This low back pain exercise routine is a great back pain exercise: it can help relieve pain and boost your performance during your workout. Low back pain is usually caused by muscle imbalances, like tight quad muscles, a weakened diaphragm or underdeveloped glute muscles.

You can do these quick lower back exercises at the gym or at home to warm up your hamstrings and roll out your quads. Check out our lower back pain workout plan below:

Low Back Pain Exercise Routine to Do Anywhere

Tips to Remember Before Starting

Weakened Diaphragm

Your diaphragm is a horizontal muscle in your body at the bottom of your rib cage. It is responsible for filling your lungs with air and allowing you to breathe. It helps your rib cage expand and compress the lungs.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

You need to inhale deep into your belly instead of your chest. Breathing from your chest causes shortness in breath and bad posture because you’re not inhaling and exhaling deeply and completely.

Breathe in through your nose and fill your belly with air instead of your chest. Focus on bringing the air down. Breathe out through your mouth and make sure to let out every last bit of air.

Foam Roll Your Quads

Foam-roll your quads to loosen them up. Make sure to target all four muscles in your quads. Roll them out nice and deep to loosen up the tight muscles and release some stress in the pelvis.

Pre-Stimulate Glute Muscles

Pre-stimulating your glute muscles will strengthen them and allow you to stimulate them more easily when doing exercises such as squats. This will also help your glute muscles become more dominant than your quads.

 

Low Back Pain Exercise Routine

1. Child Pose

Touch your hands to the ground, fingers spread out. Externally rotate your shoulders and then drop back to your feet into a child pose. Take your fingers as far away from your feet as possible.

Breathe in through your nose, and breathe out through your mouth. You’ll feel a contraction around your abs, which will loosen up your lower back muscles. Do 5 sets of 5 breaths each.

2. Tabletop Position

From the child pose, come into a tabletop position and do cat-cows with diaphragmatic breathing. Make sure your hands are directly below your shoulders and your knees are directly below your hips, both shoulder-width apart.

Externally rotate shoulders and keep back in a neutral position, tucking your belly button in. When you inhale, bring your stomach up, and when you exhale, bring it back down. Do 5 breaths.

3. Bring Your Elbow Outwards

Stay in the previous neutral position. Bring your hand up to your head, elbow down, then inhale. When you exhale through your mouth, turn your body to the side, bringing your elbow upward as much as you can. Make sure your hips stay neutral throughout the exercise.

4. Hip Thrusts

Lie down on your back with your knees bent and slightly apart. Then, keeping your heels on the ground, thrust your hips up into the air.

Contract your glute muscles while your hips are raised up, and then slowly bring them back down to the ground. Do 10 reps of this exercise.

5. Single-Leg Glute Bridge

Stay in the same position but keep one leg raised while thrusting your hips upward. Make sure to continue to squeeze the glute muscle connected to the foot planted on the ground. Do 10 reps for each leg.

6. Fire Hydrants

From the single-leg glute bridge, flip over into a tabletop position and do fire hydrants. With your knee bent at a 90-degree angle, bring it out to the side to contract the glute muscle. You can also do this exercise at the gym using an abductor machine.

 

For a demonstration of this low back pain exercise routine, watch this video from our YouTube channel!

If you’re experiencing back pain, try these exercises. Foam-roll your quads, strengthen your glute muscles, and practice diaphragmatic breathing.

Incorporating these exercises into your workout routine can relieve the low back pain you’re experiencing and enhance your performance during any workout. If you have a pre-existing back condition or injury, make sure to consult your doctor before trying this routine.

What exercises do you do to relieve low back pain? Share them in the comments section below!

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