If your lower back is giving you grief, you don’t have to be a helpless bystander.
A few years ago, when I had chronic lower back pain, I thought I had to be.
I spent months going to a back specialist–but I was missing two key components to my back health:
- Lower back exercises
- Lower back massages
By leaving it up to just my back specialist, I wasn’t taking any action myself to get better, and I paid the price for that by living with months of dull, aching lower back pain.
It wasn’t until I started adding in lower back exercises that I actually felt results in my lower back. It was amazing to actually be able to:
- Sit on the couch without a dull ache that made me feel 20 years older!
- Lift something heavy without jolts of pain running down my spine
That’s why I recommend taking control back into your own hands with exercises and massages–all designed to help you with your lower back pain.
Today, we’ll go on a hunt for the single best exercise for lower back pain. That may sound like a tall order, but I’ll show you 8 of my favorite lower back exercises, so you can decide which one you think is the single best exercise for lower back pain.
Along the way, I’ll also give tips on some of the best lower back massages that you can add into your routine, so you can also decide what you think is the single best massage for lower back pain.
Typical Muscle Culprits for Lower Back Pain
We all tend to point fingers when we’re uncomfortable.
If you’re experiencing lower back pain, it can feel like just a general ache, but it can be helpful to get educated on which muscles tend to hold responsibility for the discomfort. Basically, let’s figure out who’s to blame for this before we find a solution.
Muscle #1: The QL
The Quadratus Lumborum (or the QL) is a deep back muscle. It’s not very external, but it causes a ton of lower back pain. People who have QL pain usually describe it as “non-specific” lower back pain.
Muscle #2: The Iliacus
Running from the top of your hip bone to your femur, an agitated Iliacus can cause discomfort in your hips and groin.
Muscle #3: The Gluteus Medius
This is an upper buttock muscle, and this guy is a huge culprit for causing lower back pain, especially in the tailbone, outer hip, and gluteal region.
Muscle #4: The Psoas
Found between your belly button and hip bone on either side of your body, the Psoas is a major culprit for lower back pain for people who tend to sit for large portions of their day.
Muscle #5: The Piriformis
This deep glute muscle can be found between your tailbone and the top of your thigh bone on either side of your body. Chances are, your Piriformis is at play if you’re experiencing tailbone pain, buttock pain, or shooting pain down your thigh.
Muscle #6: The TFL
The Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL) is a bulb-shaped muscle on the outer side of your hip that runs down to your knee in a slim ligament called the IT band. This guy is a huge culprit for outer hip pain.
All six of these muscles tend to cause major lower back pain–but the great news is–now that you know about these muscles, you can get informed on the best exercises and massage techniques to target them, work the living heck out of them, and get back control of your back and your life!
Best Exercises for Lower Back Pain
If you’re a perfectionist, and you’re on the hunt for the single best exercise for lower back pain, you may be disappointed to find that there is not just one single exercise for lower back pain.
But the good news is that there are many.
Today, I’ll show you the 8 best exercises for lower back pain in my opinion. I’ll explain how to do each move and the lower back muscles each move will work.
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #1: Elephant Walk
This exercise is easy to perform, but it’s super key for adding length and flexibility to your hamstrings and back.
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- Tuck in your stomach and brace your core.
- Shrug your shoulders up toward your ears.
- Now, bend over, touching the floor and bringing your torso parallel to the ground.
- Straighten one leg –putting your whole body into this motion. Your other leg should remain slightly bent. This motion is called flossing.
- Alternate flossing each leg.
- Repeat for 40 reps–20 on each leg.
You can also follow this helpful video for how to complete this exercise:
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #2: Cat Cow
This one’s also simple but effective!
As you perform the cat pose (flexion), and the cow pose (extension), you’ll be stretching your spinal muscles and abdominal muscles–making this an easy top contender for the single best exercise for lower back pain.
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- Make a table pose–on your hands and knees–hands lined up just underneath your shoulders and knees just underneath your hips.
- Exhale and round your spine up into cat pose.
- Inhale, now bending your spine in a concave position, with your chest and glutes up. This is cow pose.
- Repeat 5-20 times.
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #3: Pelvic Tilt
The pelvic tilt is our third contender for the single best exercise for lower back pain. It’s a subtle motion, but this very small movement is a powerhouse exercise for your muscles–working muscles in your abs, lower back, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, and pelvic floor.
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- Lie down on a yoga mat–with your knees bent, and your hands out to the side–palms facing down.
- Engage your abdominal muscles, and tilt your pelvis backward–flattening your back against the floor.
- Pause to hold this position for a few seconds.
- Then release, allowing your pelvis to return to a neutral position.
- Now, arch your back to tilt your pelvis forward.
- Hold this position for a few seconds.
- Then return to the starting position.
- Repeat 10 times for a set.
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #4: Seated Good Morning
Add this one into your morning routine, and you may soon understand why it’s called a Good Morning. You’ll feel this move strengthening your lower back as well as your hamstrings and glutes–hence this being a contender for the single best exercise for lower back pain!
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- Sit on a chair or bench–with your feet shoulder-width apart and flat on the floor.
- Place a barbell across your back, holding the barbell on each side of your neck with your hands.
- Hinge at your hips, bringing your torso parallel to the floor–leading with your chest and maintaining a neutral spine.
- Raise your torso back to the starting position, engaging your glutes and hamstrings.
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #5: Suitcase Carry
This full-body, compound exercise works your obliques as well as your lower back muscles, such as your QLs, so it should bring both strength and pain relief to your lower back, making it another great contender for the single best exercise for lower back pain.
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- For this exercise, you’ll need a dumbbell or kettlebell to carry as your “suitcase.”
- Hold the weight at your side, maintaining perfect posture and keeping the body in a straight line.
- Walk heel-to-toe–carrying the weight with you for 45-90 seconds.
- Repeat for 4 sets.
You can also check out a video for how to complete the Suitcase Carry below:
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #6: Banded Glute Bridge
If you sit a lot during the day for work or school, glute bridges are a great way to counter that, which is why they’re another top choice for the single best exercise for lower back pain.
Add a resistance band into the mix, and you’ll see even more results in your glutes, hamstrings, and core.
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- Place a looped resistance band around both thighs–just above your knees.
- Lie on your back–on a yoga mat with your knees bent, and your feet flat on the floor.
- Squeeze your glutes, using them to raise your hips in line with your torso.
- Hold this position for a few seconds.
- Then, return to the starting position, and repeat.
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #7: ATG Split Squat Variation
Made popular by Ben Patrick, “The Knees Over Toes Guy,” this squat variation will have your quads, glutes, and adductors on fire!
For a bonus challenge, you can add weight, or you can add height to your front leg using a box or bench.
How to Perform This Lower Back Exercise:
- Place one leg behind you and the other in front–as you would for a regular split squat position.
- Raise up the heel in the back leg, so your toes are on the floor.
- Bend down into a squat position, fully bending your knee, so your hamstring completely covers your calf.
- Your back leg should be as straight as possible during this motion.
- Then, raise up to the starting position.
- Repeat for 6-8 reps on either side.
Single Best Exercise for Lower Back Pain Contender #8: Seated Piriformis Stretch
Stretching the Piriformis is a great way to experience lower back pain relief, making this the 8th and last contender for the single best exercise for lower back pain!
- Sit in a chair with feet shoulder-width apart and feet firmly on the ground.
- Lift the right ankle up over the left knee.
- Flex your foot, stretching the toes up towards your shin.
- Maintaining a neutral spine, bring your chest down toward your knees.
- Hold for a few seconds.
- Then, repeat on the other side.
Use a Lower Back Exercise Program
If you feel like you’ve settled on a single best exercise for lower back pain, but you still feel like you need more, I recommend participating in a lower back exercise program.
Signing up for a program has several benefits, including:
- Built-in accountability for your back exercises
- The best exercises for lower back pain added together into an easy-to-follow routine
- Guidance on what moves to complete and when in a routine
- That feeling of accomplishment when you’ve completed the program!
Check out BACK OF STEEL, our 5-minute per day, 3 day per week Back Durability Program! This program is designed to put the power back in your hands–and your back–giving you a bulletproof back through purposefully selected lower back exercises that will build strength and endurance.
Or if you’d like to focus more on stretches, I recommend FLEXIBLE BACK, our 3-week morning and evening back stretching routine. This exercise program focuses on increased range of motion in your hips, glutes, legs, and spine!
Best Massages for Lower Back Pain
Much like lower back exercises, there is also not just one single best massage for lower back pain–but I’ll recommend some of my faves!
For any of my recommended lower back massages, all you need is one tool: THE QL CLAW.
This lower back massage device is designed to provide you with a therapeutic lower back massage right from the comfort of your own home! You’ll feel instant relief in your:
- Lower Back
- Glutes
- Hip Flexors
Now for the massages. Check out the links below to helpful articles focused on massaging all 6 lower back muscles that tend to cause lower back pain.
After you try them all out, you can decide which one you think is the single best massage for lower back pain.
By combining these best lower back massage techniques with all the contenders for the single best exercise for lower back pain, you’ll empower yourself to help your lower back experience pain relief, strength, and durability for all your daily tasks!