If you’ve had chronic lower back pain, chances are your extensor muscles aren’t working the way they should. This program is designed to rebuild strength and endurance in those muscles step by step, so you can reduce stiffness, improve posture, and get back to moving with confidence.
Why do this exercise?
Most of us spend too much time slumped forward—whether that’s over a desk, phone, or walking with a stooped forward posture. When you lean forward, gravity constantly pulls your upper body and head down. This creates chronic tension in your lower back and wastes energy, leaving you stiff and tight. Chronic pain is another thing that can contribute to on-going tension in your lower back.
If this tension continues over time, your deep position-sensing muscles start “switching off,” while the larger extensors habitually guard and gradually gets overworked. This lack of activity in the deep position sets the muscles leads to degeneration: scar tissue and fat infiltrate the muscles, and the slow-twitch (postural endurance) fibres get replaced by fast-twitch fibres. That’s why you feel more spasms, tightness, and less endurance in your back.
When should you do it?
You may need this exercise program if you:
- Have a long history of lower back pain
- Experience muscle cramping or spasms in your back
- Constantly feel tight and stiff through the lower back
- Live with ongoing muscle tension that never fully settles
The progression framework
This program moves through five steps. Don’t rush—master each level before moving on.
Step 1: Mobility (resetting movement)
- Arch and slump the lower back while sitting for 30–60 seconds, three times per day.
- Keep moving gently until you can perform these basic movements with minimal pain.
Step 2: Static strength (building endurance)
- Use a Roman chair hyperextension machine for the remaining exercises. Start with the support pad at the highest setting.
- Hold an asymmetric static position for 30 seconds, working up to 2 minutes.
- Progress by lowering the pad position or doing one-leg holds (15–60 seconds each side).
- Aim to do this exercise twice a day.
Step 3: Eccentric training (control and flexibility)
- With both legs supported, slowly lower yourself down, then use your arms to help lift back up.
- Start by doing the forward bending movement as a hip hinge and back maintained straight, and then progress to rolling forward segment by segment, and finally un-curl your spine back up again.
- Build up to 30 controlled reps.
- Progress by doing single-leg variations (half the reps).
- Do this once per day.
Step 4: Concentric strength (full lifting power)
- Now lower and lift without using your arms.
- Start with two-leg lifts (10 reps, progressing to 30).
- Move to single-leg lifts (5 reps, progressing to 15).
- Progress from simple hip hinges to rolling down and up, segment by segment.
- Over time you can progress by holding a weight close to your chest to increase the resistance.
- Do this every second day.
Step 5: Functional challenges (advanced integration)
- Add dynamic arm movements while holding, such as YWLT patterns or lower trap raises.
- Try trunk control movement patterns, like drawing a square with your torso (down one side, across, up the other, and back).
- Add weights to one hand for rotational strength—rows, side lifts, or similar.
- Do these once or twice per week.
Key takeaway
Rebuilding your back extensors isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about gradually retraining endurance, control, and strength. Take it step by step, stay consistent, and you’ll notice less stiffness, fewer spasms, and more confidence in your movement.