Lower Back

[iron thread]

What bodyweight exercises work the lower back?

[rubthebuddha]

supermen:

lay on on your tummy, arms by your head and legs straight downish.

using your hips/lower abs (shaddap ironfist -- i'm not saying there are separate muscles) as a fulcrum, lift your legs and torso up in the air.

think you're a superhero as you do them. just forget the cape (ironfist already has dibs)

[Kumkuat]

or you can wear your red underware outside of your pants. Another exercise you can do is the bridge.

[Robinf]

Another, more advanced, is to do leg raises from a shoulder stand. You should, however, be comfortable in a shoulder stand and in a reverse toe touch, firs!

[Ford Prefect]

reverse hyperextensions

[Robinf]

If you want to get all technical :D

[Ford Prefect]

Heh. Yours just reminded of it. Reverse hypers, you lay belly-down on a platform with your legs hanging off in a perpenticular position. Raise > down > repeat :) I think I'd get a headache your way!

[SevenStar]

good mornings.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by rubthebuddha
supermen:

lay on on your tummy, arms by your head and legs straight downish.

using your hips/lower abs (shaddap ironfist -- i'm not saying there are separate muscles) as a fulcrum, lift your legs and torso up in the air.

think you're a superhero as you do them. just forget the cape (ironfist already has dibs)

I heard supermen are bad for you, but I forgot why.

btw, he's right, I do have dibs on the superman cape, so don't even try :D However, Sevenstar can have the pink cape. :p :p

IronFist

[inic]

i've been doing these exercises i read/saw somewhere. i gotta find a pic so you know what i'm talking about. AHA! found it
http://www.t-mag.com/articles/153combat.html
the bridge exercise.... best **** exercise for the lower back. I hold it for 3-4 min every other day. i cant do it every day cause the day after you do it, your lower back is really sore, but the good sore. try starting out with holding it for 2 min and as your holding it, switch between holding yourself up with just hands, and just your head. sometimes, i'll do like weird pushups in that position heh. i noticed this really works the quads too...
haha, i remember the first couple times i did it, my back cracked about 40 times. i just heard CRACKCRACKCRACK..... i was like oohhh yeh, this is gonna be good.

[IronFist]

When I do one arm pushups when I haven't done them in a while my back cracks a bunch too. It's funny, cuz the only time I really do them is when people ask me if I can do them. Then I get in the position and do the first rep and crack crack crack.

IronFist

[SevenStar]

pink? fug that. Can I at least have a batman cape or something?

[IronFist]

Dude, you wish. Don't you remember our conversation? It went like this:

IF: Hey SevenStar, check it out, I have these two capes. One has the Superman logo on it, and the other one is pink

7*: Ooh! Ooh! I want the pink one!! It's soooo pretty!!!

IF: Well, I was going to give it to my sister, but I guess you can have it.

7*: Oh goodie!

How could you have forgotten that?

:D:D :p :p :D :D :p :p

IronFist

[Guile]

Those Bridges look kinda rough to do on the head. Gotta have a good neck.

[Guile]

Those Bridges look kinda rough to do on the head. Gotta have a good neck.

[Mr. Bao]

Iron Tread:

Indirectly, if you keep proper corrective posture in body weight or strength training, you are training your lower back to help you stabilize your movemovement. Doing bad form usually mean not have optimal posture and using your core incorrectly. So practicing good form is one of the basic ways of indirectly training your back.

1. You can try body weight hyper extension using stability ball or the convetional Icarican Hyperextension rack which most people do stupid oblique workouts and other nonsense back workouts, reverse hyper extension using a large stability ball or do them on the same conventional Icarican Hypertension but in this case you will be almost in a pike or handstand position. I believe these are very effective body weight lower back exercises with body weight load or external loading.

2. You can try the classical and ever so simple "good morning" exercise, However, be cautious of the load it can be deceptive and be moderate in your load in the beginning and always learn and practice the optimal form. BTW, this exercise was the one that hurt Bruce Lee'sback. I tell you not to discourage you from this exercise, but to give you some history. Regardless of some past person's exerience of not practicing good form and using common sense, it is very effective and also great in helping you build up your squating and dead lift ability.

3. Indirectly you can also develop your lower back by practicing different forms of the "dead lifts" which I am sure you have heard many people speak about. For me the deadlift is even more impressive than the squat. Why, do at all the muscles involved in the deadlifts vs the squats. I like squats too but the deadlift is the king of the two when you speak about raw muscle power and muscles output. The various methods of deadlifts can indirectly develop a strong lower back. I like the classical deadlift myself, but the bodybuilding semi stiff deadlift are great in hamstrings exercise and butt exercise.

4. This may sound silly, but doing certain glutes exercises can also strengthen your lower back. Doing hip abduct and flexion can indirectly strengthen your lower back.

5. Doing single push ups and squat can also strength your lower back and something to consider because you also strengthen your lower back and balance as well.

Well that is it bro. Good luck.