Solving Your Back Pain with Proper Exercise Form

You can't bend over. You can't play with your kids or grandkids. You can't play golf. You can't even do your regular routine around the house. The long commute to work is killing you. You sit at your desk in gnawing pain for long periods of time and get nothing done because of it.

You've got back pain. And you need to get rid of it.

Let's show you how...

First and foremost, you need to see an expert to determine the cause and solution of your back pain. This is not something to be ignored. Ask around the gym or the office for a referral to a good soft-tissue therapist (this could be a physio or a chiropractor). Then see your doctor and get help as soon as possible.

Second, you need to find the cause of your pain and eliminate it. If you have a bad bed, a poor office workstation setup, or a bad exercise program - you must remove the offending activity that is crippling you with back pain.

Fortunately, there are many ways to help reduce your back pain in the gym. On the other hand, there are many ways that you might make the back pain worse.

Here's the one thing you should never do in the gym if you have back pain: You should never round your back. So that means no situps, no crunches, no picking up weights off the floor with a rounded back, and no rowing exercises performed with a rounded back. Be diligent with your form in all squats, rows, deadlifts, etc. If in doubt, skip the exercise.

Now picking up weights off the floor - that's where you see some of the ugliest form in the gym. So don't think that because it's "not really part of your exercise" that you can use poor posture when you are moving weights around the gym. Follow these rules when lifting for proper form.

Here's what you must do:

- Increase your abdominal endurance with exercises like the plank and side plank

- Brace your abdominals (clench them tight) in every exercise

- Keep your low back in a proper alignment by keeping a slight arch in the low back in all exercises

Follow these rules and you'll be able to exercise safely. The right strength program comes with torso training workouts that will help you build muscle endurance and reduce your risk of back pain. Being overweight is another cause of back pain (and knee pain too). So you need to get on a fat loss program that works and takes care of your back at the same time.

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Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training for Fat Loss have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Turbulence Training for Fat Loss workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.