What Are the Best Lower Back Exercises for Women?

Do you know why so many women suffer from lower back pain? Because they have a weak lower back. Most women spend a lot of time shaping their legs and abs, but they neglect to strengthen the lower part of the back and the muscles by the spine. ????

A firm posterior improves balance, mobility, and posture. And, that leads to better performance while working out and everyday life.

Within this guide, you will learn the following:

• How to strengthen the lower back with various exercises.
• An example lower back strength workout.
• Answers to frequently asked questions.

Warning: If you have a spine and back injury and pain, you should consult your doctor before doing any of these exercises. 

List of lower back exercises at home

1. Bridge

The bridge is a mild way to strengthen the hamstrings, lower back, and glutes. Hence, great for beginners.

• Lie on your stomach with knees bent. Your calves are right-angled to the ground. Your arms are next to you.
• Slowly lift your hips until your thighs, abs, and chest are in a straight line.
• Stop for a moment and tighten your hams and glutes.
• Moderately lower your hips without dropping it on the floor.
• Repeat.

2. Plank

The plank is a compound exercise strengthening all core muscles. While holding the plank position, the back needs to work hard to keep the proper form.

• Get into a forearm plank position.
• Your back and legs should be inline, but raise your hips slightly higher. This way, there is more contraction in the abdominal muscles, and the lower back is engaged better.
• Keep that position for the required time. Don’t let your hips go down. For beginners, 20-30 seconds will do.

Tip: To add more load to the back, try the plank with leg raise. Lift your legs alternatively during the plank. You can also do the plank with alternating arm raise.

3. Supermans

Well, this exercise seems to be quite easy, but the full range of motion requires good strength.

• Lie on your stomach, stretch your arms and legs. There is no need to keep them very close to each other.
• Raise your legs and arms upwards as high as you can.
• Pause for a moment.
• Slowly, lower your limbs back to the starting position without dropping them on the ground.

4. Bird Dog

• Get into a quadruped position. Your arms are under your shoulders, and your knees are under your hips.
• Elevate your right leg and stretch it to make it parallel to the floor.
• Raise your left arm and straighten it the same way.
• At the same time, bring your lifted knee and elbow towards each other.
• Pause for a moment and repeat.
• After doing the required repetitions, switch to the other side.

5. Lying lateral leg lifts

Women mainly do this exercise to shape their legs, glutes, but during the movement, the lower back is engaged as well.

• Lie on your side. Your entire body is inline.
• Raise your straight leg with a controlled motion. I prefer lifting it until my leg is upright.
• Gently lower your leg back to the starting point.

6. Back extensions on the floor

• Lie on your stomach.
• Place your hands behind your neck.
• Lift your upper body towards the ceiling. If your feet raise a bit, it isn’t a problem.
• Slowly get back to the starting point.
• Repeat.

Tip: You can do back extensions with a Bosu ball. Just place it under your waist. This way, the range of motion is much longer, leading to better muscle activation.

7. Back extension on a stability ball

Compared to the floor version, this ball hyperextension gives a much lengthier range of motion. Although it requires careful preparation.

• Get on the fitness ball facing down. Place it under your waist.
• Plant your soles on the bottom of the wall. Your legs are shoulder-width apart.
• Straighten your back.
• Slowly lower your shoulder towards the ground. Try to go as deep as you can.
• Raise yourself with control. Try to go as high as you can.
• Repeat.

8. Hyperextension on a bench

The best home workout equipment you can get to strengthen the lower back is the Roman chair or hyperextension bench. It gives a convenient and effective environment to perform back extension for maximum benefits. ????

• Get on the Roman chair facing down. The pad should be under your hipbones. Fix your feet between the rollers.
• Cross your elbow on your chest, or clasps your hands behind your head.
• With straight back lower your upper body, until you feel tightness in your lower back. There is no need to go until you get into a right-angled position.
• Raise yourself a bit higher than the straight line.
• Repeat.

9. Good Mornings Exercise

Good morning is usually done with a barbell, but you can use, for example, a broomstick.

• Get into hip-width stance, put the bar on your upper back, and hold it with shoulder width.
• Lean forward, your knees bent slightly and push your hips backward. This way, you can keep the natural lumbar curve. Go down until your chest is parallel to the floor.
• Get back to the start with total knee and hip extension.

10. Romanian deadlift

Among the lower back exercises with weights, this is my favorite since it targets the hams, glutes, and back well. It’s a barbell exercise, but you can do it with dumbbells or any other bar.

• Stand with a narrow stance. The weight hangs in your hands at the hip level.
• With aligned back lean forward until your chest is parallel to the floor. You can slightly bend your knees. If you feel the stretching in your hamstrings and glutes, that is a good sign.
• With the power of you back, get back to the starting position, but keep your back and legs as straight as possible.

Lower back workout for women

Now you know some exercises for a strong lower back. The next step is to put together a workout. The routine depends on many factors, such as how athletic you are, your weight, etc.

Let’s say you are a beginner. In that case, I would choose 2-4 movements that can be done on the floor. I would do 3 sets with 15 reps.

Here is an example circuit workout for beginners.

• Bridge: 3×15
• Bird dog: 3-15-20 for both sides.
• Back extension: 3×10-15

Of course, as you build lower back strength, after a time, you can increase the number of reps, sets, and switch to harder exercises. For beginners, I don’t recommend using weights at all. Plus, do other core strength exercises to strengthen the entire midsection.

FAQ

How can women lose lower back fat?

Typically, women have fat in those areas because they have a high body fat level. It’s the part of the love handles, fat around the hips, and waist. Above I showed you exercises to strengthen lower back muscles, and they aren’t useful for burning fat. For weight loss, you should focus on your diet and do cardio type exercises such as HIIT, so your body starts burning existing fat. ????

What are the best exercises for lower back pain?

Frankly, I used to suffer a lot from lower back pain. Thanks to the internet I found effective stretching exercises that I do every morning. These days I’m asymptomatic. ????Below I collected a few sources to learn these lower back stretches.

To sum up

I hope my guide on how to strengthen your lower back will help you. It’s crucial to target that body part. These exercises will help you to avoid injuries and improve your performance no matter what physical activity you do.