Strength is NOT the best solution for back pain

If you haven’t heard the stat “80% of adults will suffer from low back pain at least once in their life” you’ve heard it now.

It’s unfortunate, but none the less, most of us will  have to deal with low back pain at some point in our lives, if not all the time.

You’ve probably also heard that you need to strengthen your  abs in order to reduce low back pain, and you do…kind of.

Strength is NOT the best solution for your low back pain! Can you believe I’m even saying that?

What a healthy/non-painful back has is not only strong muscles, it (you) has motor control.

You can be a power lifter, have very strong muscle and still have back pain.

Research tells us that people who focused on motor control and core stability had greater and long term effects than those who just focused on strength and mobility.

Motor control is the coordinated and efficient use of the muscles of the spine (and body).

We aren’t talking about one muscle isolation exercises , we are talking about using your body as an entire unit and everything working together as a whole.

If you feel like your low back pain is holding you back from getting back to regular exercise, I understand! I, too, have low back pain and sometimes have to modify what I do, but I can still get a great workout in and it’s likely that you can, too! It just won’t be all planks and sit ups!