Bulletproofing Lower Back 

Dan John is the man

Dan, I really appreciate your point of view here. Not bluntly stating that excercise X is THE answer to all your lower back problems, but an honest way of telling it could be a number of things in your life, causing the pain. Thanks and keep the video's coming!

Doing dead lifts has helped my back tremendously. Yes it strengthens your back, for sure, but the reason it has helped is because in doing a deadlift, you have to ensure you are using your abs. So this in turn has made me subconsciously aware of using my abs when I bend over to pick up a bag of shopping for example. I used to have back problems, but nothing for the last 2 years since I started deadlifting.

A common issue in jiu jitsu is tweaking lower back. One of my students, who is a physical therapist, and I came up with a protocol, if the issue is muscular, to do 15 minutes of trigger point therapy, then very light, properly executed kb swings (10 or 15lbs.) In 3 sets of at least 50 everyday for a week (if its real bad 2 weeks. ) I've tried not doing the trigger points, and just doing the swings and have had success with minor lower back pain.I recommended others try it and they had good results as well. There's not a bunch of research to back it up, but on a small scale I've seen it work well. My PT and I have our thoughts on why it works, but it's a bit wordy for a RU-vid response.

The VA medical system diagnosed me long since with degenerative disc disease and sciatic neuropathy. The resets Original Strength offers have proven their value to me over and over. I do the rocking and head nods, but don't neglect the rotational movements, and the dead bugs and bird dogs as well. At 68, I have returned to training with kettlebells and dumbbells 2 or 3 times a week, and do pushups after stopping them for a few years because of arthritis in my shoulders. Leopard crawling helped restore function. A couple months ago, I started doing roll-outs with an ab wheel, and have just begun doing some dips.

Dan you give great advice. I love your channel. Keep it up.

Ulimate back fitness by McGill helped me a lot.

Yeah, backs are tricky, and I've heard countless remedies over the years. I've heard people say deadlifts, good mornings, jefferson curls have helped. Louie Simmons used reverse hypers for his athletes. People hanging upside down by their feet claim it helped their back. Or those that have back problems from conventional deadlifts have switched to trap bar deadlifts with great success. I've noticed from your help in your glute band workout video that getting my glutes woke back up has helped my back, so glute amnesia could be an issue too (which I guess deadlifts, good mornings, and hip thrusts could help that), which apparently if you're sitting a lot and not using your glutes every day can cause anterior pelvic tilt? I guess that makes sense, since it's wrecking your posture. It could also be a bad diet that causes these things. I don’t eat nearly as bad as I used to, but there was a period about 6 years ago where I ate so much sugary junk food and drank a lot of soda that my joints and tendons seemed to always be sore, and I pulled my back once and pulled my neck twice - without lifting weight. I cut the junk food out and ate mostly meat and salads and did intermittent fasting and haven’t had that problem since. You just never know with these things -- the body is so complex. I'm no PT or anything, but really, like you said, moving around helps a lot for me. That can be simply walking and moving around, or if I'm on my feet so much due to work to the point where I feel soreness and discomfort from the back down through the legs and feet, simply sitting in the deep squat for a couple of minutes has such a tremendous relief. But now that I think about it, I should get back to cutting out sugar again and doing intermittent fasting. I felt better mentally and physically.

Had a similar issue of pulling my lower back frequently. This also happened with my neck .At first I thought it happens due to lifting weights. Then , just bending and lifting my body caused such pulls. Found that It was due to continuous sitting. The muscle becomes a packet of ice after continuous sitting- fragile and ready to break. Simple warmups for the entire body works . The best thing is walking frequently and doing very light work like cleaning my room to keep my muscle warm and lubricated. No need for any strength training type of work(keep ithem separate) - meaning don't exercise, just send blood to your muscles at frequent intervals

Back extensions with a 4-5 seconds negative, then positive to parallel. 4 sets of 6-8 reps. Boom, bulletproof.

Dan, do you like Jefferson curls? I learned about them through Christopher Sommer’s work, and have personally got a lot out of them as far as bulletproofing