Two Fundamental Exercises to Help Decrease Back Pain
Written By Dr. Katie Bucholz
Are you one of the million Americans with back pain? You have come to the right place. I want to share with you two fundamental muscle activation drills required to start your journey to recovery! The greatest thing about these two movements is that everyone, and I mean every one, can be doing them no matter the diagnosis (pending any specific instructions from your health care provider).
If you have had back pain, you are familiar with needing to “contract your core”, but too many times I have patients who are unable to contract properly and are unable to coordinate that muscle contraction with any sort of functional activity. This Transverse Abdominus muscle (see picture below) is a very important muscle as it will wrap around the front of the abdomen and attach onto a big layer of fascia at the spine giving a more corset type stabilization of the spine which will actually decrease the amount of compression on the spine, all of you that already know you have degenerative disc or joint disease I am talking to you!
The second muscle we need to target is the Multifidus muscle. This muscle does not get as much notoriety as the transverse muscle but is almost more important. This muscle attaches segmentally along the spine to each vertebra and is responsible for control against rotation and slight extension. The problem is that when dysfunction starts, whether that be traumatic or a gradual onset of pain, this muscle is the first to jump ship and stop becoming effective within the actions I just explained. What is worse is that the muscle can develop fatty infiltrates that make it harder for it to become active as pain improves. This means that even if pain improves, if you are not doing exercises to target this muscle, it won’t just start working the way that it needs to for you to have successful long term back care.
Good thing you have read this far and are going to learn (finally!) the two exercises to target these important muscle groups along with some progressions to keep your workouts going.
Exercise 1: Transverse Abdominus Draw In
Transverse Draw in Maneuver is the most basic contraction of the transverse muscle but is often done with a full posterior pelvic tilt and glute contraction; activating more muscles than needed. To best activate this muscle, draw your belly button down towards your spine feeling a contraction from the lower portion of your abdomen primarily. Hold for as long as it takes you to do two normal breaths, being able to breathe while contracting your core is ESSENTIAL. Please note: This is a very subtle movement. (see instagram post below for demonstration)
Exercise 2: Multifidus Lift Off
To perform, move to the floor in a quadruped position and place one knee on a 2 inch foam, book, towel, etc. Raise your knee to the same height as the elevated knee and hold for 3 sec then release slowly. This will allow for both actions I described to be isolated without the use of other larger back muscles.
Please note these are the basics, day one, contractions necessary to begin healing your back pain. Perform daily for at least 2 sets of 10 repetitions and see the initial pain start to improve. Check back for Part 2 and 3 to learn how to utilize these muscle groups in actual exercise plans.
Visit our Instagram page for other ways to utilize those muscle groups and as always, come in and see us (schedule appointment here) for a full personalized evaluation to see what progression and exercise prescription works best for you!!