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.

Foam Rolling: What Does It Actually Do?

Foam rolling is one of those things that can feel like it's doing something extremely dramatic.

Find a sore bit of your quad, put your entire bodyweight through a roller and suddenly discover several new swear words.

But what is it actually doing?

Foam rolling is a form of self-massage. It can temporarily improve range of motion and may reduce the sensation of muscle soreness following exercise.

What it probably isn't doing is breaking down scar tissue, releasing knots, lengthening fascia or physically rearranging your muscles.

That doesn't make it useless.

If it helps you move or feel better, that's useful in itself.

WHAT DOES FOAM ROLLING DO?

The exact mechanisms aren't completely understood.

Applying pressure and movement to an area provides lots of sensory information to your nervous system and can temporarily change how an area feels.

Research suggests foam rolling can produce small, short-term improvements in flexibility/range of motion without the reductions in strength or power that can sometimes occur following prolonged static stretching.

It may also help reduce the perception of muscle soreness following hard training.

The important word there is perception.

If your legs feel considerably better after rolling them, brilliant.

That doesn't necessarily mean you've accelerated tissue repair or somehow squeezed the soreness out of your muscles.

You've made yourself feel better.

Sometimes that's all we need from a recovery technique.

HOW TO FOAM ROLL

This doesn't need to be complicated.

Place the muscle you're targeting against a roller and use your body position to control how much pressure you apply.

Then slowly move over the area.

If you find somewhere that feels particularly tender, you can spend a little more time there or use smaller movements around it.

But you don't need to annihilate yourself.

I'd generally aim for mild-to-moderate discomfort rather than pain.

If 10/10 means you're seeing through time, you've probably gone too far.

Something around 4–6/10 is plenty.

You can spend roughly 30–90 seconds on an area, although there's no magic duration you have to achieve.

Then get up and see whether it actually made a difference.

That's the important bit.

YOU DON'T NEED TO FIND "KNOTS"

People often talk about finding knots, adhesions or trigger points and physically rolling them out.

Be careful with that explanation.

A tender spot doesn't necessarily mean you've discovered a damaged piece of tissue that needs fixing.

Muscles can feel tender for all sorts of reasons.

Pressing on an uncomfortable area until it becomes less uncomfortable may simply change your perception of that sensation.

So rather than thinking:

"I've found something wrong and I need to break it up."

Think:

"This area feels tight or uncomfortable. Let's see whether rolling it makes movement feel better."

That's a much more useful approach.

BEFORE TRAINING

Foam rolling can work well as part of a warm-up if an area feels stiff or restricted.

For example, if your quads feel tight before squatting, you might roll them briefly and then reassess your squat.

But don't spend twenty minutes rolling every muscle in your body simply because somebody told you that's what a proper warm-up looks like.

Your warm-up should ultimately prepare you to train.

Roll something if it helps.

Then move.

AFTER TRAINING

You can foam roll after training if you enjoy it.

Some people find it relaxing and it may help reduce the sensation of soreness.

But it isn't essential for recovery.

You don't need to rush onto a foam roller immediately after your final set because you've got a tiny recovery window that's about to slam shut.

Go home if you want.

REST DAYS

Same principle.

If you're sore and five minutes of rolling makes your legs feel better, go for it.

If you'd rather go for a walk, that's also perfectly reasonable.

If you'd rather do absolutely nothing with a foam roller, your muscles aren't going to punish you for it.

DOES FOAM ROLLING PREVENT INJURY?

We don't have good evidence that foam rolling by itself prevents injuries.

It's better thought of as an optional tool for managing how you feel and temporarily changing range of motion, rather than something you need to do to keep your muscles healthy.

For long-term physical capacity, the boring stuff remains considerably more important:

Train progressively.

Get strong.

Move regularly.

Recover adequately.

Foam rolling can sit alongside those things if you find it useful.

IN CLOSING

Foam rolling doesn't need to hurt and you don't need to hunt down every tender spot in your body.

Use it when it serves a purpose.

If an area feels stiff before training, roll it briefly and see if your movement improves.

If you're sore after training and rolling makes you feel better, great.

If you hate foam rolling and would rather never see one again, that's also fine.

It's a tool.

Not maintenance your body requires.

Dynamic Stretching: How to Use It in Your Warm-Up

Dynamic stretching involves moving actively through a range of motion rather than moving into a position and holding it for an extended period.

Think leg swings, walking lunges, arm circles or controlled rotations rather than sitting in a hamstring stretch for 30 seconds.

The aim is to gradually expose your body to the movements and ranges of motion you're about to use while your muscles are actively working.

WHY USE DYNAMIC STRETCHING?

Dynamic stretching works particularly well as part of a warm-up.

It can help temporarily increase range of motion while also allowing you to practise movement, increase body temperature and progressively prepare for the session ahead.

Unlike prolonged static stretching immediately before explosive activity, appropriately performed dynamic stretching isn't generally associated with the same potential short-term reduction in maximal strength or power.

That makes it particularly useful before lifting, running, jumping or playing sport.

HOW TO DO IT

Dynamic stretching shouldn't just involve aggressively throwing yourself as far as possible into a stretch.

Start with a range you can comfortably control and gradually increase it as you warm up.

For example, before a lower-body training session you might use:

• Leg swings

• Walking lunges

• Squats

• Hip rotations

• Controlled hamstring sweeps

But you don't need a huge catalogue of mobility exercises before every workout.

Your warm-up should reflect what you're about to do.

If you're going to squat, gradually moving through a squat and then progressively loading the exercise itself may be considerably more useful than spending fifteen minutes performing unrelated stretches.

DYNAMIC VS STATIC STRETCHING

Neither is inherently better.

They're simply different tools.

Dynamic stretching generally makes sense when you want to increase range of motion while preparing to move and produce force.

Static stretching can be useful when specifically working on flexibility or when you simply enjoy it.

The duration and intensity matter too. A brief static stretch before training isn't going to suddenly make you weak.

As with most things in training, context matters more than arbitrary rules.

IN CLOSING

Dynamic stretching is a simple way to prepare your body for training.

Move through the ranges you're going to use, gradually increase the intensity and then progress into the movements you're actually there to train.

A warm-up doesn't need to be an entirely separate workout.

It just needs to leave you more prepared for the one you're about to do.

Static Stretching: How and When to Use It

Static stretching is probably what most people picture when they hear the word stretching.

You move into a position where you feel a stretch in the target muscles and hold that position for a period of time.

Unlike dynamic stretching, you're not repeatedly moving in and out of the position.

WHAT DOES STATIC STRETCHING DO?

Static stretching can improve flexibility and range of motion.

Some of the immediate improvement probably comes from increasing your tolerance to the sensation of stretching. Essentially, you become more comfortable allowing yourself to move further into a position.

With consistent stretching over longer periods, there can also be changes to the physical properties and structure of the muscle and surrounding tissues.

So it's not quite as simple as either:

"Stretching makes your muscles longer."

or:

"Stretching only increases your pain tolerance."

As usual, the human body is slightly more complicated than we'd like it to be.

HOW TO STATIC STRETCH

Move gradually into a position until you feel a clear stretch.

You don't need to force it.

I'd generally aim for noticeable tension rather than pain.

Relax into the position and breathe normally. If the sensation reduces, you can gradually move a little further if you want to.

Something around 30–60 seconds per stretch is a perfectly reasonable starting point.

If improving flexibility is an important goal, accumulating more stretching over multiple sets and doing it consistently across the week is likely to matter more than finding one magical stretch duration.

SHOULD YOU STRETCH BEFORE TRAINING?

You may have heard that you should never static stretch before lifting or sport because it makes you weaker.

There's a little truth buried inside an overly dramatic rule.

Long-duration static stretching immediately before activities requiring maximal strength, speed or power can temporarily reduce performance.

But that doesn't mean holding a stretch for 20 or 30 seconds during your warm-up will suddenly destroy your squat.

Brief static stretching—particularly when followed by dynamic movement and exercise-specific warm-up sets—is unlikely to have a meaningful negative effect for most people.

So if something feels particularly restricted and a short static stretch helps you move better, use it.

If you're preparing for maximal or explosive performance, I wouldn't spend several minutes intensely stretching the muscles you're about to rely on and then immediately attempt your biggest lift.

Context matters.

WHEN SHOULD YOU STATIC STRETCH?

Whenever it makes sense.

If you're specifically trying to improve flexibility, you can stretch separately from your training or include it at a convenient point in your routine.

After training is fine.

Rest days are fine.

Evenings are fine.

Before training can also be fine when used appropriately.

The most important factor is probably finding somewhere you'll actually do it consistently.

DO YOU NEED TO STATIC STRETCH?

No.

Static stretching is useful if increasing flexibility is one of your goals or if you simply enjoy stretching and like how it makes you feel.

But everybody doesn't need to perform a compulsory stretching routine simply because they exercise.

Strength training itself can improve range of motion when exercises are performed through substantial ranges, and some people already have all the flexibility they require for the activities they want to perform.

More flexibility isn't automatically better.

You need enough range of motion to do the things you want to do.

IN CLOSING

Static stretching is a useful and straightforward way to improve flexibility.

Move into a stretch.

Find a level of tension you can tolerate comfortably.

Spend some time there.

Repeat it consistently.

And gradually increase the ranges you can access.

You don't need to turn it into a battle between yourself and your hamstrings.

And you don't need to be terrified of stretching before training.

Like most training tools, how much you do, when you do it and what you're preparing for matter more than rigid rules.

Mobility: What Is It & How Much Do You Actually Need?

Mobility is your ability to move through the ranges of motion required for the things you want to do.

That's deliberately a fairly simple definition.

If you can comfortably get into all the positions required for your training, sport and everyday life, you probably don't need to spend huge amounts of time trying to become more mobile.

If you can't, mobility work can be useful.

MOBILITY VS FLEXIBILITY

The two terms are often used interchangeably, but there's a useful distinction.

Flexibility generally describes the range of motion available at a joint or the ability of tissues to tolerate being lengthened.

Mobility is more about your ability to actively access and control that range of motion.

For example, you might be able to pull your leg into a particular position using your hands but struggle to move it there under its own power.

You have access to the range, but less control over it.

In practice, flexibility and mobility overlap considerably and you don't need to get too hung up on the terminology.

The important thing is whether you can move how you need to move.

DO YOU NEED MORE MOBILITY?

Not necessarily.

More range of motion isn't automatically better.

A powerlifter, gymnast, runner and stone lifter may all require very different amounts of mobility.

Your anatomy matters too. Two people can perform the same exercise effectively while using slightly different joint positions and ranges of motion.

So rather than trying to achieve somebody else's idea of perfect movement, ask:

Can I comfortably and effectively perform the movements I need?

If the answer is yes, you may already have enough mobility.

MOBILITY AND STRENGTH

Mobility and strength aren't opposites.

In fact, strength training can itself be an excellent way of developing and maintaining range of motion, particularly when exercises are performed through substantial ranges.

You can also deliberately strengthen positions that currently feel weak or unfamiliar.

If you can passively move into a position but can't control it particularly well, getting stronger within that range can be extremely useful.

This is why my approach to mobility often looks suspiciously like training.

WHAT ABOUT "TIGHT" MUSCLES?

Feeling tight doesn't necessarily mean a muscle is physically shortened.

"Tightness" is a sensation.

Sometimes stretching helps.

Sometimes moving helps.

Sometimes strengthening the area helps.

Sometimes you're sore because you trained yesterday.

And sometimes you've been sitting at a desk for three hours and getting up for five minutes makes everything magically feel less terrible.

You don't necessarily need to identify and fix a defective piece of anatomy every time something feels tight.

MOBILITY AND INJURY

Mobility is often sold as a way of preventing injuries.

It's not that simple.

Having sufficient range of motion for your activity is useful, but we can't guarantee that becoming more flexible or performing a particular mobility routine will prevent you from getting injured.

Injury risk is influenced by lots of things, including training load, previous injuries, fatigue, strength, exposure to particular movements and sometimes plain bad luck.

Likewise, moving into a position that looks unusual doesn't automatically make it a "bad" or dangerous posture.

Bodies are capable of adapting to lots of positions.

The important part is developing the capacity for the movements and loads you're asking your body to tolerate.

WHAT DOES MOBILITY TRAINING LOOK LIKE?

Mobility work can include:

• Dynamic movement through a range of motion.

• Static stretching to develop flexibility.

• Strength exercises performed through large ranges.

• Loaded stretching and exercises that strengthen end ranges.

• Controlled joint movements to practise accessing particular positions.

Which one you use depends on what you're actually trying to improve.

There's no requirement to spend twenty minutes rolling around on the floor before every training session.

BEFORE TRAINING

Mobility work can form part of a warm-up when it helps you prepare for what you're about to do.

If you're squatting and your ankles feel particularly restricted, some ankle mobility work might help.

If your shoulders need to move overhead, gradually exposing them to that position makes sense.

But your warm-up should become increasingly specific to the training you're about to perform.

Eventually, the exercise itself becomes the warm-up.

YOU DON'T NEED PERFECT MOVEMENT

This is probably the biggest change from how I used to think about mobility.

There isn't one perfect way that every human body should move.

People have different proportions, different anatomy, different training histories and different goals.

My job as a coach isn't to make everyone move identically.

It's to help someone develop enough movement options, strength and control to do the things they want to do.

IN CLOSING

Mobility is useful.

But you don't need to turn it into a full-time hobby.

If you already have the range of motion you need, concentrate on getting stronger and better at using it.

If a particular range is limiting something you want to do, work on it.

Stretch it. Move it. Strengthen it. Practise it.

Then see whether the thing you actually wanted to improve gets better.

Because ultimately, the goal isn't to be good at mobility.

The goal is to be able to move well enough to do the things you want to do.