- Did you know that 80% of adults will experience back pain
in some point in their life and this can have a major effect
on how good you feel, limit your everyday activities
and you're just not gonna be as happy.
- That's right.
We've seen this in the clinic year after year
after actually decades.
Well one decade for you, Bob and I, for decades.
But the thing about back pain is it does not only
affect your back, but it affects your mood.
You can get very ornery when your back is uncomfortable
as well as you become less active,
which also can lead to weight gain.
It's a bad thing.
We can help you out.
- And we're gonna help you by showing you
six core exercises that'll help protect your back
and let you stay active and even function
at a high level like you would like to.
- That's right.
Believe it or not and you've heard it
a strong core, strong back.
(soft music)
All right.
Now the big thing with lower back pain
if you look at the low back or the lumbar spine
you can see there's nothing around to support it
except for muscles.
If you look at the upper back, you have the rib cage
and those structures that really offer a lot
of support, almost like a back belt.
So your muscles, your core muscles, abdominal,
your transverse and the back muscles all can be worked
and strengthened with to provide strong support
in giving your back what it needs to be active.
- So if these are nice and strong
they'll keep your lordotic curve or your spine
in the right position decreasing the amount of pain.
And when these muscles engage
it'll take the pressure off of that painful area.
- Lordotic curve.
I like that term.
Yeah, it's that arch in the back.
All right, let's go to work on the next phase.
Now this video, if you happen to have very acute back pain
in other words, they're very tender right now
these exercises will have to wait until it settles down
and you wanna start working into getting stronger again
for those people who have not had back pain
or you've had back pain but it feels better,
it's absolutely ideal.
So you strengthen the back to prevent future back pain.
- So, the four core muscles we are gonna be
talking about in this video, three of them are
abdominal muscles and one is the pair of back muscles.
The first one you're gonna target is erectus abdominus
which is known as the six pack.
The next is the transverse abdominus
which starts in the front
and actually wraps all the way around to your back.
You typically work these when you're doing like
say a plank exercise that's when you'll feel
that transverse abdominus.
Then third abdominal muscles are the obliques
there on both sides and they go
kind of in a diagonal fashion this way.
They go both ways.
They help with more side bending, keeping you upright.
The last muscle group is the back.
We're just gonna call them the lumbar paraspinals
because this is an area of the low back
you want to strengthen up to keep your spine
in the correct position.
- Right, I think probably that last set of muscles
that really gets missed out on a lot of programs.
And the other thing about this program
it's gonna strengthen all four of these
and two of the positions are gonna be standing,
weight bearing the the way that your body functions
when you're pushing, when you're pulling
when you're lifting up, you're standing.
So you wanna train your body to be strong
in your back while in those positions.
A lot of core exercises skip that all together.
So we've got you covered.
- So for all of these exercises,
we want you to start with 10 reps of each of them.
Eventually over time you can build up your repetitions
to either 30 reps total or 50 reps
depending upon how active you are
and how well you can endure these exercises.
- Right, don't overdo it, keep it low.
And an important part if you've never done these exercises
before don't do 'em every day.
Start out with a Monday, Wednesday
Friday routine so the muscles can relax
and rebuild for a day after a couple weeks or more,
if it's feeling strong and you're not getting sore muscles
then you can progress and eventually go to five
maybe six days a week.
I never recommend seven days a week,
always one day for rest, but that's down the road,
a little bit.
So again, three days a week to start
and get those muscles engaged.
- I think we should also add that if any of these
increase your back pain, don't do that exercise.
It's probably not for you.
- Right, either not doing it properly
or it's just not your exercise.
Alright, the first exercise we're gonna work
is these muscles in the front.
The very common exercise with some basic sit ups
but we're gonna show the sit ups
so that it protects your back.
Very important.
So you can do these on your bed
if it's a firm bed or on a carpeted floor.
Works very well.
Mike is gonna demonstrate here, lying on your back
and this hook line position knees up,
you're gonna take your hand
so that you can position your back properly.
His fingers are like right here
and he is gonna push down and squish his fingers
a little bit and that puts your back
in a good neutral position.
While you're doing the exercise, Mike,
I want you to keep that pressure on those fingers, okay?
So it's simply, I call this double knee to chest
bring the knees up and back down.
But while you do it, be very much aware
of how your pressure is maintaining on those fingers
and it's very much more difficult and it's very appropriate.
It's the best way to core exercise.
How you doing Mike?
- I'm doing good.
- After you get done with 10 of these, you're good.
Now the other option for this, if you happen to be
and there probably will not be many people
but if you have a large ball at home for exercises
you can do it this way.
The advantage of using a ball is you don't need
to put your hands under there.
This is the way I do 'em and I don't put my hands there.
It works very well.
It keeps your back protected
and the hard part is getting a hold of the ball.
Once you get that down, you're fine.
I've found if I wear my shoes
the heels of my shoes grab into the ball
and I do it with shorts on because your skin
actually grips onto the ball making that part of it.
Again, do not purchase a ball
for this exercise unless you really want to.
It's not necessary, just do it the original way,
I told Mike.
Let's go to number two.
The second exercise we're gonna work those oblique muscles
that kind of come in at an angle like this.
That's why they're called obliques.
Again, lie on your side.
You can do this again on the bed or on the floor.
You're gonna put your arms like this
so your palms are on your shoulders or close to it.
Knees up.
And the goal is if you just think about taking
your left elbow bring it towards your right knee,
at the same time.
So there that's moving forward and knees coming together.
You do not have to touch, but if you can, that's fine.
Go ahead and Mike's gonna just show this slowly
and this should be done relatively slow.
You don't want to go through it real fast.
You're gonna engage those oblique muscles
which are really critical for that rotation stability.
- Again, make sure your low back is pushing into the mat
when you're doing this, you do not want to round up
like this cause it's gonna put more pressure on your spine
increasing your back pain.
- Right, and the other little point is show 'em
if your head flexes way forward, your neck does.
Now we don't wanna do that.
Try and keep your head in the position as it is
when you're lying down.
We call that the neutral position.
Protect the spine.
Alright, the next one we're gonna talk about
is gonna strengthen these muscles
on the back that do get forgotten sometimes.
So we're gonna show it in two different manners.
If you're a beginner at this,
you go to a countertop, we're using the bed countertop
it'll probably be a little higher, which is actually good.
Okay, being a position like Mike is.
And to start out with we're gonna break this down
from very beginners.
Just take one arm and bring it out in front of you
and then down and then alternate.
Now that seems like it may not be doing much
you're thinking that's just shoulders, but it's not.
That's actually engaging the muscles all the way down
to the belt at a lower level.
Now once if that's too easy, stop that.
And now alternate leg lifting.
Yeah, let me get my pointer over here.
Notice his knees are straight.
It's very important
that you do this with your knees straight.
That engages, actually you're getting some hip muscles
in there, but that low back is really going to town
right now and you will feel that if you do 10 of those
on each leg and it feels pretty easy,
then we go to the whole goal and the optimal strengthening
for your back.
This is quite a bit harder.
It's gonna work your balance.
So it's gonna go one arm and the opposite leg lift up
and that really engages the full back kind of at a angle.
We're getting the muscles here and then the muscles
in this direction.
Feel quite a bit harder, Mike?
- Yeah, gotta make it more challenging.
Bring your feet further out if you feel safe doing that.
You can also get good activation,
this way just makes a little more challenging.
But the advanced or normal version of this
exercise we will show next on the mat.
- Are you getting tired? - A little?
- I'm not a bit.
I feel pretty good.
My back's feeling stronger.
- Good for you.
- Let's go.
Okay, now this next one
we call it the pointer dog because it kind of looks like,
Mike looks like a dog and he's pointing.
Anyways, it really works well.
This is advanced.
You may not get to this point and that's okay.
It depends on the level you feel you want a challenge.
Probably not gonna do this one on the bed,
on a carpeted floor is much better 'cause it's wobbly.
It works your balance a lot.
Now when Mike is doing this,
one arm goes out and the leg goes, opposite leg goes out.
There you go.
Try and keep everything in the same plane.
In other words, you can see everything is even.
Now, one thing that Mike is doing
that you need to focus on is he's strengthening
or contracting his abdominal muscles
trying to maintain that core so the back
does not over arched.
Do you feel that Mike?
- Yes.
- You wanna talk about that just a little bit
'cause that is really important in this exercise.
- So even though you're moving your arms and your legs
your focus should still be on your core muscles themselves
'cause that's what's gonna keep your spine
in the correct posture.
It's kind of working your transverse abdominus a little bit
and your rectus abdominus those front muscles
of the abdominal wall there.
But you just wanna make sure you're engaging it.
I'm almost like trying to give myself a beer belly
pushing to engage those muscles
as I'm moving my feet and my arms out.
- Excellent.
Again, this is advanced you may not get to it
and that's just fine.
You're gonna get strong core
with the other option.
Okay, number four, this one's gonna work side motions,
in that core.
You're gonna lie down like Mike is here.
This you can do on the bed if it's too soft to bed a bed
again, the floor will work better.
Go ahead Mike, tell 'em what you're doing.
- So you're gonna start with your knees touching
and not your feet.
The feet is a little more advanced.
So what you're gonna do is put your elbow
into the mat on this side
and you're gonna lift your core up towards the ceiling.
Make sure to go straight up,
don't rotate too much forward or back.
If you can't even do this, you could take your other arm
and push and help use that core muscles to push up.
We're gonna do repetitions here.
So try to do 10 reps if that's possible.
If this is problematic or hard,
maybe just do a few reps to start.
You can also possibly hold these
like a plank if you find that a little easier.
It's just an option.
You don't have to do it.
Just start with 10 repetitions.
Now if you wanna make a little more advance
just straighten your legs.
You're gonna put the pressure through your feet.
Lift your whole body off the ground here.
So you're gonna lift up and then back down.
You don't need to go way up here.
You're just kind of going
to a neutral straight line position.
- I do want to emphasize this is probably
the most difficult of all these exercises.
If you have a history of back problems or
if this creates any pain and it's not comfortable
in that back, just omit this one.
I just think it, for some people it's gonna be really
helpful for people with that are not as strong
or have a history of back pain.
Just skip this one, go to the next one
- And make sure to do both sides.
- Yes, absolutely.
Otherwise you'll walk crooked.
- Yep.
- Or in circles. We'll have none of that.
Alright, the next two exercises.
The last two there is one thing you do need to have
is some resistance bands.
This is critical.
This is those weightbearing, upright, standing,
exercises that make a big difference
so that you can function out lifting, pulling things.
And you'll understand that as soon as we demonstrate.
Then once you get your bands it's nice to get
the ones with the handles.
Usually bands come in a set of four or five.
The lightest color is the least resistance.
Yellow, typically red is one of the lighter ones.
And then you just need a place to anchor the bands.
Mike is gonna talk about that a little.
- You can use a railing that you have in your house.
You can use maybe a bed post, something that's really sturdy
and not gonna move when you pull it like this
you don't wanna use a chair
'cause it's probably gonna fall over.
Just make sure it's nice and sturdy
and just wrap the band around it so it won't move.
- You can't actually open a door up.
And we've done this with many patients over the years
and you just put this around the doorknob with a door open
and that'll be very safe as well.
We are actually gonna use wall anchors that work very well.
They're on the wall and they're available for you
if you want, but whatever works for you.
Let's go ahead with the exercises.
Alright, to start this, we have it at this level.
You do not have to have it here.
If your bed poster, your rails are lower, that's just fine.
So anchor it and you're gonna, you can probably,
use two bands and double this.
You could actually just do one band you want
and tie it off or anchor it like that.
Mike's feeling strong today so he's gonna double it up.
That's a nice thing about bands.
You vary the resistance by how close you are
to that anchoring point.
So this is easy and the farther you step away
the more resistance you get.
The resistance level is infinite,
and that's a big advantage to using bands.
Go ahead Mike.
- So start with a yellow band like Brad said before
if that's easy, you can progress in bands,
but you want to get it nice and taut
and what I'm gonna do is kind of stand
in a straddle position, they say it.
So it's kind of like a low squat position.
Pretend like you're riding a horse or something.
You don't have to bounce though, so bring your arms out.
You can do this a couple different ways.
You can either just bring it towards your chest
and push straight out.
That's a little bit easier version to try first.
Go slow controlled reps and this is
working your entire core.
So all four of those muscle groups I talked about
in the beginning of the video are working to stabilize.
If they weren't right now, I'd be pulling over like this.
Now if you want a little more advanced,
Brad likes to call this stir of the pot.
So it's like you're stirring a pot
and you can just kind of go-
- I think, Bob started it.
- Oh, Bob started it.
So you just make a circle motion like you're stirring a pot.
You can do this either way.
I guess you can go like this
like a witches kettle as you're evilly stirring here.
Or you could just do circles like this.
This really is a lot harder and takes time.
Go slow and controlled.
Makes it work a lot harder.
- This is one of those exercises that looks easy
but as you can tell by Mike is kind of grunting
and groaning here a little bit.
This really works the core.
Imagine if you're pulling a lawnmower,
if you're pushing a lawnmower, opening a heavy door.
This is the way that you're gonna simulate it the best.
This one as well as the next standing exercise.
How you feeling Mike?
- Good.
You wanna make sure to do both directions with this
because this will work your lateral side a little more
if you're going one direction versus the other.
- Yep.
Okay, and the last one is gonna work the obliques
and the transverse abdominus,
which is really critical for exercise
or activities like shoveling snow if you're raking leaves
when you're making the bed and you're pulling off
all those blankets at the same time.
Perfect crossover with this exercise.
Mike, go ahead.
Let's talk about it.
- So again, you're gonna use attention
of the band to dictate how hard the exercise
becomes for you.
So you're gonna start in a straight arm position,
like the last one.
But this one, you're gonna keep your arms there
and you're gonna rotate your trunk.
Now you don't wanna do it the wrong way
which meaning my pelvis would stay forward
and just my back twists.
This doesn't feel as good.
It's a lot harder.
Can compromise your back.
Make it more painful.
You want to rotate at the hips as you're doing this.
So arms straight.
Twisting my pelvis to this side as I'm going like this.
- I think this is one thing that Bob
has said to his patients over the years.
Think that you imagine you have a a brace
that wraps around your whole trunk so it stays still
and really gonna motion here and back there and back.
Now if you're just starting this,
you may only want to go a little like half that distance
that Mike is going and you're gonna find
that'll give you plenty of resistance.
Particularly if it's not enough,
step away from the wall, another six inches,
it will be enough.
Wanna I show the other direction?
- Yes, if this is too hard, you can also do the single band
like we mentioned in the previous exercise.
So again, straight arm,
you probably can't see it from your angle.
Slightly bent knee and you're gonna rotate at the hips
keeping the back straight as you can.
- So do it without rotating your hips.
And this represents hip motion right there.
You can see nothing's happening.
Now rotate the hips and if I keep this
in line with the pelvis there you can see much more motion,
keeping the stress off of the back
and making those muscles do the work.
Muscles work well, the spine is there for structure,
not for the work.
What'd you say to that, Mike?
Was that fun?
- Yes, it was great fun.
- Ah, actually get that core strong.
Again, three times a week is a good way to start with this.
Progress to more if it feels like you need
more of a challenge.
So strong backs, strong mind, strong body.
- Strong like bull. - Hmm, there you go.
All right, enjoy the day.
(bright music)