What is the best exercise to strengthen your spine?
A weak spine or weak muscles around our spine (paraspinal muscle) can be the result of an inactive sedentary lifestyle or decreased mobility due to disease, disability and or malnutrition. Whatever may be the cause the research has linked muscle weakness to one of the important causes of low back pain that can not be ignored1.
Exercises are very important for a weak spine or weak backbone, but it is equally important to know the right exercises. In this article, I will show you simple exercises in which if the muscles around your spine or backbone are weak then they are very effective.
Table of Contents
- What is the best exercise to strengthen your spine?
- 1) Bridging exercise to strengthen the spine
- 2) Upper back strengthening exercise
- 3) Straight leg raise in prone
- 4) Straight leg and hand raise in prone
- 5) Cat camel exercise to strengthen weak back bone
- 6) Leg and hand raise in quadruped
- 7) Leg raise in quadruped to strengthen spinal erectors
- 8) Bridging in side-lying
- Final words
What is the best exercise to strengthen your spine?
Before going to the exercises let me tell you that a weak spine can result in a lot of physical problems like upper back pain, low back pain and neck pain and sometimes it leads to poor posture such as forward head posture. In interesting research, a group of young volunteers with age 17 yrs were followed for 5 years to find out how trunk muscle strength or weakness directly affects the cause of low back pain. The group of volunteers that developed back pain after 5 years were having weak trunk muscles as compared to the group that does not have low back pain2.
To prevent this exercises are very important. All the exercises that we are going to learn are aimed to strengthen the muscles around our spine and trunk. We will learn exercises to strengthen the upper back muscle, lower back muscle and trunk muscle. Let us start with the bridging exercise.
1) Bridging exercise to strengthen the spine
The first spine exercise at home is a bridging exercise, this exercise is aimed to strengthen the lower trunk muscle. It’s a very simple exercise, rather all the exercises we are going to learn are easy and anyone can learn and perform them at home. For this, you have to first lie down flat on your back and keep both hands on the sides.
In this position bend both the knee and keep the foot flat on the floor, and then lift up your lower back upward. Lift it as high as possible and hold this position for 5 seconds and then slowly lower it down. Again lift, hold for 5 seconds and then relax. This will strengthen your lower back muscles. Repeat this at least 15-20 times in a session, the more the better.
2) Upper back strengthening exercise
The next backbone strengthening exercise is aimed to strengthen the upper back muscles. For this exercise, the starting position would be lying on your tummy, keeping both hands by the sides. In this position slowly and smoothly raise your neck and chest off the floor, raise it as high as possible. Because this pose resembles the hood of a cobra, we also call this pose as cobra pose.
This will strengthen the upper back muscles. So raise this way, hold for 5 seconds then come back to normal position. Again raise, hold for 5 seconds, then relax. Hold for 5 seconds, then relax. Repeat this pose at least 10 times, the more the better.
3) Straight leg raise in prone
Our next exercise is straight leg raise in a prone which is an important exercise to strengthen the lower back muscles. For this the starting position would be the same as the previous exercise, ie lying flat on your tummy. In this position keep the hand by the sides and then slowly raise one of your leg straight.
Note that you don’t have the bend the knee while raising the leg. Raise it straight, hold it for 5 seconds and then lower it down slowly. Then raise the other leg and hold it for 5 sec, the best way is to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then relax. Again raise the other leg hold and count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then relax. Repeat 10 times on both legs so if you count continuously, it will be 20 times.
Also Read: 5 Easy Back Pain On Upper Right Side (And Left) Exercises That Actually Work
4) Straight leg and hand raise in prone
In straight leg and hand raise in prone exercise we are exercising hand and leg simultaneously, so this exercise strengthens both the upper back and lower back muscles. It is a very simple yet effective exercise that is performed in a prone position. Let me simplify this for you.
The starting position would be the same as the previous one, i.e, lie down flat on your tummy with your hands by your side. In the previous exercise, we had only raised the legs straight, but in this exercise, you have to raise one hand and one opposite leg. For example, if I raise my left hand then I’ll raise my right leg simultaneously. Raise it to maximum and hold for 5 seconds, then lower it down slowly.
Then repeat the same procedure on the opposite side, i.e, right hand and left leg, hold for 5 sec and then relax. Repeat this minimum of 10 times on each side.
5) Cat camel exercise to strengthen weak back bone
As the name of the exercise suggests, for this spine strengthening exercise we have come to a posture that resembles cat and camel. For this, we have to get in the quadruped position and then come to the cat and camel pose in an alternate manner. Ok, let me explain it, get in a quadruped position and then lower your head and curve your spine upwards, this pose resembles the camel so we call it the camel pose. Then for the cat exercise do reverse, curve the spine downwards and raise the head up, this is the cat pose.
You have to do this alternately, cat, camel, cat, camel slowly and smoothly transitioning one pose to another. Repeat this exercise as much as you can, but a minimum of 20 times. It gives flexibility and strength to lower back muscles.
6) Leg and hand raise in quadruped
This exercise is quite similar to the 4th exercise (straight leg and hand raise in prone), the only difference being it is performed in a quadruped position. The effect of this exercise is also similar and it strengthens the upper and lower back muscles simultaneously.
For this, come to the quadruped position, in this position lift one hand and the opposite leg simultaneously. Suppose, if I raise my left hand straight then I’ll also raise my right leg straight. Raise and try to keep the limbs as straight as possible and hold this position for 5 seconds and then lower it down slowly.
Now, repeat the same process with the opposite side hand and leg, hold for 5 seconds and then relax. Repeat this exercise at least 20 times which is 10 times on each side.
7) Leg raise in quadruped to strengthen spinal erectors
The next exercise will strengthen only your lower back and this is also to be done in a quadruped position. Simply get in a quadruped position and raise your leg straight and hold it for 5 sec and then slowly lower it down. Now lift the other leg, hold for 5 seconds and then relax. Repeat for 10 times on each leg.
8) Bridging in side-lying
All the previous exercises were aimed the strengthen either the upper back muscle or lower back muscle or upper, and lower back muscle together. We call it bridging in side-lying exercise. If scroll to the first exercise it is simply a bridging exercise that is performed in the supine lying position. The present exercise is also a bridging exercise performed in the side-lying position.
So, for this exercise, you have to come to a side-lying position. Lie down on your side and then support your body over the elbow. Keep your hips straight. In this position lift your waist upwards as displayed in the figure. Hold for 5 seconds then relax. Again lift it and hold for 5 seconds then relax.
Do it 10 times and repeat it on the opposite side 10 times. Repeat this 10 times, it will strengthen the muscles on the sides on the spine.
Final words
These are very effective exercises and if do them regularly you are sure to get benefit out of this. It is recommended to perform all these exercises twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.
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Dr Sunit Sanjay Ekka is a physiotherapist in practice for the last 15 years. He has done his BPT from one of the premium Central Government physiotherapy colleges, ie, SVNIRTAR. The patient is his best teacher and whatever he gets to learn he loves to share it on his Youtube channel and blog.
