One Of The Best ‘Core’ Exercises For The Low Back!

Lower back pain is one of the main reasons people seek expert advice from professionals at health clinics, gyms and studios. As any seasoned health professional will confess, lower back pain isn’t always a straightforward issue to manage and the causes can be numerous! This requires a holistic approach as not every exercise, treatment or lifestyle adjustment is going to produce the same result for everyone.

The ‘core’ is a popular area for movement practitioners to prescribe exercises for when someone is suffering with lower back pain. This isn’t unfounded advice as those with lower back pain can present with ‘weak’ or ‘inhibited’ musculature at the spine/abdomen (the opposite has also been found where there’s too much activation at the ‘core’ but that’s a topic for another day!).

Interestingly, there are other ‘less convential’ approaches that may be just as effective for dealing with back pain but just aren’t talked about as much in comparison to the popular ‘core’.

Walking has been shown to be an effective intervention for managing long term back pain (1,2,3).

One study found, ‘A six week walk training programme was as effective as six weeks of specific strengthening exercises programme for the low back’.

What I love about this is the simplicity of allowing the body to just move as it was designed to - movement is medicine! It makes sense that walking would be so beneficial for the lower back as it has been theorised that the spine is the ‘engine’ of locomotion (Serge Gracovetsky, The Spinal Engine 1987).

As physical therapists and movement practitioners, we should know how to specifically work with areas of the body as specificity can be incredibly valuable and practical. Bearing this in mind, the ‘core’ evolved to allow for efficient locomotion, breathing and dynamic stability. It’s so intelligent that it can perform all three functions at the same time. With every step, the ‘core’ is dynamically adjusting and reconfiguring for you to move through space with minimal effort. Although it’s good to be specific, sometimes just getting outside for a good long walk on a regular basis can make all the difference.

So what?

Let’s not miss opportunities to enjoy and promote healthy human movement like walking on a regular basis. General movement is as important to maintain as exercise. Exercise, move and don’t forget to breathe...

Speaking of walking, I’m teaching a 3 hour Franklin Method webinar on the foot Saturday 28th November. We will be diving deep into the fascia of the foot and how this system improves the efficiency of our locomotion (plus exercises to improve this system!).

Click the link below to book your spot:

Feet For Life: Organising Your Dynamic Base

Movement is medicine.

Tom

References

1) An aerobic walking programme versus muscle strengthening programme for chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. Ilana Shnayderman, Michal Katz-Leurer. 2013.

2) Walking exercise for chronic musculoskeletal pain: systematic review and meta-analysis. Sean R O’Connor, Mark A Tully, Brigid Ryan, Chris M Bleakly, George D Baxter, Judy M Bradley, Suzanne M McDonough. 2015.

3) Supervised and non-supervised Nordic walking in the treatment of chronic low back pain: a single blind randomized clinical trial. Jan Hartvigsen, Lars Morso, Tom Bendix, Claus Manniche. 2010.