Almost all of us are going to experience low back pain at some point in our lifetime. Just look at modern society and all the direct and indirect ways we set ourselves up for low back pain.
We sit too much which puts us into “lower crossed syndrome” where our hip flexors and quad muscles get tight and our glutes get weak. Once our glutes are “turned off”, our body ends up extending our hips with our low back and hamstrings. Nether of which are intended to be our primary low back extenders, they are secondary. This is why hamstring strains are so common.
We gain too much belly fat. As a society we are obese in part because we sit too much. So now we have tight hip flexors and quads that pull our pelvis forward but we have additional weight on our stomach that adds extra “leverage” going forward.
We aren’t strong in all the places that we need to be. While most physical therapy sessions for low back pain will revolve around stretching our hip flexors, strengthen our glutes and isolated core exercises, physical therapy patients will rarely leave therapy with increased strength.
Famous low back researcher Stuart McGill is often quoted as saying that most people don’t hurt their low back moving a refrigerator but instead when they go to pick up a light object like a newspaper.
Why is that? Well when they move the heavy object they brace themselves for the movement whereas when they go to pick up their morning paper they ignore their mechanics.
We need to bridge the gap between physical therapy and strength training. The best way to do that is with the kettlebell suitcase deadlift.
The kettlebell suitcase deadlift is simple. You place a kettlebell next to the your left foot. You brace your core, flatten your back and keep your head up. Bending at the waist you grab the kettlebell and stand up. It’s not a difficult movement but it brings significant gains.
This offset movement requires core strength specifically transverse core strength. A plank, a crunch or any basic ab exercise primarily works in the front plane. Well that ignores the other two planes of motion, the sagittal and transverse plane. When you perform a rep of the kettlebell deadlift you have to brace your core from the opposite side in the transverse plane while activating your core muscles in the sagittal and frontal plane on the side where you’re actually lifting.
Then you get the glute hip extension strengthening benefits from the actual deadlift.
Grab a kettlebell. Start doing suitcase deadlifts. Free yourself from back pain.