I have the feeling I’ve always had a weak back.
Some 4 months ago I started working out regularly. Now I can almost touch the floor with my hands without bending my knees.
While doing this exercise I heard a small crack on my back, nothing serious.
Since then I can lift weights easier than before but my back still hurts a bit. My back doesn’t hurt as much after coming home from work, which was normal before.
What else could I do to have a stronger back?
If you have chronic back pain (not temporary, and not linked to an activity), you need to see a doctor first.
No, really. See a doctor. Because ALL of the exercises you see can seriously injure you, even permanently, depending on your exact condition. What works miracles for someone else may work backwards for you. Even if they have a similar condition, or it’s in a similar group (e g. Core strengthening)
And above all else, listen to your body. If it hurts, stop doing it.
Source: I’ve been through this the hard way
This, a thousand times. Also echoing what someone below said that a physiotherapist may be best, but in my country, the doctor refers to a PT.
The reason why getting proper medical input is important is because often back pain arises because of long standing, complex imbalances e.g. I had a weak core, which caused my legs to lock in a way that sort of compensated, which caused me to have an odd gait and to fall lots. Generally improving your strength was a good step, but if you’re experiencing pain like this, you may need help in identifying any underlying weaknesses.
Especially because injuries don’t just come from heavy or intensive exercise. I knew someone who had upper back pain that likely stemmed from poor posture. They identified the muscles that were painful and started doing stretches to that area. Even though it was only light intensity stretching they were doing, they were inadvertently exacerbating the root problem, which they didn’t learn until they had to be seen by a doctor urgently.
As others have mentioned, core exercises will be key here.
Some more traditional non-core exercises like squats and deadlifts will be engaging your core muscles (and a reminder that your ‘core’ is your whole trunk/body and not just your abs!), but you can progress this along with additional core exercises.
As someone that sits a lot for work, I really like to do ‘supermans’ and variations of them, a basic one is to lie flat on your stomach with arms and legs extended, then raise your arms and legs off the floor. You can hold, do them as reps, “swim” in the air, add in some pulls (like an overhead row if you have a resistance band or something you can attach in front of you).
Yoga has been mentioned below, but I would add Pilates to the list as well, there are plenty of core exercises to go at.
Pull-ups were the key for my back. Once I could complete a set of 10 with body weight only it was like magic. Though, I do think that the pull-ups forced me to strengthen my core, which had a major impact. Then once those muscles were able to keep up it made everything else easier too.
Yoga, specifically Hatha Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga with focus on the secondary series (there are 6 total).
I’d highly recommend to start out with classes and a suitable instructor though, there are a bunch of specific warm-ups to loosen some muscle groups and stretching certain areas that allow you to get into the required postures, trying to raw-dog those can lead to injuries if you force your stiff body into some positions it’s not used to.
If all you want are basic exercises to cycle through on a daily basis, 4-8 weeks of guided training is already enough to know what and how to do, you can continue with youtube from then on.
Yoga, for sure. I used to think it was just women stretching. Now I know it’s for everyone, and it’s more about strength than stretching. There are muscles that get worked in yoga that I have never known was there through mainstream weight lifting and strength training. Specifically my core and lower back. It’s made a difference, although it took about a year for me.
