Low back pain isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. Most of the literature I’ve read estimates that 80% of the US population suffers from it at some point in their life, and I think that number only figures to get worse as we spend more and more time sitting on our backsides in front of our computers.

Why do I say that?

Because one of the key factors in low back pain, for the majority of people is weak glutes (glutes = gluteus maximums, which = butt, btw). In fact, if you asked me to sum up the cause of low back pain in one sentence, this is probably what I’d say:

People are spending too much time sitting on their butts, and it’s killing their backs.

What do your glutes have to do with your back? The answer is simple, when you understand a little about how the human body works.

Your muscles are designed to move you body in a bunch of different ways. One of these ways is to flex your body forward and then extend it back upright. There are a number of muscles in the body that are assigned to each of these tasks, but the main muscle that helps you extend back in to an upright position is your glutes. Therefore, in an ideal world, every time you stood upright, your glutes would be doing most of the work for you.

The problem is this – either you use it or you lose it. Especially when it comes to your body. What this means is that if you’re not using a muscle, it effectively ‘falls asleep; and doesn’t work as well as it should, meaning that other muscles have to compensate and take over the motion instead, in order to make you move the way you want to.

Now think back to what I said earlier about sitting on your glutes all day. Are you using them when you do this? No – you’re sitting on them with your hips flexed, meaning that they’re out of action for the majority of the day. This leads to them ‘falling asleep’, which, as we mentioned before, means that they can’t do the task they’re supposed to.

So what are we left with? Your body needs to stand upright but can’t use the muscle that is designed to do this job. And so instead, a bunch of muscles are brought into the mix that really have no business being there.

So what ends up happening is that in order to find a way to still get you upright, your lower back muscles now hyperextend into an overly tight arch, thereby causing your body to be upright, but your low back muscles to be extra taxed with a job they were only supposed to help with, not support entirely on their own.

This, in my opinion, is the main cause of low back that people experience. Their lack of glutes leads to an overcompensation in the low back. The low back muscles aren’t used to this load and end up ‘barking’ at you to let you know it. And this comes back to the brain in the form of pain.

So really, every time you have lower back pain, it’s just your muscles calling out to you for help!

Now, one caveat that I need to insert here is that this is only for people who have functional back pain that is due to a muscular imbalance. This DOES NOT apply to people who have had disc herniation or serious back injuries or anything like that (even though glute activation and strengthening will certainly help them too). These people need to seek out a qualified health professional to help them with their rehab. But for the majority of people out there, getting your glutes activated and strengthened is the way to go to resolving your back pain.

Of course, there are other small factors that contribute too, but glute activation and strength is the number one thing you need to be tackling if you have low back pain. Not to mention the great effect it will have on your posture and the way you look too, but that’s something we’ll have to discuss in a future post.

For now, I want you to know two things:

1. Most people get low back pain because their glutes are asleep and weak.

2. To fix this, they need to do glute activation exercises and glute strengthening exercises.

Of course, you’re now asking yourself, what are these exercises and how do I do them?

And I will be addressing these very questions in my next blog post. I may even throw up some audio or video to help you along too.

Keep watching the blog and as always, feel free to get in touch with any questions or feedback you may have.

I’m always here to help!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and remember to enjoy everything you have in your life.