Abdominal Exercises: Can They Really Help Low Back Pain?

By Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS, MFT

Lower back pain can have many causes, such as a pulled back muscle, disc problems, arthritis or sacroiliac joint dysfunction. One of the areas that need be addressed when working toward a cure for low back pain is abdominal exercises. Indeed, the strength of the abs can help strengthen the core area and prevent swayed back and compressed nerves. But not all abs exercises are equal and depending the cause of your back pain, abdominal exercises can make the problem worse.

To know if abs exercises are the right therapy for your back pain condition, let’s first look into the main causes of back pain, consider postural dysfunctions and then the role abs exercises can play in all this.

The Causes of Back Pain

The two most common reasons for lower back pain are 1) trauma and 2) muscle imbalances. Muscle imbalances can have a negative effect on your posture, leading to what are called postural dysfunctions. These dysfunctions include abnormal alignment of the pelvis and abnormal curvature of the spine. This misalignment causes increased wear and tear on the joints, muscles and ligaments—and even the discs.

The most important thing to understand about any lower back pain is that, barring trauma, it doesn't happen overnight. You may become symptomatic very quickly, but it takes a long time for the condition to get to the point where your back finally gives way and becomes painful.

When it comes to back pain, knowledge is power. The more you know, the more you can be in control of your own treatment, and Muscle Balance Therapy™ is one of the most powerful tools you can use to take control of your situation.

Muscle Balance Therapy

In simple terms, a muscle imbalance occurs when you have overdeveloped and tight muscles in one area of your body while the opposing muscles are weak and stretched out of their normal position. These imbalances can happen anywhere on the body and often develop as the result of the routine things you do while on the job, playing sports or engaging in other activities you enjoy.

As your muscles get more and more out of balance, you end up pulling yourself out of proper alignment, thus producing more stress and causing additional wear and tear on muscles, ligaments, joints and even the spine. And the spinal shift and uneven muscle groups cause postural dysfunctions. One of the most common areas for this is the lower back.

The Role of the Abdominals

Pain in the lower back is created by too short of muscles in the abdomen or too tight muscles in the lumbar region. Either extreme causes unnatural pressure on the spinal column, irritation of nerves, compressed discs, tight muscles and pain.

The muscles that tilt your hip under and return you to neutral spine are your abdominal muscles. You need to use your abs just enough to pull your spine into neutral position to prevent it from slouching (over-arching). Abs only help your back when you use them to move out of bad position into neutral spine.

Strengthening your abdominal muscles does not automatically make them supportive of the spine and correct the postural dysfunction. Again, depending on the actual muscle imbalance and thus the postural dysfunction, doing either the wrong abdominal exercises can make the problem worse or do nothing at all for you. On the other hand, they may be the best bet for correcting your imbalance and be all you need to cure the pain.

What you need to do is a self-assessment of your condition to see if they will help or harm you—like the one we use in the Lose the Back Pain System. Without it, you have no true way of knowing is abdominal exercises are the right or wrong therapy for your back pain.

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