Seniors and the elderly often experience lower back pain for a variety of reasons. Keeping our backs strong can depend upon strengthening our core and abdominal muscles. The exercises below can help the overall health of your back. They include crunches and leg lifts. Always perform these exercises with your knees bent. There are also exercises for the shoulders, hamstrings and buttocks. They will help you maintain good core strength.
Posture and stretching exercises are important for your safety while doing any exercises for lower back pain. The spinal extension exercises will also help to strengthen your lower back and improve symptoms. Losing weight can help with lower back pain so a low impact workout that strengthens your back and aid in weight loss and lower back pain is important. Combine a proper diet with exercise three times a week for the best results.
Lower Back Exercises
- Eccentric Straight Leg Raise. This exercise will strengthen your abdominal muscles, making it easier for you to get out of bed and also to maintain straight posture.
- Cat and Camel. This will stretch and extend the lower back muscles,
- Back Extension. This exercise can also help with pain in the middle of your back. It helps with maintaining good posture while sitting or standing.
- Leg extensions. These will stretch and extend the lower back and hip muscles. They can also help to strengthen the pelvis and leg muscles which will help reduce your pain.
- Arm raises on back. This is a back muscle exercise which will improve the range of motion in your upper back and shoulders. It will help to strengthen muscles which are important to your posture, including your abdominal muscles.
Common causes of lower back pain in seniors includes arthritis, spinal stenosis and sciatica. As you age, joints in the lumbar spine can degenerate. To read more on lower back exercises and watch the instructional videos, click here.
