- [Trainer] In the quests for lower back exercise
you may have come upon a very simple
very old school exercise called the lower back extension.
What we get out of the lower back extension in theory
is we're going to work our spinal erectors
these thick bands of muscle
that run right between our spine.
They play a key role in helping you stand up
and they're also gonna be involved
in a lot of other exercises that you're doing.
They're gonna play a key role
in deadlifts when you stand up.
They're gonna play a key role in squats,
and they play a key role
in just about any lower body exercise you do.
In addition to attacking the spinal erectors
you're gonna get a lot of glutes
when you do the lower back extension,
because it's impossible for your glutes to not be involved
in driving you into a straight upright position.
So your glutes wind up getting a lot of work too.
Now, do you need to do lower back extensions?
The truth is lower back extensions are not for everyone.
In general, if you wanna strengthen up your glutes
and we wanna get our spinal erectors
to where we need them to be
in terms of strength and mobility,
you're better off doing a lot of the other exercises
that you may think of,
because they're gonna treat your hinge more naturally.
So we wanna do our deadlifts,
we wanna get our Romanian deadlifts in,
we wanna do our good mornings, even squatting under load.
All of that is going to challenge your glutes
and your spinal erectors enough
to get the growth that you need
and to ready you for real life.
That said
the lower back extension is a nice way to change things up.
That's a nice way to finish off a workout.
It's a nice easy light exercise
that you can throw at the end of any session,
or you can just use to warm up,
especially if you do it
the way we're gonna teach you to do it today.
So if you wanna try the lower back extension,
first you have to understand how to set up
and you have to understand
the equipment that you need for it.
The easiest way to do it
is to use one of these machines if you have access to them.
The key thing when we get into this machine though
and even when we're doing a DIY version
of the lower back extension
is making sure that we set up properly
and we create a position that's gonna allow us
to properly bend at the waist
so that we can maximize the exercise.
This machine is set too high for me
and this is gonna be the biggest thing
that's gonna hold you back
when you do lower back extensions.
So as we can see here, what we want,
what we don't want rather
is we do not want the machine height
to wind up matching our hips
because now when I start to bend
I can't necessarily properly bend at the waist
and because I can't bend at the waist
because I wind up having to round my back
and I can't necessarily bend at my hip crease.
So what you wanna think about doing
is making sure that the top of the machine
is always lower than your hips by two to three inches.
That's gonna give you the space
to properly fold at the waist
so that we can get the motion that we need.
The easiest way to find that
is always gonna be to set up in the bottom position
on the lower back extension.
So if I go back to the top position
I can find that this is too high
because when I get to the bottom position,
I just don't have the room to move.
So what I can do is then I can play with this
and keep bringing it lower and lower and lower
and just kind of folding my body over
and eventually I'm gonna find that right height.
Now I've got the two inches that I need,
so now I can properly execute the exercise.
Now once you've found that proper height and setup,
there are two prevailing ways
to do the lower back extension.
One is the traditional way
where we're going to wind up hitting our spinal extensions
and we're gonna hit our glutes a little bit.
That's the way
you're gonna traditionally see this exercise done
and that may be the way
you think you should do this exercise.
I'm actually gonna advise
against doing this version of the exercise though,
but first let me show you how to do it.
So when we do the traditional lower back extension
we're gonna think about locking our legs in position.
I'm squeezing through my glutes,
I'm squeezing through my quads,
and I'm basically trying to create a lot of rigidity
through my torso.
I'm thinking of my torso as one straight piece
that's gonna stay in a straight line.
And all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna drop as low as I can,
maintaining as much core tension as I can,
and again,
thinking of keeping one straight piece of my torso,
pause for a split second at the bottom
and I'm gonna drive up, squeeze my glutes.
I'm gonna get a little bit of a squeeze
to my lower back extensors.
And you can go as far as you can.
Everybody's gonna have a little bit different
lower back mobility as they do this,
so you wanna lower down as far as you can.
That is the standard way to do a lower back extension.
That is also not the way that I would advise doing it
and that's for three reasons.
First reason,
when we're doing lower back extensions this way
we're not necessarily reinforcing the proper mechanics
that we wanna learn
when we drop down to the ground to pick anything up.
We're not reinforcing those good deadlift mechanics
and we're not reinforcing something called our hinge.
We are literally bending and folding at the waist.
That is not how I want you to ever pick anything up
and that is not what we wanna reinforce.
The thing all of us need to learn how to do better
is something called hinge,
and that is the idea that when I reach down to get something
instead of just bending at the waist
I'm gonna push my butt back slightly and then reach down,
which is actually a similar mechanic
to what we do when we deadlift.
It's also a a lower back safer mechanic
for you in the long term.
Second reason I'm not crazy
about this version of the exercise
is because our lower back extensors are already tight.
We don't necessarily need to spend so much time
shortening them under load
and when we do the traditional version
of the lower back extension, it's gonna be a lot of glute
but it's still a lot of those lower back extensors.
We don't need those to shorten.
When I stand here right now
they're already somewhat shortened.
They're also getting a lot of work
and they have to contract.
When I'm doing my Romanian deadlifts,
if I'm doing bent over rows,
if I'm doing so many of my other exercises
they're already in that position.
We don't necessarily need to make them stronger per se,
and we don't need them shortening.
That is not gonna help our lower back if we're in pain.
That's not necessarily
gonna make our lower back stronger
for those other motions either,
because we're so low load on an exercise like this.
The third reason we don't necessarily wanna do this
is because very often it's very easy to do this wrong.
We get onto this machine,
we don't necessarily have a great sense of awareness
and all of a sudden this return to neutral,
which is where we wanna return
becomes an over arch in the back.
Now we're shortening those spinal extensors even more.
It's just not worth it.
If you're looking to do anything for your spinal extensors
I'd rather see you create mobility.
Ideas like cat cow,
ideas like even just a standard forward fold.
Those are mobility and flexibility ideas
and those are a lot better for your lower back
than the traditional lower back extension.
Instead of doing lower back extension that way
let's do it in a way
that's gonna really focus it on our glutes.
That's a body part that is worth isolating.
As we grow and strengthen our glutes in isolation
we're gonna help protect our lower back.
We're gonna get stronger for all those other exercises
like Romanian deadlifts and squats and lunges
and we're gonna get
a really, really good focused contraction
and we can get a really focused contraction
out of this machine.
So the change we're gonna make on our lower back extensions
is we're actively going to try to round our back
when we do this
and we're gonna maintain this position
and now all of a sudden I've essentially taken
my lower back extensors out of the motion
and I've made the key driver in bringing me up my glutes.
In doing that
I'm gonna get a much more focused glute contraction
and it's those glutes that are gonna save me
if I'm in lower back pain
and it's those glutes that play a key role in my hip hinge
and this is also not a motion
that I'm gonna wind up mistaking for
how I should bend over to pick anything up.
I'm not gonna confuse it with my hinge.
I already just from doing those couple reps
I wind up feeling my glutes and hamstrings light up.
So by doing that rounded back version
of the lower back extension
I'm gonna get a nice focused glute contraction.
You're still gonna be aiding your lower back.
You're still gonna aid in protecting your lower back
because the glutes play such a key role in that
and we're gonna get a nice finishing exercise
outta that for our glutes.
So that is the lower back extension,
and especially if you're doing it
the way that we're suggesting it here
it's gonna be a lot less lower back and a lot more glutes,
but your lower back is still gonna thank you
anytime you strengthen up your glutes.
In terms of sets and reps, you wanna think of doing this
for anywhere from three to four sets of 15 to 20 reps.
It's a body weight motion too
so you can also push it much higher than that.
Just think about going
until you can no longer execute good clean reps,
until you no longer feel
that really, really good glute contraction.
That moment will come for some of you
a lot earlier than you may think,
especially when we're doing that rounded back version,
because it is a deeper glute contraction
than you may expect.
We can also load the exercise
if we really, really want to.
Just grab plates or dumbbells, keep them light.
This is not an exercise that you need to go heavy.
If you're gonna go heavy,
you're a lot better off going heavy
on your Romanian deadlifts, on hip thrusts,
on other exercises like that.
You can actually do this at the end of almost any workout
because you're not gonna wind up crushing yourself with it.
It fits best though on the back end of a leg day
after we've done our other critical exercises.
Think of your squats, your lunges,
the deadlifts that are really, really
gonna build your glutes.
Then we can throw this in at three to five sets
for a nice little finisher hitting 15 to 20 reps.
This is again though
not an exercise that everybody needs to do,
and remember that it is not your rescue from lower back pain
and it is not this amazing lower back exercise
that you need to do.
The second version, if you're looking to grow your glutes
and you want a little bit of a glute pump
at the end of a workout,
hop on a lower back extension.
Get something out of it.
Remember, think of this not as a lower back move.
Think of it as a glute move
and it never hurts to grow your glutes.