Many people struggle with back pain and tight lats because of their poor posture. Poor posture causes your lats to bow, which in turn causes your lower back to slump forward. This weakness is often referred to as lower back posture or spinal erector muscle weakness. It’s important to keep your spine straight and avoid slouching over when seated, standing, or even during activities like working out. A bad back position can cause a variety of problems from chronic low back pain to herniated discs and even stress fracture symptoms. So, how do you correct tight lats and fix lower back posture? Read on for more information!
What is Lower Back Posture?
Lower back posture is the alignment of the spine, hips, and knees. It’s often expressed as double-hitch hold, inferior hemivertebrae, lordosis, or rounded sac. Most people have a slight tendency to slump forward when they sit, stand, or lay down. As we age, our posture becomes more upright because the muscles that hold our bodies upright get weaker. This is when we start to experience lower back pain and discomfort. This post-ure also leads to stiff and tight hip flexors which can cause pain in the glutes and the hip flexors.
How to Correct Lower Back Posture
To correct low back posture, you need to strengthen your lats. One exercise that does the job is the lat pulldown. Many people also perform front lateral raises, but the lat pulldown is the most commonly recommended abdominal exercise. You also need to strengthen your core muscles to protect your spine, especially the lower-back muscles: the erector muscle and the transversus abdominis.
Exercises to correct Lower Back Posture
To correct low back posture, first use a posture chart to chart your posture and find the exercises that work from low back to upper back. Once you find exercises that help with your posture, perform them as often as possible. Here are some exercises to strengthen your core, upper back, and lats, as well as improve your posture:
- Assisted V-Ups – These are easy to do, but they require a lot of core, hand, and forearm strength. And the exercises are easy to perform anywhere, even in bed, because you’re using your own body weight.
- Bicycling – This is a strength exercise that works your core, back, and arm muscles. It may not sound like a workout, but it’s actually a strength building exercise.
- Crunches – This is a temptation that you get when you see crunches on a posture chart, so you might not like them. But you have to do them because they strengthen your abdominal and lower-back muscles.
- Side raises – These are more intense than crunches, but they work your core and back more deeply because you’re using your legs to raise yourself up instead of your back.
- Seated Twists – These are more challenging than side raises, but the addicted sitters will love them. They’re great for improving your postural stability because you’re using both your trunk and arms to twist yourself in different directions.
- Stretching – Stretching is a quick way to cool off and relax your muscles after a long day at work or school. You can also do it before bed so you have a gentle workout in the morning.
- One-Legged Russian Twists – This is a one-legged strengthening exercise that works your core, back, and legs. You can perform it anywhere, including bed-side tables, chairs, and even the toilet!
Upper Back Posture Exercises
The upper back area is often overlooked because it’s usually situated directly above the spine and has nothing to protect it. It’s also the part of the body that shows the most signs of wear and tear. It’s the area that gets hurt the most during everyday activities, like lifting things and bending over. If you’re under 30, your upper back presents less of a problem because it’s still growing. But by the time you’re 45 or 50, the upper back has developed significant muscle mass, making it stronger than the lower back. And since the upper back muscles have less room to move, they’re forced to work harder to keep your spine from sagging. The core exercises that you need to strengthen for back pain include the crunches, the side raises, the ball crunch, and a few others.
Conclusion
In order to keep your back from becoming stiff and sore from exercises, you need to strengthen your core, lats, and hamstrings. Then, you can gradually work your way towards strengthening your back with more targeted exercises. To prevent low back pain, perform side bends and tabletop presses as much as you can, eat healthy and whole foods, and stay hydrated. In addition, you can also try to maintain a healthy posture by using a posture Chart to help you keep your spine straight, and avoid slouching or slumping over while sitting, standing, or even during activities like working out.