What is the best exercise to strengthen your spine?

Last Updated on January 23, 2026 by Sunit. S. Ekka

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.

The 8 Best Exercises to Strengthen Your Spine and Prevent Back Pain

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 aged 17 years 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 who developed back pain after 5 years had weak trunk muscles as compared to the group that did not have low back pain².

To prevent this, exercise is very important. All the exercises that we are going to learn are aimed at strengthening 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 at strengthening the lower trunk muscles. 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:

1. You have to first lie down flat on your back and keep both hands on the sides.
2. In this position, bend both knees and keep the foot flat on the floor, and then lift up your lower back upward.
3. Lift it as high as possible and hold this position for 5 seconds, and then slowly lower it down. This will strengthen your lower back muscles.
4. 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 at strengthening the upper back muscles. For this exercise:

1. The starting position would be lying on your tummy, keeping both hands by your sides.
2. In this position, slowly and smoothly raise your neck and chest off the floor, raising them as high as possible.
3. Because this pose resembles the hood of a cobra, we also call this pose as cobra pose. This will strengthen the upper back muscles.
4. So raise this way, hold for 5 seconds, then come back to the normal position.
5. Repeat this pose at least 10 times; the more the better.

3) Straight leg raise in prone

Our next exercise is the straight leg raise in a prone which is an important exercise to strengthen the lower back muscles. For this:

1. The starting position would be the same as the previous exercise, ie lying flat on your tummy. In this position, keep your hand by your side and then slowly raise one of your legs straight.
2. 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 slowly. The best way is to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then relax.
3. 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 the 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 slowly.
4. Then repeat the same procedure on the opposite side, i.e, right hand and left leg, hold for 5 sec and then relax.
5. Repeat this a minimum of 10 times on each side.

5) Cat camel exercise to strengthen weak backbone

As the name of the exercise suggests, for this spine strengthening exercise, we have come to a posture that resembles the cat and camel. For this, we have to get into the quadruped position and then come to the cat and camel pose in an alternate manner. Ok, let me explain it:

1. Get into a quadruped position and then lower your head and curve your spine upwards.
2. This pose resembles the camel, so we call it the camel pose.
3. Then, for the cat exercise, do reverse, curve the spine downwards and raise the head up; this is the cat pose.
4. You have to do this alternately, cat, camel, cat, camel, slowly and smoothly transitioning one pose to another.
5. Repeat this exercise as much as you can, but a minimum of 20 times.
6. It gives flexibility and strength to the 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 that 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.

1. For this, come to the quadruped position.
2. In this position, lift one hand and the opposite leg simultaneously.
3. Suppose 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 them slowly.
4. Now, repeat the same process with the opposite side hand and leg, hold for 5 seconds and then relax.
5. 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.

1. Simply get into a quadruped position and raise your leg straight
2. Raise it and hold it for 5 seconds and then slowly lower it down.
3. Now lift the other leg, hold for 5 seconds and then relax.
4. Repeat for 10 times on each leg.

8) Bridging in side-lying

All the previous exercises were aimed the strengthening either the upper back muscle or the lower back muscle or the upper and lower back muscles together. We call it bridging in side-lying exercise. If you 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.

1. So, for this exercise, you have to come to a side-lying position.
2. Lie down on your side and then support your body over the elbow. Keep your hips straight.
3. In this position, lift your waist upwards as displayed in the figure.
4. Hold for 5 seconds, then relax. Again, lift it and hold for 5 seconds, then relax.
5. 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 you do them regularly, you are sure to get benefits 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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Sunit. S. Ekka

The author is a physiotherapist who has been practising for the last 17 years. He holds a Bachelor's in Physiotherapy (BPT) from SVNIRTAR (Swami Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation and Research), one of the prestigious physiotherapy schools in India.

Whatever he learns dealing with his patient, he shares it with the world through blogs and e-books. He also owns a YouTube channel, "Sunit Physiotherapist" with over 8 lakh active subscribers. Here, he shares everything he gets to learn serving the patient.