Body Shop: Lose weight, stretch to strengthen lower back - Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Air Force Times

Body Shop: Lose weight, stretch to strengthen lower back

A protruding midsection and tight hamstring muscles can set you up for a lower-back problem. Here’s how to keep your lower back healthy and happy by reducing your waistline and becoming more flexible.

Body-fat reduction

Body fat is stored in two ways. Fat stored beneath the skin and above the layer of muscle is called subcutaneous fat. Women tend to have considerably more of this than men, which makes women much softer.

Fat stored beneath the muscle layer is called visceral fat, and a prime site is the abdominal region. Men tend to have more of this type of fat.

Visceral fat destroys health in many ways, including making the body insulin-resistant, leading to a buildup of sugar in the bloodstream. It also expands the midsection out front, heaping stress on the lower back muscles.

Imagine holding a broom by the tip of the handle and straight out in front of you. Now hang a 1-pound weight on the far end. It’s one pound, but it will feel very heavy because of the leverage involved. Similarly, adding fat above the belt buckle stresses the lower back muscles because of the leverage involved and the constant struggle to hold the body upright.

The good news about visceral fat is that it easily can be dislodged from storage and used as fuel. If you do the right things with your diet and get lots of exercise, you can reduce your waistline rather quickly.

Exercise

Exercises to increase the strength of abdominal muscles help stabilize the lower back. But be careful. Sit-ups and leg lifts stress the lower back and are best avoided. Crunches (half sit-ups) are ideal, and isometric contractions can help. Simply flex your abdominal muscles hard, as if someone were going to punch you in the stomach. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat three times.

There are many lower-back exercises, but they can be dangerous and do more harm than good unless your back is healthy and you are very careful.

A good one is the bent-legged deadlift. Stand over a barbell or dumbbells, bend at the knees and arch your back, keeping your chin up and looking above eye level. Grasp the weight on the floor, elbows straight, and simply stand up, then lower and repeat.

By bending the knees, the stress is spread over the legs and lower back, strengthening it without overstressing it.

Flexibility

Most folks are familiar with the toe touch as a good hamstring exercise. It is, but it’s also very stressful on the lower back.

A much better option is done lying on your back, the bed or the floor. Bend your right leg, wrap your fingers around your leg just above the knee, and pull the knee toward your chest, taking it as far as it will go. Now, still pulling the knee toward your chest, gradually straighten your knee, pointing your toes toward the ceiling.

As you straighten your leg, you’ll feel an intense stretch. Go as far as you comfortably can, hold two seconds, then bend your knee and return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times or more, then switch to the other leg.

I’ve seen this exercise give many folks instant relief in their lower back.

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Stamford is professor and chairman of the department of exercise science at Hanover College. To contact him, visit his Web site.