Ab Exercises for People with Back Pain

Although it may seem counterintuitive, people experiencing back pain should do exercises with their doctor’s permission. Some types of back pain, especially pain associated with sitting for long stretches, comes from not working out the back muscles enough. As long as there are no injuries, doing basic abdominal exercises is fine.

Yoga is a form of exercise that improves flexibility and balance through stretching and maintaining poses. Yoga also requires some strength, which is where it can help people with back pain. The poses that serve as an abdominal workout for yoga are poses that require the back to arch outward. These poses can be done standing or lying flat. You simply arch your back outward so that your hands are reaching toward the back of your legs. Holding this pose for up to a minute will strengthen the back muscles and also help the abs.

Other exercises that help with abdominal muscles and back pain are leg lifts. This exercise, often used in traditional aerobics classes, has no impact but allows you to work your back. Begin by lying on the floor on your side. Put your arm out straight down the length of your torso toward your feet. Lift the top foot until your legs form as close to a 30-degree angle as you can get. Try to hold your leg in this position for a few seconds and then lower. Do several sets of these leg lifts before switching sides. The leg lift should stretch the muscles of the back, helping to relieve pain, while also working on the oblique muscles.

While these exercises are low impact and will work for people with chronic or acute back pain, other forms of ab exercises are great as well. Crunches are basic, and they are easy to do with most types of back pain. Rather than not do the exercises, speak with your doctor about ways you can do the ab exercises you would like to do without sacrificing your health.

The best rule of thumb for doing ab exercises when you are having back pain is not to work through any intense pain. A bit of discomfort is one thing and is usually okay, but do not work through stabbing pain, for instance. That could be very dangerous. Pay attention to your body’s signals, and you’re likely to know when to stop working out your abs because of back pain.

six pack abs" />

Have you thought that maybe you have the whole picture wrong about how to get six pack abs? There is this fantastic diet and exercise system that will teach you everything you need to know about how to get a firm and trim midsection and that allows your ab muscles to show through.Check out my Six Pack Abs review now.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

If you like this post then you will probably like these other related items as well

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.