minor back pain

[Merryprankster]

Red,

Just eat some Jewish Asian Bankers.

That'll firm those abs up.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Merryprankster
Ironfist,

The problem is that if you have weak abs, it shifts more of the stabilization effort to the back. That can create problems that lead to injury.

It's like tight hamstrings leading to lower back problems.

But hamstrings and lower back are not antagonists like abs and lower back are.

edit - wait are you talking about during upright movement like walking?

[Toby]

My lower back is rock hard from squat and deadlift. I credit these two exercises with making my lower back stronger than it's ever been. I wouldn't mind doing more exercises to challenge my stability a bit more, but for pure strength they do the trick.

[Merryprankster]

Iron, yeah. All this stuff works together.

Those abs are thick and muscular for a reason - they help keep us upright. When they are weak, the lower back takes more of the strain.

That can lead to all kinds of problems. Lower back tightness, pain, injury.

So stronger abs can help your back....but for most athletic people, it's not a problem.

[PLCrane]

One other consideration -

If you hurt your lower back and are out of commission for a couple weeks, there's a real good chance that the multifidi have lost strength. These are the small muscles that are right up against the lower spine. They are stabilizers of the spine, and they should activate first when you move your trunk.

One way to work these is with abdominal hollowing. Suck your gut in as far as possible and hold for a few seconds at a time. Most people try to do this on inhale, but it's better to do it on exhale, so that you're not pushing your organs down and in the way.

Any exercise that gets the transverse abdominals will also get the multifidi, since they have a common insertion.