The Ultimate Low Back Training Guide: Tips for a Stronger Spine

Global Methods

Neck Alignment

Surprise: Your neck affects your back. When it comes to global influence the neck is about as important as anything else. Focus on keeping the cervical spine straight with a proper chin tuck during heavy lifts. There’s plenty of isometric tension and muscular contraction when you lift heavy at the neck and it’s just not smart to train it directly unless you’re a football player or combat athlete.

Shoulder Positioning

Rounded shoulders often lead to lower back strain. Any rounding has to be proportionally countered by your lower back and being that there is little available range of motion or room for error, you’ll likely have problems if you have chronically rounded shoulders.

Tips:

• Prioritize rowing and pulling over pressing.
• Incorporate scapular, rotator cuff, and upper back exercises.

Result: A bulletproof lower back ready for heavy training.

Thoracic Spine (T-Spine) Mobility

A mobile T-spine keeps your lower back from picking up the slack. Your thoracic spine sits above your lower back and like your shoulders, you want to make sure you aren’t too rounded in your middle back. Deficits here will cause subtle and potentially damaging compensation adjustments in your lower back.

Goal: Stay upright and balanced.

Hip Strength & Mobility

Tight or weak hips push stress onto your lower back. Any weakness or lack of motion in your hips will have to be countered and paid for by your lower back. Ensure full mobility in all hip movements: internal/external rotation, flexion, and extension.

Key Exercises:

• Squats and deadlifts
• GHRs and reverse hypers
• Hamstring curls and single-leg deadlift variations

Bottom Line: Strong hips = a resilient lower back.

Knee Function

Healthy knees support strong glutes, taking pressure off your back. Although probably not as important as the hips and upper back, dialing in proper knee function feeds muscle activation through your glutes and takes potential overload off of your lower back in the process.

Ankle Mobility

Foot and ankle alignment influences posture and back health. Too much flexion of the foot (i.e. swayback posture) or too little will stress your lower back up the chain of your legs, so keep an eye on these.

• Too mobile? Strengthen calves.
• Too stiff? Boost ankle flexibility to prevent compensations in the knees and hips.

Try this foot and ankle mobility drill for smoother movement patterns.

Final Thoughts

By addressing both local and global factors, you can eliminate common triggers of lower back pain and improve performance. The lower back doesn’t work alone—train the entire kinetic chain for strength, stability, and injury resilience.