Lower back pain at night only

Question

I am wanting to find some strengthening exercises for my back. I think this is what I need to help me with pain I am experiencing.

I only get the pain when I sleep at night, I go to sleep with no pain and wake up in the middle of the night or early hours of the morning with pain in my lower back, usually to the right hand side.

I got a new bed and mattress thinking it may be my old bed/mattress causing the pain. I have also tried sleeping with a pillow between my knees on my side and varying pillow height for my head to no avail.

I was wondering if there are any specific exercise I could do strengthen my back in the hope that this will help me to reduce the possibility of pain occuring.

I am overweight, but I have always been overweight but this is a new problem. I am not doing any new exercising or anything different than usual. My only thought is that it could be related somehow to when I pick up my daughter because she is getting older (and heavier) now, but if that was the case why would I not get the pain all the time.

Answer 1

Laura,

I saw that you mentioned sleeping on your side with a pillow. That is a great start. Whatever you do, never ever sleep on your front. It puts a tremendous amount of stress on your discs.

In terms of exercises. I would start performing bird dogs, front and side planks. They are your best bet. I have videos of all of them on my website. Go to my home page and the link is there. I describe and perform them and it is easy to follow.

You also want to look at strengthening your posterior chain. Hamstrings and glutes. Lying glute hip bridges and single leg glute hip raises are great for that. Quite often when we experience back pain it is because our other muscles aren't doing their jobs, so the lower back has to pick up the slack.

Work on stretching out your glutes, hip flexors and hamstrings religiously. Morning and night. There are plenty of youtube videos you can find for that.

I hope that helps,

Mike

Answer 2

Sometimes back pain can be relieved by strengthening core muscles (back included). I recommend a two exercises that will take less than 5 minutes per day to complete: "Stiff Leg Dead lifts" and "Plank". These exercises will target your core.

As far as sets/reps/weight, you may receive many and varied opinions. What's most important though is that you don't over stress your body - you are trying to prevent back pain, not cause extra.

With that in mind, I offer the following opinion for sets/reps/weight, you may want to consult a health professional before trying:

1) "Stiff Dead Lifts" with LIGHT weight (perhaps 20 pounds). 4 sets of 15 reps. Rest 30 seconds between sets. As the days go by, increase the weight as you feel comfortable. You will notice a dramatic increase in the amount of weight that you can life comfortably in just the first few weeks. Do this 2 or 3 times per week to start off with.

2) "Plank" after your dead lift exercise, do 1 minute worth of the plank exercise in 10-second intervals with 20-30 seconds rest in between the intervals. After a few weeks, you will be able to do 1 minute without any rest at all.

Good Luck!