The most dangerous exercises for your low back pain are…
There are very few exercises that are inherently safe or inherently dangerous.
In the case of low back pain, what will push an exercise into either of the above two categories is the application of said exercise.
As a physical therapist in Toronto, I come across this situation often. This becomes a delicate balancing act between the risk and the benefit of a chosen exercise to that particular client with their particular brand of low back pain (basically, what is the “cause” of their problem).
In my experience, the following are the primary exercise errors that may increase your risk of acquiring or perpetuating a low back injury:
- Poor warm-up
- Too much volume
- Too much load
- Poor technique
- Biomechanical fault (e.g. injury, body type etc)
Over the next few days, I’ll dig a bit deeper into each of these.
By the end of it all, you should have a better idea of how to “qualify” yourself for a certain exercise which will keep you safer and help relieve your low back pain.
Yours in movement.
Dev Chengkalath
