Many of us experience some form of lower back pain or discomfort. It is commonly known that long hours of sedentary work can cause or exacerbate symptoms. On top of that, our natural anatomy sets us up for failure. Our right and left lungs are different sizes, which leads to asymmetrical muscle activation when we breathe.
In the past, I tried many common strengthening and on rebalancing solutions, such as glute exercises and stretching, but I never saw significant results. This year, I added these four exercises to my regular workouts and saw a huge improvement in my overall back and shoulder health. If you aren’t experiencing any pain or discomfort, these are still beneficial since good posture makes your workouts more efficient.
1. Relearn how to breathe properly
The exercises in this video help you relearn to use your diaphragm as your primary breathing muscle. Many of us have developed secondary respiration, which means that other muscles that are supposed to support breathing are overactive and end up doing more work than they’re meant to.
2. Strengthen your transversus abdominis
Lower back pain is commonly due to weakness in this muscle, and the exercise in this video helps to strengthen it.
3. Strengthen your glutes
There are tons of exercises out there that target the glutes, but the one Jeff Cavaliere of AthleanX recommends doing every day is the reverse hyperextension. They’re easy to do at home or at the gym.
4. Stretch your lats
This stretch is magical! The video provides a really easy assessment to see how effective the stretch is after just one round.
If you want to learn more about these exercises, these are the experts I follow:
Jeff Cavaliere, AthleanX
Mayami Oyanagi, PT STOP
Misha Cavaye, MC Health & Training