine in to uncomfortable positions that could lead to pain and injury.
BirdDog/ Superman-
with this exercise, the patient is in a “tabletop” position, hands and feet shoulder width apart. It is important with all these exercises to tense our glutes and tummy muscles to activate the small muscles in our back that enhance our stability.
From this position, we raise the opposite arm and opposite leg out, making sure we can our spine as straight and level as possible. To gage how well we our doing this, we can place a tennis ball on our back and if it falls off, we aren’t stabilising our spine enough to keep it straight.
We want to do 15-20 reps as this helps improve muscular endurance.
2. McGill Curl up.
We lie on our back with 1 leg bent and one straight with both hands under the curve in our lower back. , keeping our tummy tensed and our back pushed in to the ground, we gently raise a few cm off the ground feeling our core muscles working holding for 3 seconds and lowering back down. having our hands under our back is a positive cue to keep our spine pressed firmly against the ground telling us the correct muscles are firing.
again 15-20 reps if possible but if too hard scale to 8-10 reps 5 sets.
3. Sideplank
Does what it says on the tin, we can scale it by making it easier doing it on our knees or making it harder by lifting our top leg up or oscillating the movement up and down.
top tip is to do this facing a mirror to ensure from our nose to our toes we are completely straight and feel firing of our outer core muscles (our obliques)
30-45 second holds 3 sets on both left and right side.
These exercises are designed to improve our stability, a consistent programme of 3-4 times a week completing this will help reduce you lower back pain and improve your function.
If you’d like to see these exercises visually, check out our instagram page @jschiropractic to see all 3 exercises in action.