Strengthening the Lower Back Muscles

Lower back issues are an extremely common ailment, primarily due to weak lower back muscles. So here’s 4 exercises that can help to strengthen your lower back.

1)      Deadlifts

The good old faithful deadlift. Nothing comes close to getting you a super-strong lower back like training deadlifts regularly. When done correctly the requirement to tense and brace the lower back in order to keep a rigid, prone and neutral position while pulling weight off the ground develops solid muscle strength at the base of the spine. This is primarily due to the first pull (ground to knees) requiring the lifter to be cantilevered over the bar to maintain their shoulders forward of the bar, while pulling from the ground to the knees. To do this, the lifter must be extremely tense to maintain a neutral spine while squeezing the glutes and loading the hamstrings as the bar is lifted off the ground, culminating in the lifters torso being angled over the bar at a maximum distance as the bar passes the knee. In order to do this at ever increasing weights, the muscles at the base of the spine (erector spinae, or spinal erectors) must be strengthened.
There are many different types of deadlifts resulting in various stimuli, depending on what you want to strengthen, but all deadlifts in general will result in a stronger lower back.

2)      Front Squats

Fronts squats demand that a lifter have a very upright torso in order to maintain the bar in the rack position over the lifters heels (essentially over the lifters centre of gravity). This is basically to resist the effects of gravity, which wants to take the weight away from you. In order to descend to the bottom of your squat, and the drive back up in an efficient manner (i.e. to keep the bar over your heels and not let gravity steal the bar away from you), the hip flexors must be mobile enough to allow you to keep your torso upright, but the lower back does a lot of the work in actually holding you upright. The lower back muscles need to tense to stop you from rocking too far forward or backwards past the line of your centre of gravity, and as you increase weight over time, the lower back muscles must become stronger to help hold you upright while descending and standing up out of the squat.

3)      Good Mornings

Good mornings can be done as a stretch (i.e. with broomstick to warm up the lower back) or as a strength exercise for the lower back muscles (i.e. with a weighted bar). Placing the broomstick/weighted bar behind the head on the shoulders, the lifter unlocks the knees slightly, before hinging at the hips and bending forward, pushing the hips backwards until a back angle is reached which is roughly the same angle as the initial phase of the snatch (i.e. at the transition between the first and second pull at the knee), before standing back up quickly, even explosively. In order to do this the lower back muscles must be rigid and tense as the lifter cantilevers further out away from the base of the spine, providing a solid lower back muscle developer.

Source: Catalyst Athletics

4)      Hyperextensions

You’ll need a GHD machine for this one, but it’s a great way to develop flexibility and strength in the lower back muscles. Facing forward over the lifting pads with the feet locked in, the athlete bends from the waist, angling their body down till their head is facing the ground. The athlete can then either explode up to an upright position to develop explosive power, or they can slowly raise their torso back to parallel or just above by tensing their lower back muscles and raising themselves up. Experienced athletes can also do this weighted, with a weight plate or bar behind their head for added strength gains in the lower back muscles.

Training any and/or all of these movements will give you a super solid and strong lower back. They’re great for assisting with Olympic lifts, other power lifts and gymnastics movements. Grab some time during open gym and have a crack!

- Adam