Spine Health and the importance of exercise

People often don’t appreciate how important exercise is for the spine both in terms of building strength and increasing resilience. Incorporating simple stretches and movements into your day is a great habit to get into whether you currently suffer with lower back pain, you have in the past or you just want to protect yourself against future problems.

But the methods I show you in the video above don’t concentrate on the traditional fitness exercises you might normally expect. Instead we’ll look at three ways in which exercise can help to support your spine both now and in the future:

1. Transferable skills
2. Building resilience
3. Activating the glute muscles

Back and spine strengthening exercises

If you suffer from a weakness in your spine, traditional exercise can cause stress to build up, creating pain or discomfort when undertaking certain movements. By instead concentrating on specific exercises that have been designed to support the spine you’ll be able to release this tension and build up a thick wall of muscles that will surround and care for your spine and even guard against future injury.

Why exercise is important for the health of your spine

Spine health is not something that should be taken for granted. If you’ve ever suffered with low back pain, you’ll know that it can be completely debilitating, often preventing you from doing even the most basic daily tasks.

The good news though, is that the more you can do to strengthen your spine, whether you’re currently suffering with pain or not, the better you can expect it to cope with everything you throw at it. Because we’re all forced into making awkward movements at some time or another. The stronger and more prepared your spine is, the less likely one wrong twist is to cause a problem.

Learning how to protect your back in everyday life

One of the best ways to strengthen your spine and prevent back problems is to develop and improve your fundamental movement skills. These will help to lessen the likelihood of injury when you’re undertaking common movements such as lifting carrying, pushing, pulling, rotating, getting up, walking and running. There are numerous exercises you can use to practise these skills, build up strength and learn how to brace appropriately when you’re lifting something.

Making sure you’re using the right muscles

When we’re talking about strengthening and protecting the spine, it’s important to mention the glutes, those big muscles in your hips and bottom. These are capable of supporting your back when it is moving, twisting and lifting, but very often don’t engage to do the job unless you get them fired up. By correctly using specific exercises you can activate these muscles and make sure they are working hard for you taking the pressure away from the muscles of your spine and lower back.

When carrying out exercises for your spine, don’t just concentrate on common core strengthening exercises; there are many other beneficial ways to train.