Lower back exercises can be done to strengthen and stabilise the lower back. Doing these exercises often can help reduce the risk of back pain and injury. Lower back exercises are very common in rehabilitation programs. However, there is an increasing understanding that lower back exercises can be beneficial for people who are injury free.
Although there are a variety of workouts that might help strengthen your lower back.
In this post, we will show you how to conduct the best lower-back exercises at home with a dumbbell.
- Good Morning Exercise
- Dumbbell Hyperextension
- Dumbbell Deadlift
- Superman Exercise with Dumbbell
- Dumbbell Side Hip Raise
- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Good Morning Exercise
The Good Morning exercise is a simple but effective workout for the lower back. It also targets the hamstrings and the glutes. It’s typically performed with a smith machine or a barbell, but dumbbells work really well, particularly if you are training at home, or struggle with heavy weights.
Benefits
- Works the lower back, hamstrings, and glutes
- Improves squat performance by strengthening spinal muscles
- Teaches you correct posture for a number of other exercises
How to do the exercise
- Hold a dumbbell between your shoulders and hands and position it beneath your arms while standing straight with your feet hip-width apart.
- Maintain a strong grip on the ground with your feet. That’s where you’ll begin
- Begin by bending your knees slightly, pushing your hips back, and leaning forward until you feel a tiny stretch in your hamstrings.
- Then, after a few seconds of holding, carefully lift yourself back to the starting position.
- Throughout the action, keep your back flat.
Dumbbell Hyperextension
The hyperextension workout can also be done without the use of weights. However, if you wish to add weight, utilize a pair of light dumbbells.
You can use the machine to perform hyperextension exercises, but what if your gym doesn’t have one, or you don’t attend the gym at all?
In that situation, you can perform the hyper-extension exercise with a dumbbell on a flat bench. I’ve included instructions for hyperextension on a flat bench below.
Benefits
- The hyperextension exercise improves the strength of lower body muscles, particularly the hips and lower back. As a result, it’s a must-do exercise for improving lower-body strength and power.
- You will obtain the full range of motion engagement without taking needless risks.
- Choosing dumbbells as your weights and adding a row at the top can incorporate your upper back muscles in the workout.
How to do the exercise
- Begin by lying down prone (face down) on a flat bench.
- Maintain your balance by placing both feet on one corner of the bench and your lower abs on the opposite corner.
- Ask a companion to hold your feet on the bench if you lock your feet behind you.
- With your hands slightly beneath your chest, grab a dumbbell. That’s where you’ll begin.
- Tighten your hips, thighs, and glutes, elevate your upper body and a dumbbell until your lower back stretches.
- Hold for a few seconds before slowly lowering your upper body until your face is parallel to the ground. That counts as one rep. You can do this as many times as you like.
Dumbbell Deadlift
The dumbbell deadlift is a great exercise for the lower back. It’s one of the best exercises you can do to increase your strength and stability. It helps strengthen the erector spinae, glutes, and hamstrings. When you do this exercise regularly, it will help improve your movement pattern in competition and training lifts while also increasing hamstring and glute strength.
The dumbbell deadlift is a fantastic variation of the traditional deadlift, perfect for beginners. It has numerous advantages, making it one of the most effective workouts for strengthening the lower back.
Benefits
- Increase Muscle Mass, Strengthen Grip, and Correct Muscle Imbalances.
- Increase your range of motion
- Beginner-Friendly
- Increased stability
- Boosts your posture
- Takes up a lot less space
How to do the exercise
- Place a pair of dumbbells near your feet on the floor.
- With your feet shoulder-width apart, extend your arm in front of your thigh, and palms facing your body, stand upright. That’s where you’ll begin.
- Lean forward while maintaining a flat back, tighten your core and push your hips back.
- Return to a standing position slowly by lifting the dumbbells with extended arms.
- That’s the first time you’ve done it. You can do this as many times as you like.
Superman Exercise with Dumbbell
The supermans are a tremendous corrective workout that doesn’t require you to lift huge weights. All you’ll need is yourself and a flat surface. It will engage the glutes and lower back in the same way that bridges do, but it will let you accomplish a higher volume of reps.
The Superman exercise is adaptable and simple because it may be performed anywhere, including at home. It only requires a small amount of room and your physical presence. Dumbbells, on the other hand, can be used to alter this workout.
Adding dumbbells to this workout will make it more challenging and effective. It’s one of the most effective dumbbell exercises for the lower back.
Benefits
- The erector spinae muscles, which support the spine, are strengthened by this exercise.
- Strong back muscles can help prevent postural abnormalities like kyphosis (“hunchback”), which cause poor posture and discomfort.
- A strong core is essential for avoiding lower back strain, resulting in pain or damage over time.
- Superman works your glutes and hamstrings in addition to your core.
How to do the exercise
- Begin by lying prone (face down) with your arms outstretched in front of you and your legs stretched behind you.
- Keep your head in a neutral position while lifting a set of light dumbbells. That’s where it all starts.
- Raise your arms and legs simultaneously.
- As if you were Superman, raise both arms and legs as high as you can.
- Hold this position for a few seconds before lowering yourself to the floor.
- When you’re in the superman posture, your lower back stretches.
Dumbbell Side Hip Raise
The side bridge, also known as side hip lifts, strengthens, and relieves stiffness in the lower back. This movement might be one of the most effective lower back workouts you can do if you have back pain. With a dumbbell, you may perform side hip lifts.
Benefits
- It exercises your upper and lower back muscles at almost 40% of their maximal capacity.
- It not only strengthens your obliques (to around 50% of their maximum), but it also strengthens your rectus abdominis (six-pack muscle) (about 34 percent of its maximum).
- The dumbbell side hip raise is a great approach to strengthen your hip abductor muscles.
How to do the exercise
- Simply lie down on your right side, your forearm on the floor and your elbow underneath your shoulder.
- Bend your knees behind you to a 90-degree angle.
- With your left hand, hold a dumbbell and place it on your side hip. That’s where it all begins.
- Next lift your hips off the floor then hold them there for five to ten seconds, depending on your strength, before returning them to the starting position.
- Repeat the same processes on the opposite side for the desired number of repetitions.
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift is one of the best hamstring exercises around, but it is also a seriously effective lower back exercise. It utilises that hip/hinge movement and is great for improving your posture and your lower back strength.
The use of dumbbells can help you to keep the weight lower, some people may struggle to lift a 20kg barbell straight away, so dumbbells work well. Using dumbbells also allows a greater range of motion, as you can bring your hands down closer to the ground than you can bring a barbell with plates on it.
Benefits
- Great ROM
- Strengthens lower back
- Amazing exercise for hamstring flexibility
- Helps teach perfect posture for a number of other exercises
How to do the exercise
- Grab a dumbbell in each hand and hold them in front of your waist using an overhand grip.
- Bend your knees very slightly
- Push your chest out and pull your shoulders back to create a nice straight back
- Keeping your legs stiff, lower the dumbbells down towards the ground bringing your torso with you
- Once your chest is nearly parallel to the ground you can stop
- Then drive your chest back upwards and bring the weights to the starting position
Muscles of the Lower Back
There are four main muscles that make up the lower back, these are the:
- Quadratus Lumborum
- Spinalis (part of the erector spinae muscles that travel down your spine)
- Longissimus (part of the erector spinae muscles that travel down your spine)
- Multifidus
But there are many other muscles that are somewhat situated in this area. For instance, the lats are considered an upper back muscle, but they actually cover both the upper and lower back.
It is also important to note that many muscles with little relationship to the area of your lower back, can contribute to lower back pain. The piriformis muscle is located beneath your gluteals but is a common cause of lower back pain. The hamstrings are even lower, but tight hamstrings can contribute to lower back pain too.
Luckily, many lower back exercises target the gluteals and hamstrings as well as the lower back, so you can fight lower back pain with them.
Final Thoughts
While the idea that a stronger lower back can prevent injuries is unrealistic, it can certainly reduce your risk somewhat, and help you to recover from injury faster.
A 2016 study by Gordon & Bloxham found that an exercise program that combines resistance training (dumbbells), flexibility, and aerobic fitness is highly effective at improving non-specific chronic low back pain.
We are looking at dumbbells rather than other forms of resistance for a number of reasons. Dumbbells allow for a broader range of motion, which can help to provide greater results. They offer greater freedom of movement, and many grip variations. They also allow you to perform single-arm or single-leg variations which is something barbells can’t.
Not only that, but the dumbbells may be held in any position. For example, on your shoulders, sides, overhead, at chest level, and so on. Dumbbells are ideal for lower back exercises because of this.
Dumbbells are also cheaper to purchase, take up less space in your home, and are less likely to damage your floor or walls.
Dumbbells are a great way to strengthen your lower back. They offer more variety than other exercises, and they can be used in various situations. Incorporating these exercises into your routine will result in a notable improvement in your strength, mobility, and flexibility over time. This will help prevent injury as well as improve your performance in all areas of fitness.