This post may be a little long but I hope that it gives someone ideas and maybe even helps them. Just as a disclaimer always consult Your doctor and listen to the experts. This will just be my insights and experience.
There is so many conflicting opinions on dealing with back pain. Honestly You have to find what works best for You. Remember everyone thinks they are an expert on this. I have a book called,"Healing Back Pain Naturally" by Art Brownstein. I haven't read the book in the longest time so my memory of it is vague. But that was the book that convinced me my life wasn't over because of my back challenges.
If I remember right, He talks about Yoga, nutrition and relaxation techniques. He talked about how stress causes back pain. You think about it, Your body tenses up when You have some kind of stress. So his philosophy was a stiff, tense spine is much more susceptible to injury than a flexible one. Stress affects the mind and body.
Years ago I was in and out of physical therapy for my back. I became friends with one of the therapist and his philosophy was muscle imbalances. He told me the most common conditon is the forward tipped pelvis. This is caused by an imbalance between the hip flexors & glutes, quads & hamstrings, lower back and lower abdomen. He said these muscles are weak so that have to be strengthen: hamstrings,glutes & lower abdomen. These muscles are tight so they have to be stretched: lower back, quads, & lower back.
He gave me a routine I use only when I strain my back bad and it works great for me. I'll give You an idea of the routine. 1) lower back stretch 2) lower ab exercise 3) kneeling hip flexor stretch 4) glute exercise- toes in glute squeezes or hip bridge 5) standing quad stretch 6) hamstring exercise- exercise ball leg curl. I think You can figure out the exercises. For the stretches hold for the time You feel comfortable with. The strengthening exercises can be done like any other.
When I first started to feel real relief I have to say it was from doing the Atlas sit up which is a straight leg sit up. You were told to try and touch Your forehead to Your knees, I don't recommend this at all but it was a part of my journey. At first this worked and my back felt decompressed which is what I was told it would do. Again it did work but then came the time when, ever so often I would throw my back out doing it so it wasn't worth doing anymore.
Stuart McGill's philosophy is a little differant than most of the above. Here's an article that he wrote: https://www.theptdc.com/2017/04/back-pain-myths/ Here are some of the exercises he recomends: http://exerstend.com/7-exercises-for-a-better-low-back/
What do I do now? First as I said above, I use my friends routine only if I have an incident with my back. I do some Stuart McGill's exercises 2-3 times a week which don't take long, when I have time. I have a night time route I do which takes all but 2-3 minutes while I watch TV. I got some of the exercises from Youtube videos based on the book," Pain Free" by Pete Egoscue.
Exercise 1) Lay on the floor with legs bent at a 45 degree angle with pillows between the knees. Squeeze Your knees together 20-30 reps. Exercise 2) Same postion as number 1. This time hold the squeeze. Clasp Your hands together arms over head. Move Your arms to behind Your head and back with straight arms for 20-30 reps. Exercise 3) Lay on the floor like You're going to do a bent leg sit up with a pillow between Your knees. Squeeze the pillow 20-30 reps. Exercise 4) Resting Back Arch: Lay flat on Your back. Now raise Your knees up to Your chest and at the same time raise Your head up also. I prefer to look back behind me when doing this. Some recommend head to knees. When You do all this grab Your knees to feel a slight stretch. I do 10 reps.
I believe for myself , that I must be proactive to stay pain free.
John I've been doping tree work fr about 25 years. For the past two years I have been doing it just on the weekends. My weekday job I use a 16 lb sledgehammer, a rhino, jackhammer, and push a thermo machine.
Tree work on the weekends and using the sledgehammer is why I like to keep my endurance up. I know some people say that just doing the physical work is enough conditioning and I understand their point. Maybe for them but for me I want my job to be easier. Conditioning makes my job easier for me and I feel so much better when I do it.
Good questions John. In the past, probably around 2007, I started messing with KBs for a year before I found the stuff that is mostly talked about here. If I remember right Your a fan of KBs? When I changed my weekday job about two years ago what I was doing didn't seem to transfer over for my job duties.
Good thing about keeping a training journal is You learn stuff from yourself. Because of changing jobs I felt like I needed more strength and endurance so I've experimented back and forth with KBs.
The two hand swing felt so good. Back endurance was great and so was my endurance. But looking back over my training journal the same thing happens every so often. I have a back incident where I'm out of commison for a couple of days. What have I learned? It's something I should discard, not worth it for me.
Honestly I've been experimenting for years with differant training proticals. I mostly did this to help others and give my insights. For lower back the exercises I prefer are One Leg Row and Self resistance deadlift with an isometric strap. Isometric deadlifts kill my lower back. As I said above I do the McGill exercises 2 to 3 times a week when I have extra time. They don't take long.
If Your interested here is what I prefer for my routines. I prefer either full body workouts( for strength) done 3 times a week. If I do that I do some cardio like step ups at the end of a workout. On off days I'll do the McGill exercises and stretching.
Most of the time I prefer bodybuilding splits like push/pull/legs or Upper and Lower body. Sometimes I do circuits especially on leg day. Training styles I know work for me are calisthenics, self resistance, isometrics with a strap and light dumbells. But I've been off some of this lately because of my experiments.
Hi John,
The two that have worked the best for me are the Atlas one leg row done standing, and the back, hip and hamstring exercise where you grasp your hands behind your legs and resist your hamstrings against your lower back and hips as you straighten your legs. I've also done and like various types of isometric deadlifting and good mornings with a belt.
Michael
In previous posts you mentioned that you need to train in a way to better condition yourself for your job (I'm assuming some type of manual labor?). If so, and with your above posts in mind, what exercises have you found beneficial for your back. By this I mean, exercises that are not only rehab/prehab or preventative in nature, but also functional for your activity demands.
I extend this quest to Greg as well, since he has experience as a first responder, and thus has to be able to lift and carry bodies when needed.
I know what exercises leave me feeling good/injury free, but unfortunately I find such training also seems to put me a risk during job performance.
I just wanted to add somethings to this. Most people used weights and heavy weights for them in the past. This goes even for kettlebells. Sometimes we all get hard headed or that macho thing takes over our thinking.
Our injury, whether back or other, seems like it's healed or better when we follow another training type. Then we think, " I'm better now" and we go back to the heavy stuff. Not always, but most of the time we end up back where we started.
There's no shame in staying in the game. Nothing at all against weights but if the heavy ones are injuring you why go back to them? If you really want to use weight lighten them up and use tension. Plenty of stuff you can do that will keep you strong and healthy.