Back strengthening exercises might not be as obvious to you as you think, as developing a strong core and working on your core muscles will help to reduce back pain and hopefully prevent any further injury in the future, particularly lower back pain. Core exercises and conditioning your body through flexibility and working your core muscles is quite often more important that solely focusing on direct back exercises.   Whether you’re an avid gym-goer and had an injury through your training or you’ve pulled a muscle simply by bending over…

If you are just joining me here, read http://cassfitness.net/my-journey-through-low-back-pain-and-recovery-pt-1/ and http://cassfitness.net/my-journey-through-low-back-pain-and-recovery-pt-2/ to get caught up to speed. In the last installment, we left off at my progress at the end of 2012. Fast forward a few months, and I embarked on my journey to become a personal trainer.  I had some professional setbacks along with a larger desire to enjoy a career in the fitness industry, and help others with weight loss, strength training, and injury recovery. I knew I also needed to teach people Squats and Deadlifts without hurting…

The Bird Dog or the Alternating Quadruped Opposite Arm/Opposite Leg Raise is an exercise to help strengthen your lower back, abs, and glutes. It is a low impact exercise that frequently is used to help relieve lower back pain and to help prevent it from happening in the first place. Instructions: Place yourself in a prone position with both hands and knees on the ground. Your hands are directly beneath your shoulders and your knees are directly beneath your hips. Keep your core tight and maintain a neutral alignment in…

I want to introduce you to the deep glute stretch. If you run, you may already be familiar with it. Our hamstrings get tight from our everyday activities, especially if we are sitting for a long period of time regularly. Tight hamstrings can result in low back pain. This is an excellent stretch if you have low back pain or have pain in your hamstring (especially in the area that connects to your glutes). This is also a great stretch to help prevent pain in your lower back, hamstrings, and…