Core Exercises You're Missing:
At Home Lower Back Strengthening
You do ab work consistently so you must have a strong core right? Maybe…but maybe not. The core muscles are more than just your abs. In this post, you’ll learn two different at home lower back strengthening exercises that you can do to step up your core strengthening routine.
What is the core?
The ‘core’ is often confused with the abdominal muscles so let me clarify for you. While the abdominal muscles are part of your core, they’re not the only muscles of your core. Your core is basically the central part of your body, so some other muscles that are also part of your core are the pelvic floor muscles, the lower back muscles, and even some hip muscles.
One of the main jobs of your core muscles is to keep your spine stable. This keeps you in an upright posture and prevents you from toppling over. Here’s an example to help you understand. Say you’re a passenger in a car and the driver makes a fast, sharp turn. Your core muscles will activate to keep you from falling to the side. Say you were half asleep when this happened and your core was not prepared, your body would be thrown either right or left.
This is a basic overview of the main function of the core. Think about the anatomy of the spine, it’s a thin column going straight up, it doesn’t have a lot of surface area. The core muscles keep this thin column called our spine in place.
The Lower Back Muscles - The Back Of The Core
The lower back muscles are extensors which is why you may hear these muscles referred to as lower back extensors.
The lower back extensor muscles are responsible for extension. This movement is opposite to the movement that the abs are responsible for. Why is it that we would work the front of the core (the abs) and not the back of our core (the lower back muscles)? It just doesn’t make sense. Just because we don’t see the back muscles as often as we see our abs, doesn’t mean that they’re not important.
You need to work on strengthening both the front of the core and the back of the core in order to keep the core strong.
You’ll learn two different at home lower back strengthening exercises below. Even though these can be done at home, they’re still challenging exercises for your lower back muscles; so go ahead and roll out your yoga mat and let’s get into these exercises!
-2- At Home Lower Back Strengthening Exercises
1. Bird Dog
What a name for an exercise…but I use it because it’s the most popular name. I learned this exercise as ‘alternate leg alternate arm lifts in quadruped’ but who wants to say all that?
There are 3 different variations of this exercise that you can do to make this exercise work for the level that you’re at. Below you’ll find all three exercises in progressive order from easiest to most difficult. I say easiest but even stage one is not necessarily ‘easy’ and can be really amazing for challenging your core.
Bird dog is a really great ‘total core’ exercise.
Some general things to note for all of the bird dog variations below:
- All variations start with you on all fours (hands and knees). You want to align your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips.
- Don’t lock out your elbows.
- Keep your neck in neutral.
- Since this is a total core exercise, the abs will be working in addition to the lower back muscles, so keep the abs engaged when you’re moving your arm or leg. This is done by pulling your navel in toward your spine. This will help to keep your spine stable.
- Make sure you BREATHE and NEVER hold your breath.
- Keep your spine flat, so DON’T let your lower back sink down and DON’T round your spine.
- Read general notes above for starting position and for form tips.
- Reach one arm out in front of you.
- Make sure not to twist your spine, keep your torso facing down toward the ground.
- Hold this position for a 2 seconds, and then switch to the opposite arm. Perform 3 sets of 10.
- Read general notes above for starting position and for form tips.
- Reach one leg out behind you. This leg should be straight out from your hip joint (see photo for visual).
- Make sure not to twist your spine and keep your toes of the lifted leg pointing down toward the ground.
- Hold this position for a 2 seconds, and then switch to the opposite leg. Perform 3 sets of 10.
- Read general notes above for starting position and for form tips.
- Extend your right arm forward while simultaneously extending your left leg backward. (So you are moving your alternate arm and leg.)
- The leg should be lifted to a height that is even with your hip joint (see photo).
- Keep your toes of the extended leg pointing down.
- Keep your body in one plane, meaning don’t shift to the side.
- If you’re unable to keep your spine steady in this position, go back to option 1 or 2. Form is most important!
- Hold this position for a 2 seconds, and then switch to lift the left arm and right leg. Perform 3 sets of 10.
2. Reverse Table Top and Reverse Plank
I’m grouping these two exercises together because reverse plank is a progression of reverse table top.
Start with reverse table top. If that gets easy then you can move on to reverse plank.
This exercise is really great for targeting the back portion of your core.
Some general things to note for both reverse plank and reverse table top:
- Keep your shoulders down away from your ears.
- Your arms will be straight but keep a slight bend in you elbows (don’t lock them out).
- Keep your neck in neutral.
- Breathe throughout the exercise, do NOT hold your breath.
- Read general notes above for form tips.
- Begin by sitting on the floor with your legs bent and your feet flat on the ground. Feet should be hip-width apart. Place your hands behind your hips, with your fingers pointing towards your feet. Your hands should be shoulder-width apart.
- Press through your palms and heels to lift your hips off the ground, coming into reverse tabletop. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your knees.
- Squeeze your glutes and hold yourself in one straight line – don’t let your hips sag.
- Hold for 10 to 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
- Read general notes above for form tips.
- Start by sitting on the floor with your legs extended out in front of you. Your legs should be together. Place your hands on the ground, directly behind your hips, with your fingers pointing toward your feet. Your hands should be shoulder-width apart.
- Press through your palms and lift your hips off the ground. Keep your legs extended and toes pointing forward, creating a straight line from your head to your heels.
- Squeeze your glutes and hold yourself in one straight line – don’t let your hips sag.
- Hold for 10 to 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
There you have 2 at home lower back strengthening exercises that you can add into your fitness routine. Incorporating these exercises into your workout plan can help to ensure that you’re keeping your entire core strong!
Your lower back will thank you for giving it some attention in addition to your abs 🙂
To learn about how to activate your deepest abdominal muscle, check out this post here: Activating The Transverse Abdominis
Don’t forget to grab your free guide to assess your outer hip strength to make sure you’re entire core is strong! CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR GUIDE NOW!
