Lower Back Pain: Should You Exercise and Strengthen Your Back?

Lower back pain is incredibly common.

And if you've experienced it, you'll know how quickly it can make you cautious about movement.

You stop bending down.

You avoid lifting.

You worry about rounding your back.

You start treating your spine as though it's something fragile that needs to be protected at all costs.

For most cases of ordinary, non-specific lower back pain, that's probably not the most helpful way to think about it.

Your back is designed to move. And, in many circumstances, gradually getting it moving and working again can be part of getting better.

Current guidance encourages people with lower-back pain to remain physically active and continue normal activities where possible. Exercise is also commonly used in the management of persistent lower-back pain.

First: Back Pain Doesn't Necessarily Mean Damage

Pain is real.

But pain doesn't always provide a direct measurement of how much physical damage has occurred.

Lower-back pain can have many different causes and contributing factors, and often it isn't possible—or necessary—to identify one damaged structure responsible for everything you're feeling.

That's important because being frightened of your back can lead to avoiding more and more movement.

My aim when training somebody with a history of back pain isn't to pretend the pain doesn't exist.

It's to help them gradually regain confidence in what their body can do.

What About Sitting?

Modern life involves a lot of it.

We sit at desks. We sit in cars and trains. We sit watching television.

If you've been in one position for hours and your back feels stiff or uncomfortable, getting up and moving can feel fantastic.

But I wouldn't tell somebody that sitting itself is destroying their back.

Instead, I think a better practical approach is:

Change positions. Get up regularly. Walk. Move your back. Exercise. Build physical capacity.

Your body generally likes movement and variety.

Should You Exercise With Lower Back Pain?

It depends on the person and what's causing the pain, but for ordinary non-specific lower-back pain, staying active is generally encouraged rather than prolonged rest.

There isn't one magical exercise that fixes everybody's back.

Walking might help.

Strength training might help.

Mobility work might help.

Aerobic exercise might help.

Sometimes simply returning gradually to the activities you've been avoiding is an important part of the process.

That's why the video accompanying this article is useful.

Three Movements for Lower Back Pain

In the video below, my former colleague James demonstrates three simple movements that can be useful for people experiencing lower-back discomfort.

Give them a try and see how they feel.

But I'd make an important distinction from the original title of the video:

These aren't “three exercises guaranteed to fix back pain.”

No three exercises can promise that.

Think of them instead as three movements you can experiment with as part of getting your back moving again.

If something significantly aggravates your symptoms, don't force your way through it simply because somebody on the internet told you the exercise was good for backs.

I Actually Want My Clients to Use Their Backs

This is where my approach to strength training sometimes differs from what people expect.

I don't want clients spending their entire lives frightened of allowing their spine to move.

There are situations where maintaining a particular position is useful, especially when you're learning a lift or handling a very heavy load.

But your spine isn't supposed to remain completely rigid throughout every movement you perform for the rest of your life.

It flexes. It extends. It rotates.

And those movements can be progressively trained.

A systematic review looking specifically at lifting found no evidence that people who lifted with greater lumbar flexion were at greater risk of developing or continuing to experience lower-back pain, although the available evidence was low quality.

So the old idea that “rounded back = bad back” is far too simplistic.

Building a More Capable Back

I use plenty of conventional strength exercises with my personal training clients.

But I also really enjoy awkward-object training.

Sandbags.

Natural stones.

Carries.

Bulgarian Bags.

Objects that don't always allow you to arrange your body into a perfectly symmetrical textbook position before you pick them up.

That's deliberate.

Rather than pretending we can eliminate every awkward position from life, I like progressively preparing people to become strong and confident across a wider range of positions and movements.

That doesn't mean grabbing the heaviest stone you can find and deliberately rounding your back as hard as possible.

Like any training stimulus, load, range of motion and complexity should be progressed appropriately.

We might first learn a movement with very little resistance.

Then gradually increase the range.

Then add some load.

Then increase the challenge as the person becomes stronger and more confident.

The aim isn't to make somebody's back invincible.

It's to increase their capacity.

Lifting Isn't Risk-Free

Neither is running.

Neither is football.

Neither is getting out of bed in the morning.

Any physical activity carries some possibility of aches, pains and injuries.

Strength training is no different.

My job as a coach isn't to pretend that risk doesn't exist. It's to manage it sensibly while helping somebody become stronger and more capable.

And avoiding loading altogether has its own downside: you never give your body the opportunity to adapt to it.

When Back Pain Needs Medical Attention

Most lower-back pain isn't an emergency, but this isn't an area where I'd tell everybody simply to exercise through it.

Seek appropriate medical advice if your pain is severe, isn't improving, is associated with significant neurological symptoms, or you're otherwise concerned about it.

And some symptoms require urgent medical assessment, including new problems controlling your bladder or bowel, numbness around the genitals/buttocks, or significant/progressive weakness or numbness in the legs.

A personal trainer shouldn't be trying to diagnose those.

The Bottom Line

If you've experienced lower-back pain, you don't necessarily need to spend the rest of your life protecting your back from movement.

For many people, movement and appropriately progressed exercise can be part of the solution.

Move it. Use it. Gradually strengthen it. Build confidence in it.

Your back isn't something I want you to be scared of.

It's something I want you to become increasingly capable of using.

Watch: Three Movements for Lower Back Pain

In the video below, James demonstrates three movements you can experiment with to get your back moving.

Start gently, see how your body responds, and don't assume more pain automatically means more benefit.