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I have pain, from time to time, above each of my hips on my lower back caused by, for example, walking around with a baby. What exercises would you recommend for strengthening these areas. I can also feel stiff there.

UPDATE

I'm a man by the way.

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  • As a guy with two kids, consider baby-wearing. Holding a weight on your side with your hands will always be uncomfortable and societies around the world have figured out to use wraps and baby carriers to more efficiently handle the load.
    – Eric
    Nov 21, 2017 at 17:47
  • Do you have access to any equipment (besides a small human), or are we talking purely some easy to do bodyweight exercises / stretches?
    – Dark Hippo
    Nov 22, 2017 at 8:42
  • @Dark Hippo Easy to do bodyweight exercises / stretches please!
    – Baz
    Nov 24, 2017 at 20:25
  • A lot of times back pain is not caused by a weak back, but by there not being enough support from the abs, and the back muscles getting strained compensating for it, so don't neglect your core. Dec 27, 2017 at 19:51

2 Answers 2

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It depends how long ago you had the baby, because the whole ordeal of bearing a child will have put alot of 'wear and tear' on your lower back and hips. However, whenever you experience pain in general from doing basic things like carrying your baby, then this may be due to the fact that you have a weak lower back, hips and what sounds like a more general weakness in your posterior chain.

Strengthening these muscles, while eating well and making sure your nutrients and vitamins are in check (after pregnancy multi-vitamins are a good way to ensure you are getting these), is a good way to start. To do this, squatting (without weight initially) all the way down to the floor with good form, will help greatly. Do 3-5 sets of 10-20 reps every morning and see how your body responds. If you find it easy, increase, if not, then do less reps until you can reach this range.

After mastering the squat it may be a good idea to join a gym (some gyms have baby+mum classes) and get some exercises in there to strengthen you up.

Hope that helps!

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  • I'm a man. I get the pain from carrying the baby. She my third.
    – Baz
    Nov 23, 2017 at 19:51
  • Apologies. Still my advice applies.. you need to strengthen your lower back. It really shouldn't hurt from carrying something as light as a child. Good luck!
    – Adam
    Nov 24, 2017 at 9:28
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A simple exercise that really helps your core and strengthens the lower back is planks.

It's simple, can be done at the house, no equipment needed and you only need 10-15 mins (probably even less) a day! I do them even on my maintenance days.

Check out this link (plank-exercise-benefits).

Don't forget side-planks too ;)

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