Top 3 Dynamic Lumbar Stabilization Exercises

Best Spinal Exercises for Low Back Pain

By Coach E

dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises

Dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises are essential for strengthening your core muscles to protect your back and prevent back pain.

You can have knee pain and still put a shirt on in the morning. You can have tennis elbow and still hold your kid (in the other arm). But back pain? That can make brushing your teeth a chore. Don’t even think about sitting down or standing up.

Lumbar issues can be caused by plenty of different things. Ruptured discs, muscle strains and the old football injury are all reasons for a grown man to cry at the thought of tying his shoes.

Here’s the thing though: back pain happens to most of us at some point. But you can ward it off by stabilizing your spine with lumbar stabilization exercises.

Your spine isn’t capable of doing the work it needs to do all on its own. It NEEDS the muscles surrounding your torso so you can bend without breaking.

If dealing with back pain means stabilizing your spine, you have to train the right muscles.

You’re going to be focused on two muscle groups during lumbar stabilization exercises:

#1 Your Core

Core muscles are the key to spine stability because they are one of the main supporting structures of the spine.

Basic anatomy points this out for you, but it is worth noting that science has found that people demonstrate greater improvement of their lumbar motor control [1] and have less back pain when they use targeted exercises to strengthen their core muscles.

You know by now that the “core” isn’t one muscle. There are a few muscle groups at play here including:

  • Transverus abdominus
  • Multifidus
  • Diaphragm
  • And your pelvic floor muscles

Together these muscles work to provide overall stability not just in your abdomen but in your lower back region, too.

Something important to keep in mind about the core muscles is that most of us don’t typically engage each individual muscle consciously.

No one says, “I’m going to work on my multifidus today.”

This means that you need to train your mind and your body to co-contract your core muscles if you want to train them successfully. In other words, you need to target individual muscles using different kinds of exercises on different planes instead of trying to crunch your way to back health.

I think it’s worth repeating: crunches suck. Bonus: there’s no reason to hold a plank for half an hour unless you’re David Beckham and you want to. You’re welcome.

I also break this point down further in the Activate Your CORE for Maximum Power or  Advanced Core Circuit for RIPPED Abs videos.

But don’t worry about that right now because you’ll also see more about this in the lumbar exercise videos at the bottom of the page.

Let’s move on.

#2 Your Lats

Your lats are not just for pull downs. They’re actually the second key to unlocking back pain and lumbar stabilization.dynamic-lumbar-stabilization-exercises-lats

When I say lats here, I mean the thoracolumbar fascia or your TLF. Your TLF is an important part of the girdle (2) surrounding your lower torso. It works a lot like a corset by keeping everything together and where it is supposed to be.

The TLF improves your posture and keeps you standing up straight, but it also helps you transfer heavy loads.

These are the two muscle group you’ll have to target, but you also need to know how to target them. So…

Working on Three Planes

Your body moves on three anatomical planes.dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises - body planeThe sagittal plane is the one that divides the body from front to back thereby dividing your body into two halves: left and right.

The lateral plane runs perpendicular to the ground. It bi-sects your body laterally and from side to side creating your posterior and anterior.

The third plane is the transverse plane. It looks like a cross section and divides your body into two parts – the cranial portion and the caudal portion. The transverse plane runs parallel to the floor. It separates your head from your feet.

When you describe a movement, you use these planes to describe the axis you’re performing the action on. For example, if you perform an action on the transverse plane, the movement would be from head to toe.

You use multiple planes in your daily life. When you run away from a bear and look back to see if he’s still chasing you, you’re using working on your sagittal and coronal planes. When you bend over and puke after running away from the bear, you’re using your transverse plane.

Like I said, you use all three planes in your daily life.

Having multiple planes of motion – and using them in your daily life – means you need to train on multiple planes.

The problem is that most exercises and stretches focus on a single plane.

Again, this is why crunches suck – at least on their own. These muscles need you to give them more than a single repetitive motion.

That means you need to include exercises on multiple planes when you’re targeting these muscles. You need to hit different aspects of your abs and your lats. Different planes and positions help you do that.

But you also have to take it one step further and mix up the exercises one more time.

Dynamic and Static Stabilization Exercises

So you know you have to go after your core and your lats, and you know that you need to train them on multiple planes to dig deeper.

But you also need to mix it up in terms of dynamic and static stabilization exercises.

Dynamic stabilization is what is known as your body’s ability to support your everyday movements.

The exercises are designed to target your core muscles – the ones that support your posture – so that you can do things like lift your arms and move your shoulders while maintaining excellent posture and basically just staying upright.

The goal of these exercises is to be able to move your arms or legs or both at the same time, and keep your trunk stable. So, if you’re doing the front plank with shoulder taps, like in the video below, you want to be able to perform the shoulder taps without seeing any changes to your perfect plank posture.

These exercises are harder if your trunk stabilizer muscles are weak. You’ll notice this immediately if you lift one arm and you see a responsive movement in your trunk.

Static stabilization exercises are those where you’re targeting a specific muscle group – in this case your core – without the extra movements. The basic front plank hold is a good example of this.

The exercises use different kinds of intensities, and both target your muscles differently. Hence, each provides different results that are beneficial to those muscles AND to the way you want to use them.

Grabbing a mix of static and dynamic stabilization exercises is especially good for your core. Your core is a neuromuscularly intelligent bunch, and these muscles adapt to work quickly. Hence, it responds to a variety of exercises (like dynamic, static, working on multiple planes) better than other muscle groups.

Just another reason not to do a million crunches.

The Three Progressive Exercises

I know that I just gave you ton of info to remember for a few exercises and a couple of muscles. But you need to know it to do the work, and you definitely need to know it to do the work correctly. Your workouts and your spine depend on it.

But you can make it all a lot easier by peeping these three videos:

Beginner: Front Plank with Shoulder Taps

The Front Plank with Shoulder Taps video is a great way to mix up the plank, which is typically a static exercise, and really dig into your core and your lats. When you switch hands, you’re changing your base of support, and you’re using into the fundamentals lumbar stabilization just to stay upright.

Intermediate: Stir the Pot

Hanging out on a stability ball creates instability for your body – your core and your spine need to be stable to prevent you from falling over. Throw in the shoulder movements and you’re hitting a dynamic exercise on a couple of planes. Extra work for extra stability later.

Advanced: Stability Ball Rollup

Another stability ball workout because they’re cool and there’s nothing like trying to move in a slow and controlled way while trying not to slip off a giant plastic ball. Here you’re trying to maintain your support on the ball, but the changing base of support means you need to focus on both strength and coordination.

You need dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises whether you cry when you tie your shoes or not because a stable spine is the key to movement in any direction or on any plane.

Ultimately, we can combat back pain by targeting the muscles that help your spine do its job. But targeting your abs and your lats also means ensuring you’re following a program that includes exercises on different planes and of different types like the ones you’ve just seen.

About the Author

Eric Wong (aka Coach E) is the founder of Precision Movement and has a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Waterloo. He's been a coach since 2005 and spent his early career training combat athletes including multiple UFC fighters and professional boxers. He now dedicates himself to helping active people eliminate pain and improve mobility. He lives in Toronto (Go Leafs Go!) with his wife and two kids and drinks black coffee at work and IPAs at play. Click here to learn more about Eric.

>