Exercises for the Lazy to fix a Bad Back
Note: I’m not a physiotherapist or a professional. I’m just a bad programmer with a bad back.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Then there’s back pain 😰
Recently, my back problems were coming back. It doesn’t help that we’re cooped up inside so we’re always sitting (slouching) while we’re programming away or watching ASMR cooking videos. Also, my back was fine for so long that I completely forgot about these exercises.
Back pain may suck a lot (makes me want to puke) but even then I’m lazy and hated working 1 hour or more doing back exercises. I wanted something simple and effective.
These three exercises (sort off) were the most helpful in helping relieving back pain. Some interesting and some obvious (ex. Don’t Slouch 😐)
Exercise #1 — Reverse Bench/Table Glute Exercises
If you do nothing else, just do this exercise. It reduced my back pain in the least amount of effort and time!
I know what you’re thinking. Glute exercises are for big butts not for lower back pain 🤨 But hear me out. This exercise singlehandedly reduced my back pain in the easiest and quickest time ever. I have tried stretches, not slouching, sitting up straight, lower back exercises and etc.
However, even after working out and such my back pain didn’t really go away. It would still ebb here and there and sneak attack. Yet, this exercise alone just made it disappear. After a couple days, my lower back felt more stable and the pain was gone!
I just found a table that could support my weight, placed my upper body on top and started doing this exercise a couple times a day. Whenever I had a break, I would just plop down on the table and do a quick 10 reps. In a couple days, my back pain resided and my bigger. Win-win situation! (Win- Lose for me because my butt’s already too big.)
Credits to Jeff Cavaliere (Athlean-X) for introducing this exercise. Really saved my back so I can continue to watch youtube lying on the couch 🙄
Exercise #2 — Reclined Hip Stretches
Seeing a pattern here? The calfs, thighs, glutes and lower back are all tied together in one chain. When one of these muscle groups are underused, overused or too tight, the whole kinetic chain suffers.
Basically, my hips were so tight because I’ve been sitting all day. Sitting in classes, at home, on the bus, car etc. all make your hips really tight. This causes bad postures that makes you use less of your glute muscles. Exercising too didn’t help because that even made my hips even tighter.
After stretching my hips with this exercise, it took about a week before my hips felt looser and my lower back pain was reduced. I felt I stood up straighter than before. I also felt that I was engaging my hips more while running or walking.
Exercise #3 — Other Helpful tips or exercises
Not really an exercise but a couple tips which were caused or helped my back pain.
1. Don’t Slouch (Pretty obvious but lots of things in life are pretty obvious that we don’t do)
Slouching in my chair was the worst thing I could ever do to my already weak back. It basically killed my lower back. I’m sure it was one of the reasons why my back pain deteriorated to the point where even sitting up straight was painful. Start forcing yourself to sit up straight even if it hurts.
2. Get a nice chair (or Posture correction support)
Get a proper chair and not those $20 chairs from IKEA. (Although their $100+ chairs are a diffferent story.) Check for 2 things.
- The back rest is sturdy and you can lean on it. Better yet that the back rest has a curve for your lumbar spine.
- The seat is firm and not mushy. If it’s too mushy, then you’ll start rolling your back forwards which puts even more pressure on your back. Those chairs are the worst! Lower Back Pain anguish 😖
Or, get a hard not soft back support. It should be study enough to force you sit with proper posture. Else, it would be useless and do nothing. (I needed this for the office.)
3. Finally Just Take Plenty of Walks
The human body is made for kinetic movement not sitting all day in a chair.
Whenever my pain started hurting, I just took a lot more breaks during work to just walk around. With Covid, I just took walked a circle in the house. Do whatever you need to get up and moving even for a couple minutes. (And do Exercise 1 or 2. Exercise 1 if you’re super lazy.)
These are the exercises, stretches or tips that helped me the most. I’m starting to do these exercises again and it’s helping my back a lot. I’m not a professional so don’t take my advice as professional advice.
