Here are my top three habits to avoid when considering lower back pain.
- Avoid excessive sitting. Sitting tightens hip flexors, loosens the glutes, which tilts the pelvis forward and down compressing the lower back.
- Avoid Hip flexor dominant cardio, exercise bike, elliptical, or running on a treadmill. This over activate your hip flexors which can pull your pelvis, and in turn, your lower back into dysfunction and pain.
- Don't Wear shoes or boots with heels. This shuts down the glutes which is a key muscle in supporting proper back health.
On the contrary, here are my top three habits you should introduce into your daily routine to ease pain.
- Practice Daily spinal decompression techniques twice a day such as belly breathing, standing up and swinging your legs back and forth, which will help traction the spine, or try lying face down over an exercise ball. The stretch routine in the next videos is a great example of this.
- Whenever doing cardio opt for glute dominant exercises such as incline walking on a treadmill, hill climbing, or stair climbing
- Try to walk with a longer stride, this helps activate the glutes.
Andrew Maynard
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The Complete Series
Andrew introduces the workshop on low back health, and the common problem he will focus on: lower back pain. He discusses what constitutes as low back pain, increases your understanding of the issue, and reviews what the rest of the workshop will cover.