Unless you want to be plagued with low back pain the rest of your life here are the 5 most dangerous and overrated exercises that will almost guarantee your back pain will be your constant companion.
Doing random exercises hoping it will resolve your back pain could leave you frustrated and more vulnerable to a weakened low back.
1. Bending Forward from Your Waist.
This exercise exerts over twice as much pressure on the discs of your low back as standing. There are ways of doing this properly but if you have a sitting job greater than 4-5 hours per day think again about doing this one.
2. The Only Exercise Worse Than Doing a Standing Forward Bend Is to Do It Seated.
Sitting has almost 50% more pressure on your low back discs that standing. Bending over while seated squeezes your discs another 50%. If you have a desk job working on a computer you are probably slouching forward. This is bad enough for your back. When you bend over completely you are exerting much more compression on your low back discs.
3. Lie on Your Back and Bring Your Knees Close to Your Chest.
This exercise puts additional pressure on your low back as well however most people are told to hold both of their knees to their chest. This position is similar to standing or seated and bending forward and like those positions will put additional stress on the low back by squeezing the fluids in your discs causing them to bulge and be pushed toward the nerves with the potential of pinching them off and creating low back or leg pain.
4. Sitting on Floor and Reaching for Your Toes.
Here is another variation on the forward bending theme. As before you are compressing the low back discs with all of the components of pushing those joints together with the potential for squeezing nerves that go to your back and legs.
5. Stomach Crunches
This exercise is worse for your lower back discs than sitting on the floor and reaching for your toes. It does not strengthen the core abdominal and torso muscles, necessary for stabilizing your back and spine. It only works on the front stomach muscles, the ones that display the six pack ABS that most men crave to possess.
If this is what you’re looking for, then continue. However along with that physique, you may also develop increased lower back pain as this routine will compress the discs almost as much as standing and bending forward, maybe more.
Sorry for showing you what you may already be doing to alleviate your low back pain. My goal is not to make you feel bad, only to stop you from wasting your time on something that is not getting you where you want to be and potentially putting more stress on an area that is already damaged.
Please be aware of how all these positions are causing you to bend forward. This position increases the compression on low back discs which can and do put pressure on the nerves that go to your back and down your legs.
Getting on with your life pain-free is my goal for you.