How To Prevent Lower Back Pain While Hiking

Lower back pain is an incredibly common issue for many hikers (both on and off the trail).

​In this video, I explore some training ideas on how a hiker can prevent and reduce lower back pain while hiking.

Back Strength For Hiking 

Inside, we cover:

• Why the common approach to overcoming lower back pain while hiking often falls short
• My favourite mobilisations to help manage lower back pain for hikers
• How to upgrade your core training from just doing planks, sit-ups and crunches...
• Two ESSENTIAL areas to strengthen if you struggle with back pain on the trail
• An important method of training to ensure your lower back is ready for the demands of hiking
  ​

===

Video Chapters:

0:17 
Introduction to Lower Back Pain For Hikers
2:58 
Understanding Back Pain in Hiking
6:44 
Factors Contributing to Back Pain While Hiking
9:32 
Training Approaches for Back Pain
21:30 
Mobility Work for Pain Prevention 
28:16 
Core Training Insights
30:13 
Targeted Strengthening for Support
34:56 
Exposure to Triggers in Hiking
41:54 
Comprehensive Approach to Pain Management
45:04 
Personalized Training Programs Available

==

Want access to the free 'Strength Training For Hiker's Mini-Course?
​
You can access it here: https://summitstrength.com.au/strength-mini-course

Need some personalised help with your training for hiking?

Check out the Online Summit Program here: https://www.summitstrength.com.au/online.html

Video Transcript:

​[0:01] All right, hello, hello ladies and gentlemen. So in today's presentation, we are going into a little bit of detail around how we can help reduce lower back pain while hiking, which is a really common issue that a lot of hikers

[0:14] face and just a lot of people face in general with their day-to-day lives. So today we're going to be going into a bit of detail around some different training ideas and strategies you can use to help reduce this. So before we get into things, just a quick little overview on who I am in case you haven't come across my stuff before. My name is Rowan Smith and I'm the founder of Summer Strength, which is an online personal training service which specializes in helping hikers. Now we typically help hikers in one of three different situations. Number one, someone who has a big trip in their sights and they want to be doing everything they can to be in the best position to not only get through the adventure but also have a good time throughout. We also do work with a lot of hikers who struggle with some type of ache or pain or recurring injury. So things like knee pain, back pain, foot pain, shin pain, all of these things are really, really common. We also work with a lot of hikers who don't so much have a big trip coming up, maybe don't have a bigger physical condition holding them back, but they realise their fitness is just getting in the way of their enjoyment on the trail and they want to improve on that. Now, I personally trained and prepared over 400 hikers for every type of trip imaginable. These days, it's not just me. through Summit Strength. We do have a bit of a team around us, which is fantastic.

[1:26] And essentially, to be really, really clear around the context that we're talking about today in regards to back pain or hiking is I'm not a physiotherapist. I'm not a physical therapist. I don't deal with early stage rehab. I don't deal with someone who's just come out of back surgery or if you've just had your back seized up or slipped a disc. This information isn't so much for you. Essentially what I do and how I come into this particular process is I'm what's called a return to performance specialist in the sense that when it comes down to typical rehab and the typical approach to dealing with pain and injury is we have an injury, we have major pain or something like that. We go and see a specialist like a physio-physical therapist which is the right thing to do. They help us through the early stages of rehab and recovery and there comes a point where they typically release us for normal exercise and they say you know what you're actually in a good position you can go out and just live your normal life or you can go out and do normal exercise and they may get us to a position where we're actually pretty good for normal life and getting through things.

[2:30] However, there is often a big, big gap between being ready for day-to-day life and being ready for the demands of the trail. Because obviously out in hiking, it's a pretty strenuous thing, or it can be a pretty strenuous thing. We're out for long days, we've got packs on our back, we're dealing with the rough terrain and this and that. And there is this recurring issue that we see in the hiking world where people have an issue, they go through their rehab, they get released for normal exercise, they go out and hike, and all of a sudden they're in pain in it.

[2:59] And essentially my role is i fill this sort of gap i sit in here when people are outside their early rehab outside their early issues and i help them fill this gap so they are in a good position to stay comfortable on the trail so that's the context we're talking through today i'm not trying to fill the role of a physio i'm not trying to fill the role of a physical therapist but essentially fill that gap this gap and that's what we're talking about today so basically going into lower back pain you know this is a really really common thing for so many people um just in general day-to-day life. Pretty much everyone will get lower back pain in one way or one stage or another and it is something that a lot of hikers do struggle with both on and off the trail. Now essentially there are a lot of different factors that can go into preventing something like lower back pain and any type of pain in general but today we're just diving into the training side of things and what a hiker can physically do with their training to help reduce the incidence of this. Now.

[3:55] I want to cover why lower back pain is so common, because as I said before, it is a really, really common thing in our everyday lives, just from our general lifestyles, general stresses, general sort of the way we live. Everyone will get it one way or another. But when it comes down to the hiking context, these general risks can often get exasperated, terrible pronunciation, but it can get enhanced a little bit for a few reasons. Now, number one, the uneven nature of the trail. As we know as hikers, hiking isn't flat. It's not just a walk in the park. There's rocks, there's potholes, there's roots. And sometimes just being in this uneven nature can put a little bit extra stress through the back. On top of that, if we have an unexpected step, if we step in a pothole, all of a sudden we're hyperextending our back, this can often lead to a lot of discomfort. So that's a risk factor pretty much every hike we'll face.

[4:41] Now, fatigue. Fatigue is a big factor when it comes down to the presentation of pain and injury both on and off the trail. And when we are doing big days on the trail where we're pushing the distances, going up and down hills, carrying a pack. This can lead to a lot of physical fatigue. On top of that, A lot of mental fatigue as well. Emotion and mood does affect the presentation of the body, a pain in the body. And sometimes on the trail, we can bite off more than we can chew. We can have bad weather. We can be out with people that we don't particularly enjoy being with. This stuff does happen and that can actually affect the presentation of pain.

[5:14] There's the added external loads, pack carrying, obvious, like having a day pack or a full pack or anything in between does put a bit extra stress and challenge through the back. So we need to be aware of that. There's extended periods of kind of strange postures or more abnormal postures so when we're going through your long periods of steep ascents we may be tipped over and hunched over or we may be doing up and down up and down with our torso when we're going on descents we may be leaning back or in weird positions or maybe in traverses we're all out of whack and typically when it comes down to the idea of posture you know a lot of people will often talk about perfect posture for reducing back pain and you know it's a bit of an old school approach and it's not quite as important as we may have first believed however one risk factor for back pain is being in postures which we're just not used to um for extended periods of time which does happen in hiking quite a bit um then there's also ones like long drives to the trailhead like a lot of us live not so close to trails or adventures and sometimes we have to drive two three four hours to the trailhead but for an adventure. And sometimes for these people, by the time they hit a trailhead, their back is seized up. It's really tight. It can be a little bit tricky.

[6:24] There's also uncomfortable sleeping. Like if we're doing overnighters or multi-days, some people really struggle. And again, this can affect the back quite a bit. Now, many of these things we cannot control. In all honesty, if we're hiking, we're going to be faced with an uneven trail. We're going to have to carry some type of pack. We're going to have to be in those postures and this and that.

[6:41] A lot of this stuff we may not actually be able to control. However, what we can control is how our body is prepared for this. And we can make a difference in regards to how the body responds to these challenges through our training and through our physical preparation. And that's what we're diving into today. So basically, when it comes down to the typical solution for hikers, and I cover this in all my pain prevention things because it is pretty common, in the sense of when hikers do have back pain and they're like, hey, I get sore back when I'm hiking, the typical solution to this is people will really end up doing one of two things or a combination of two things. And that basically ends up being some stretching or some basic core exercises because people are told hey you got a sore back you should be doing lots of stretching or hey you got a sore back you should strengthen your core and they'll do lots of planks or lots of sit-ups or whatever may be and you know these things they can often help and a lot of people see success from this type of stuff but alone it is really the solution they are sprouting and when you go online when you see like you know on a facebook group you had say hey i get back pain on the trail and someone says do this stretch or do this exercise or go do Pilates or whatever it may be.

[7:48] It's very rarely this one thing alone is going to be the change you need. Because when it comes down to back pain and any other type of pain as well, it is a multifaceted issue. The old school approach to pain was like, hey, you have pain, this one muscle is weak or this one muscle is tight. So if you work on this and if you develop this, you will overcome your pain. That's very, very old school. It's still around a lot. You still see it all the time in the fitness industry, in the health industry, but it is very old school approach. These days, when we're looking at more modern pain science, more modern pain science, we need to be aware of like, look, there are many different factors that goes into the presentation of pain. There are dozens and dozens of things that can contribute to this. It's not just one thing. It's the combination of a bunch of other things. We need to respect this. So when we're looking at the common approach, if some people are just stretching, stretching, stretching, and they're not seeing any change or not seeing any long-term change, or they're just doing planks and planks and planks every single day, and they're not seeing the change they want, we probably need to take a bit more of a comprehensive approach.

[8:52] Now, again, when we're looking at the training context, there's a lot more that goes into back pain than just training. But when we're looking through the training context, we want to ensure that we're being targeted, meaning we are going to be using training, which is going to target the areas you're going to most likely to help. So in the stretching approach, as opposed to just stretching random muscles and like, I hope this will help, we actually want to be a little bit more targeted to get the most out of it. And we also want to be looking a bit more holistic in the sense of, we don't want to fall into this trap of just saying one muscle, one exercise, one stretch, and just honing on that. We want to be aware that, look, there are a lot of different factors in the body which can lead to back pain. So we want to be taking a bit more of a holistic

[9:30] approach to help with this. So today, with that in mind, we're going to be talking through four types of training, which I personally think you should consider for your back, which are going to be targeted and a little bit more holistic. Now, this is going to cover targeted mobility work, specific core strengthening general body strengthening and some specific exposure to triggers and I personally believe if you can put these four things into your week and stick with it it can make a really really good difference.

[9:56] So let's start with targeted mobility work. Now, mobility, you might be like, what's mobility? What's flexibility? They're pretty much the same things. Basically, just general, the range of motion that your joints have and the muscles have, pretty much that. If you want to get really technical, flexibility, mobility, slightly different, but in our respects, pretty much the same thing. Now, basically, when it comes down to lower back pain, mobility or flexibility work can often go a long way. As we sort of said, one of the common recommendations for helping this is stretching and if we do some targeted work here it can often go a long way.

[10:28] Now this can both be in short term in regards to immediate discomfort relief and a lot of us will sort of notice okay we've had a bit of back pain in the past we did a stretch and all of a sudden we feel better for 10, 15, 20 minutes and it can give us a little bit of discomfort relief in the short term but also as a longer term thing it can play into the picture in regards to reducing the incidence of this keeping on creeping up as a longer term thing. So mobility can be beneficial in both those situations. Now, when it comes down to mobility stuff, most hikers have tried this in the past or aware this sort of helps. But the common mistake a lot of hikers will fall into typically ends up being one or two things. Number one, it ends up being just doing one or two stretches and obsessing over it. So you've gone online, you've said someone said, hey, this stretch cured my pain and you just obsess, obsess, obsess over it. Or maybe you've seen a physio and they said, hey, just do this stress and that's the one thing you do. Um or you know on the flip side of things some people may just not have one but they end up just doing whole body stretching they're like i know stretching is good and i'll just spend make sure i just cover everything in the body and i'll stretch my legs and my arms and this and that and this and that um or just go do a yoga class or something like that um and sometimes in this whole body stretching you can either miss key areas and be like well i'm stretching everything but you end up missing certain things um or you just end up spending way too much time and you're stretching at 40 minutes, 60 minutes at a time. It's just eating up your week.

[11:49] And essentially, we can get better than both of these situations. If we put a little bit more thought behind this, if we go in a little bit more intention, if we know what we want to be doing with mobility, we can be much more time efficient and much more effective. So essentially, when we're looking at this being more time effective and more time efficient, I want to talk through the theory of mobility for lower back pain prevention. Now, this particular theory, it's a bit of an overarching theory or where mobility kind of fits into this picture um to be clear this model it's not perfect you know this isn't like you know night or day or 100 like accurate or whatever maybe um this is just a model to help us understand things it's not 100 perfect and you may talk to you know a physiologist or physio or the health professional and they'll be like well there's a little bit more context and nuance than that um but in all honesty this is pretty good and this is a really good theory just because it doesn't require a huge amount of deep understanding it works pretty much well enough and it's very easy to wrap our heads around and apply. So essentially this theory basically sums up the joints in our body. So our ankles and knees, our lower back, this and that. In our body, our joints are typically classified as either a stable joint or a mobile joint. Each of the joints will have one of those two classifications. Now a stable joint is essentially a joint which doesn't want really a huge amount of movement through the joint.

[13:07] So an example of this is like the knee joint. For the knee, typically, we kind of want that knee wants to be stable. It doesn't want to have a huge amount of movement except for like flexing, extending, moving up and down. It doesn't want to be going in and out. It doesn't want to be rotating a huge amount. Yes, there's a little bit of movement, but it typically wants to be stable. That's its role. Now on the flip side of things, we have mobile joints where we actually do want quite a bit of motion through that joint. So an example of this is the ankle. Now the ankles typically wants to have a reasonable amount of range of motion. It doesn't want to be super restricted doesn't want to be super tight and that's its kind of role. Now when it comes down to lower back pain the lower back pain, lower back typically falls into this idea of a stable joint meaning it wants to be stable doesn't want to have a huge amount of motion motion through this area. Now the joints above and below the lower back so we're talking about the knees and also the mid back these are what's called motorbike joints so the knees.

[13:59] The hips, I should say. Sorry, I'm getting confused. The hips want to be pretty mobile, so we have quite a bit of range of motion through the hips. And the mid-back as well wants to be quite mobile. Now, for a lot of people, just through our day-to-day lives, one reason or another, the hips and the mid-back can get quite tight and restricted. It's a really common thing. A lot of us have this from sitting all the time, from being relatively sedentary, from driving, sitting on the couch, whatever it may be. These areas can get quite tight. Now, essentially, the idea behind this is when we're going through our hiking or when we're going through our day-to-day life or when we're in certain positions if the body's moving moving moving and it's like okay, i need to get movement to go through this certain thing and i usually want to get movement through the hips but it tries to get movement through the hips and it's like well the hips are really really tight i actually can't move in the way i want the body will be like okay well if i can't find movement in the hips i need to find movement somewhere else so then it looks above and below it'll say well okay what are the joints above and below how can i create a little bit movement so in the lower back pain context it'll sort of say hey let's allow bit bomb movement through the lower back which isn't ideal because the back wants to be stable so essentially that's the kind of theory we're looking at here um if.

[15:09] The joints above and below the lower back are a little bit tight then that can lead to a little bit of discomfort so an example of this in the context of this is basically um if we're hiking descent if we're going downhill and we're hiking hiking hiking downhill and all of a sudden we step on a loose rock which i'm sure we've all done and that awful feeling when we step on a loose rock on the way down and the foot slips out from under us and we're like oh and this and that not much fun now in the kind of perfect world if we do that obviously it's a little bit scary obviously not amazing um but in the perfect world the hips would have enough movement to deal with this so when that leg slips out from under us the hips you can be like all right you know what i can actually deal with this i have a lot of range of motion that this isn't a big deal it's not amazing but i can sort of deal with it and just like allow motion yada yada yada now in the not so perfect world if you're like well the hips are really really tight and the body's like well i need to find more movement because this rock has slipped out from under me common thing will happen is the lower back will hyperextend. So you'll actually slip out and the lower back will go boom and hyperextend. For some people, not a big deal. For some people, will lead to a little bit of discomfort. For some people in a really dodgy situation, that's going to lead to a lot of discomfort. So it's not amazing.

[16:18] So essentially following this theory, when we're looking at this kind of joint by joint approach, which is what this theory is called, we typically, the areas we really want to focus on and hone in and make sure they have quite a bit of range of motion are the hips, which are the front of the hips, the glutes, so the rest of the bum muscle, and the mid-back. And if we can make sure we mobilise these areas and have a nice range of motion, this can often help the lower back. It's not like, hey, night and day is going to be completely, hey, you have mobile hips and it'll fix your back pain by itself, but it can potentially be quite beneficial.

[16:48] And then maybe the hamstrings as well um this one's a maybe because there is a little bit of debate whether okay whether ham tight hamstrings lead to lower back pain or whether lower back pain leads to tight hamstrings there's a bit of a chicken the egg thing there so maybe the hamstrings it's probably worthwhile doing it but um but yeah just to point that in now one thing i'll note before i show you some exercise examples is if you are already super mobile in these areas if you're aware that hey i do loads of yoga i am pretty hyper mobile i can reach all these different situations and this and that um if you're already aware that you are hyper mobile in this you probably don't need to spend a huge amount of time doing this you probably want to focus on the other areas that i'm going to go into the presentation um so this is more if you're like hey i am actually a bit tired i'm aware of this as opposed to people who are aware hey i already am pretty mobile so a few simple examples here um i want to show you a few to which i really like first one is the modified world's greatest stretch which is a really great exercise and which mobilizes the hips and also the mid-back. So in this particular example, basically you're down on the floor, you've got one foot in line with your hands, one foot down the back, and basically what we're doing is just reaching up and reaching down and reaching up and reaching down. Now, the beauty of this exercise is you'll notice if you give it a go, as you twist up the hip, which is stretched out here, will get a really, really nice stretch on the back hip. And also, if you twist up, fair enough, and it's controlled enough, you'll get a bit of rotation through the mid-back, which can be pretty beneficial as well.

[18:15] One of my favorite stretches i really really like this now some people give this a go and they'll be like actually you know what that's a bit painful doing the twist so what you can do you can even just do this exercise and don't do the twist and just literally just hold like this position here and just feel a stretch in the front of the hips that works out pretty well but really really great exercise to work that front of the hips bit of the mid back.

[18:35] Now another one really really great simple is a piriformis or a glute stretch so basically this involves you just sitting on a chair on a stool something like that one foot over one knee and literally you just lean forward get a bit of a stretch and you'll feel a bit of stretch in the glute really really simple but very very very effective you can hold this stretch and just hold the end position for like 60 seconds at a time or you can do like i'm doing this version where you're just going in and out in and out works out pretty well now another example is a cat cow stretch i'm sure a lot of people have done before and but basically this one's looking and mobilizing the mid back a little bit so essentially what we're doing here is we're just going between these two movements pushing out and then coming down a little bit and really just trying to get more movement through the mid back as we come through um very very very effective and then the fourth one is like leg swing which is one again a lot of people have come across before just mobilizing the hamstrings a little bit so there's lots of hamstring stretches you can do but this is the one that i had a great decent video of but basically this is just kicking your legs up you'll feel a bit of stretch through the back of the back of the leg. Now the main important one here is just making sure you're not hyper expanding lower back so you don't have to kick as far as you can and end up arching it back a huge amount but basically just kicking up until you feel the hamstrings and keep the back relatively steady. So essentially there are four really really simple exercises which were front of the hips, glutes.

[19:53] The other one, losing my train of thought, the mid-back and also the hamstrings. And if you cover those four bases, then we're currently covering that target of mobility work, which can go a long way.

[20:04] Now, essentially, when to use mobility? As we said before, mobility can be useful as both short-term relief and also as a bit of a longer-term strategy. When it comes to actually developing longer-term range of motion, developing this mobility and actually changing how the joints react, it can be a little bit slow to develop. If you just do a stretch once a week or twice a week, It's probably not really going to do a huge amount. So essentially, basically, we just want to dose this into your week where you can and just apply this into your week in little bits and pieces so we can kind of accumulate this through the week. So a few good areas in where to include this type of thing. In your warm-ups, it's great. So basically, training and your hiking, spend a bit of time working through those exercises. It can be great for both preparing you for exercise but also dosing in some of this stuff which can help longer term. You can use a new recipe of strength training. So if you're doing traditional strength training where you do an exercise, then you rest, then you do an exercise and you rest, yada, yada, yada. In those rest periods, do a bit of mobility work. Great way to use that time. You can do dedicated stretching sessions. I personally don't love these for myself because I just never do them if I say, hey, I'm going to stretch 20 minutes a week. But some people love these and you can just do 10 minute sessions or 20 minute sessions or 30 minute session of stretching and fit that in. You can do a little routine before you go to bed. This can be a bit at home or if you're actually out on the trail. This can be really nice just to help you sleep a little bit better, help relieve things after a big day. And if you're in camp on the trail, just help things feel a bit more comfortable when you're sleeping. Just sort of think about where can I put these bits and pieces in? It goes a long way.

[21:31] That's our mobility work targeted mobility work and hopefully you can kind of see look this is a little bit more honed in and focused than just sort of saying hey i'm just going to do one or two stretches or i'm just going to stretch the entire body if we can go into a little bit more focus and can go a long way now similar kind of idea in regards to core training now one of the first places many hikers look to help with their backs is strengthening the core this is a narrative a lot of people say hey strong core equals strong back um which is kind of true um but you know it It can be really, really beneficial to strengthen up your core, though, in all honesty, it's not quite the silver bullet many people make it out to be. You know, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, they used to say, you know what, I've got lower back pain, you just need to work on these certain core muscles if you can support that. It will dramatically change your back pain. It can be beneficial, but it's not, again, the be-all, end-all. Pain science has come a long way since, you know, 20, 30 years ago when these recommendations were really, really pushed. Um... So yeah, just be aware that it's maybe not the be-all, end-all that some people make it out to be. But when it comes down to it, core training is pretty typically done in the normal world, but also in the hiking world as well.

[22:36] Now, essentially, the typical approach to core training, what isn't done super well, is just doing loads and loads of things like sit-ups and crunches, where we get a really, really good burn on the core. And any exercise, you're like, oh yeah, the core is really, really working. Or just doing loads and loads of planks. And just doing the plank exercise, everyone's done it, and they just do it again and again and again and again and again. And there's nothing wrong with a plank, but just doing that by itself, it's a bit limited. Now, I personally think there is a bit of a better way of looking at core training than this typical approach. And when we're looking at sit-ups and crutches, those particular exercises, they get a good burn through the torso. But what they're doing is they're kind of creating movement through the torso. We're kind of using the torso to move, move, move, move, move. Now, personally, I feel like a better theory and a better way of looking at core training for back pain, for hiking, and for pretty much most things, is putting a bit more focus as opposed to creating movement, but teaching the body how to prevent movement through the torso. So going back to that joint by joint theory we sort of said before, the back wants to be, lower back specifically, it wants to be stable. Essentially, this type of training, if we can prevent movement through the torso, we can allow better state stability, better support in the lower back in a variety of different situations. So if we can hone our training a little bit more towards this, I personally believe this is going to be a little bit more effective than just concentrating on sit-ups and crunches and this and that.

[23:54] Now, as I said, this builds off that previous framework of trying to aid stability as much as we can. Now, many hikers have naturally done this through things like planks. But again, that's one exercise. We can do a little bit better if we take a bit of a broader context and a little bit thinking about this a little bit more. And as opposed to just focusing on planks, if we take a little bit more thought behind this, we can get way better results. So essentially, when we're looking at core training for hiking, specifically for back pain, but also for hikers in general, I like to target three types of core training of this anti-movement core training. Now, the first type of this anti-movement core training is what's called anti-extension core training. Now, essentially, this particular core training is doing exercises which teaches the body to prevent hyperextending through the lower back, and essentially exercises which prevent your back from going into that massive arch and hyperextending, which can often lead to a bit of discomfort. Now, this is really, really beneficial when you've got like a pack on your back. Like a lot of people, when they're carrying a really heavy pack, they'll end up just being a natural bit of hyperextension. And if they step in a pothole, if they step onto, you know, on a bit of rough terrain, that can end up just going out of whack and can lead to a bit of discomfort. So essentially training this and developing this so the back can stay a little bit more stable and avoid this kind of compromised position can be really useful. So a couple of examples here, the planks that we mentioned before will work this. So that can be a great option. Another example, which I'll show in a video in a moment, dead bugs, really, really good exercise for preventing this.

[25:24] Now, the other area we kind of want to look at.

[25:26] Is what's called anti-lateral flexion core training. So the anti-extension core training was preventing the lower back from hyperextending. Anti-lateral flexion training essentially prevents the torso from falling over to the side. So basically when walking along, it's just making sure the torso doesn't get forced over this way, but it stays nice and stable. Now this is really, really useful in uneven terrain. If you're on a bit of a traverse, one foot's a little bit higher than the other. If we have got really, really strong core in this plane of motion, we can kind of keep the torso a little bit more secure. Alternatively if you step on a loose rock and it kind of goes out sideways this can be really useful so example exercises and again i'll show you a video or two in a moment and but for the work in this things like side planks or suitcase carries.

[26:08] Now the third one is what's called anti-rotation training. So anti-extension was preventing the lower back hyperextending. Anti-lateral flexion going to the side. Anti-rotation as it sounds prevents the torso rotating around. Now this is really really useful when you're kind of faced with external forces on the trail. So if you're walking along which often happens and you get snagged on a tree and you get pulled back like this. Now that's not super comfortable usually but if we are strong in this anti-rotation we can prevent the lower back from being in this weird an awkward position and it can be a little bit more comfortable. And there might be other situations but that's just a simple example. Now an example exercise of this and I'll show you a video of this in a moment, something like a payload press or doing like a single arm dumbbell press where you're using one arm at a time and your body's really fighting going around rotation. So let's show you a few video exercises. So this dead bunk anti-extension, really really simple.

[27:01] Lying on your back and basically what we're looking at here is bringing one leg down one leg up and holding this position. Now the most important thing with this particular exercise is our lower back. So when we're in this position is essentially when you're naturally sitting there the lower back will have a little bit of an arch. Essentially the key for this exercise is we squeeze on our core, get it nice and tight and push that arch down into the floor. Then essentially the key for this exercise is as you're going one leg arm, one leg arm, one leg arm, you're keeping that lower back pushed down to the floor which is teaching the body to resist that extension is building up strength through that motion really really really valuable now with this exercise a lot of people look at it and they're like oh you know this is super easy um so if you do do this you can basically and you feel like this is way way easy you can hold like a weight in one of the arms and just be really really steady on that you can hold a band in your arms and a band pulling you backwards can be really beneficial there's lots of different ways of making this harder if you do this and you're like hey this is actually really hard you can just start by doing a static hold so basically just holding like this position and literally just pushing your lower back down the floor, that can go a long way. So that's an example of that anti-extension strength.

[28:06] Now, the side plank is something a lot of people have probably seen before. This is that anti-lateral flexion. So essentially, you're literally just holding this position.

[28:13] What we're doing is we're just preventing the torso from falling to the side. Works out pretty well. Really, really, really simple. If you do this and you're like, this is a bit too easy, you can do it on your feet or you can add like a weight on top of your hips to push you down and you have to fight against it. Really simple. And the third one is one you may not have seen before, but the payoff press. And this is that anti-rotation option.

[28:34] Now basically this particular exercise needs an exercise band of some type or you can do this on a cable machine at the gym and you also need like a pole or a pillar. Now essentially what we're doing, you can't really see it in this video super well, but basically there is a band attached to the pole there and then we're out here perpendicular and what we're doing is pushing the band out and pushing it in. And you'll notice if you give this a go that as you're pushing you, the band will naturally want to pull you to face the pole. So what we're really doing here is we're locking in the core, keeping everything nice and tight to resist that rotation as we come through. It looks very simple, but it's very, very effective. Now, if you give this a go and you're like, hey, this is like too easy, you can use a thicker band or you can just set up further away from the pole because the further away from the pole will get the harder and harder. And over time, you can progress this by standing as opposed to being on the knees. You can do it on one foot at a time. There's lots of ways you can make this a little bit more difficult. So essentially, if we put these three things together, the dead bunk, the side plank, the payload press, or the anti-extension, anti-lateral flexion, anti-rotation. We're kind of covering all our bases there. Yes, you can do some of your normal core stuff where you're creating movement. You can do some sit-ups if you like. You can do some Russian twists, but I think you'll get more benefit from focusing on those three things.

[29:44] Now, next area, area number three, other targeted strengthening. So we talked about core strengthening, which is working their muscles directly supporting the back. Other targeted strengthening, there are really two other big priorities when it comes down to lower back. Now, number one are the glutes. The glutes, the bum muscles play a big, big, big role in supporting the lower back and also the smaller back muscles. So basically, when we look at our back, there are a lot of muscles run up and

[30:09] down the spine that attach to lower back. Developing these can help support the lower back as well now if we can build up strength and tolerance in these areas they can go a long way to supporting the lower back pretty straightforward now i will just say i'm going to show you a couple of example exercises a few example exercises but when it comes down to it you know strength training the body should always be trained as a whole and there are many other muscles in the body which will indirectly support the back and help in other ways but these are areas i'm just going to say directly go into the lower back but as a general rule of thumb when we're looking at strength training. We want to be training the body as a whole, but these other areas we can make sure we're fitting in some way into our week.

[30:49] Now, first example one is doing what's called a split stance hinge. So this particular area exercise teaches the body to hinge, which is a really, really, really useful thing because a lot of people, when they have lower back pain, they do find that this type of movement is a bit of a trigger. And if they tip over and pick something up off the ground, it can be a little bit of a trigger off the lower back.

[31:11] So essentially the idea behind this exercise is two things. Number one is teaching the body when you're doing this type of tipping over movement to get the glutes and the hamstrings working a little bit more and doing a little bit more in the motion. And this is also helping strengthen up the hamstrings and glutes and also a little bit of the lower, the smaller back muscles. So essentially this particular exercise, it can be a little bit tricky, but essentially you're just setting up just in front of a wall, one foot forward, one foot back. And essentially what we're looking at here is we're keeping the knee angle relatively the same and we're just leaning down and pushing the bum back into the wall. So we're trying to just make sure the hamstrings and the glutes are doing a bit of work here. It can be a little bit tricky and a little bit fiddly to play around with, but it's definitely something to incorporate in. Go onto YouTube and look it up. There's a million and one full tutorial videos on this, but it can be really useful. Now, some people may do this and be like, if they've got quite a bit of sensitive back, they might be like, this is enough for me and this is all good. If you do it and you're like, oh, this is just the easiest thing in the world, then you can add a little bit of weight. You can add a dumbbell in one hand and just load this up a little bit. If you do do this and you're like, hey, this is super hard, then just reduce the range of motion and basically just don't go quite as far, like stop here or something like that in the exercise. But really, really, really, really effective exercise, which can help.

[32:22] Now, the next exercise is one directly for the glutes and a little bit of hamstrings, a single leg glute bridge, which a lot of people have seen before. So basically, it's just lying on the floor, one foot down, one foot up, pushing up, squeezing the glutes.

[32:34] It may be very simple, but very effective. Now, if you do this and you're like, hey, this is actually a little bit too hard, you can do this two legs at a time. So basically two legs on the floor, pushing up and pushing down. If you do this and you're like, hey, this is a little bit too easy, you can always load this up with a bit of weight, put it like a dumbbell or a pack across your hips and go up and down like that.

[32:50] And then the third one is a clam exercise, which again, a lot of exercises, a lot of hikers will have seen this before. Now, this single leg glute bridge works mainly the glute maximus, so the big muscle in the glute, which is responsible for the hips. Doing this motion pretty much going up and down um the clam is working what's called the glute medius which is a smaller muscle in the glute which is responsible for the hips going in and out and stabilizing the knee in a bit of a different way so really really really useful now basically this one most people have seen this before one knee band around the hips um around the knees and just going up and down up and down get a bit decent burn through the through the glutes um if it's a bit hard you can do this without a band if it's too easy you can use a thicker band or add a bit of longer pause at the top of each um very very basic but it does do the job so they're kind of three things um where we can look at this more other muscles that are directly supporting the back now as i sort of said before when it comes down to this the body when it comes down to strength training it should be done as a whole.

[33:45] It's not just these exercises, but we should be training the body holistically. On top of that, it's very, very rare that just doing one exercise, full, endless, and ongoing, we'll see the results you want. Over time, we want to make sure our workouts are structured, that they progress over time, and they're recovering on a lot of bases. So that's a bit beyond the context of this video today. So if you were wanting a bit of help with that, I do have a free mini course around strength training for hiking, which you're more than welcome to get your hands on. This particular course, it sort of fills in a lot more of the broader context of strength training, then it's possible to get into this video. It covers things like the benefits of strength training for hiking. So today we've been talking about the lower back pain specifically, but that goes into a bit more of a broader context around all the different benefits you can have for strength training for hiking. It talks through some of the principles of effective strength training, so how you can get the most out of it, both in short and longer term training, and also how to create your own strength workout. So it'll teach you how to actually put together your own workouts, it'll give you ideas, exercise examples, and templates on how to actually put together your own strength workout to best help your back and also your hiking. Now, if you do want to get your hands on this, basically all you need to do is go to summitstrength.com.au slash strength dash mini dash course. I'll leave a link for that in the show notes below, but you can check that out at your own leisure.

[34:57] So we basically covered three areas now area number four we're coming into specific exposure to triggers now earlier in the presentation we did list a few common things on the trail which can aggravate the lower back now a common story when it comes down to this type of thing is we may be in a hiking and we realize there's a bit of a trigger which can lead to a bit of back pain this particular area of hiking or this particular challenge of hiking does trigger my back pain a little bit so we get into this situation we're like i'm aware of this i don't want to get into pain so then we avoid this trigger for as much as we can now the tricky thing with this is and i see this all the time at some point in our hiking journey we can avoid this trigger for four weeks for six weeks for eight weeks for six months but at some time and time um in our hiking journey we're probably going to come across this trigger again and if we spend all of this time avoiding it and all of a sudden it gets thrown into us and we weren't expecting it or like we'll just give this a go we haven't actually exposed the body to this that can just lead to pain again and it can end up being this recurring issue which is not much fun now a better approach to this type of thing is if we just struggle discover a trigger and if we're aware that hey something is causing us back pain essentially what we want to do is yes avoid this trigger in the hiking context avoid this so we're not getting uncomfortable with the hiking but while we're.

[36:10] Avoiding this we want to expose the body to this type of thing in a controlled way so we can slowly build up your tolerance so ultimately next time you actually do come across this on the trail whether it's intentionally or unintentionally your body has actually developed and adapted and gotten better at this type of stress so you'll have much more less risk of pain really really really really valuable for back pain but also any type of pain you're dealing with on the trail.

[36:35] So an example of this is pack carrying like this is a story here all the time someone said it finds out okay i am aware that once i go over a certain amount of kilos in my pack i get back pain and so they're like you know what i'm never going to go over that back uh that pack weight again now.

[36:52] In the oh sorry and they're like hey this trick has caused me so i can't go out and carry so let's say full pack so they say you know what temporarily i'm not going to be doing any overnight hikes i'm not going to do any multi-day hikes or if i am i'm going to do pack supported i'm going to avoid this trigger for for a while now why i am avoiding this actually they say you know you might say you know what i'm going to get on top of this i do want to be carrying a copy pack again at some stage i'm not going to avoid this forever so what i'm going to do is i'm going to incorporate some load of pack walking sessions in my week around my local area. I'm going to walk for 30 minutes or 45 minutes at a time just around the local neighborhood to slowly expose my body. Now, at first, I'm going to start flat and I'm going to start at a low weight. I'm going to find a weight which I can do actually pretty comfortably and I'm not going to push myself into pain. I'm going to start it nice and flat. Now, week by week by week, I'm going to slowly build up the weight. I'm slowly at a kilo, a kilo, a kilo, a kilo as I build up that tolerance. And then eventually, once I'm feeling confident i'll incorporate a bit of up and down maybe i'll do this with some hills or on some stairs or something like that and then essentially once i'm feeling confident with this and once i've trained this and developed this and this and that i'm actually going to go out and do another pack carrying a hug and i'm going to book this scene in eight weeks time or 10 weeks time or 16 weeks time and i'm going to build up to this and make it happen.

[38:07] Now, the benefit, and this is a really, really simple approach, and obviously you can get a lot more detailed in this, but it is very, very, very effective, and it's something I'm a big advocate for. As opposed to completely avoiding something that does lead you to discomfort, obviously hiking is a bit unpredictable. I'd much prefer to slowly expose ourselves and build up that. Now, the benefits of this type of thing is, number one, it can build up strength and conditioning in the body to the specific stresses. So, whether it's pack carrying, whether it's rougher terrain, whether it's up on elevation change or whatever it may be, if we're going to expose the body to this, we can build up strength and condition the body to these particular things so they don't affect us so negatively.

[38:41] We can also teach the body that this stressor doesn't have to lead to pain. Now, this could be a whole video in itself, but essentially when it comes down to pain, sometimes the body and the mind thinks, okay, something causes me pain. In this example, Pac-Carrant, and it's like, hey, that leads to pain. And then essentially in the mind, we start associating Pactan with pain. And there is a big connection of mental component when it comes to presentation of pain. And sometimes if we just expect to be in pain and we just expect, hey, that actually is going to be uncomfortable, it can actually lead to a bit more discomfort. So essentially what we can do with this type of training is just slowly teach the body saying, you know what, this stressor, it's not that bad. You can actually deal with this. It doesn't have to lead to pain and just sort of slowly teach that. Kind of like a hot bath in the sense of like, you know, when you run a hot bath and the first time you dip your toe and you're like oh my gosh that's super uncomfortable that's super hot and then 10 seconds later you dip your toe in again you're like oh that's pretty hot that's not quite as hot as it was before and then you dip toe again and again and again and then eventually you can actually get into the whole bath and that whole process the bath probably hasn't changed temperature, but your perception to the bath has changed and that's kind of what we're looking at here and we're not changing so much the stresses because we're still exposed to that type of thing but we're changing the perception of those stresses again i could talk about that for like 60 minutes but it is very valuable and also to mentally just build up confidence which kind of goes in hand in hand like if we're just confident we can get through things it can be really effective.

[40:07] So, a few important points on this particular topic, this triggers. Number one, if you are doing this exposure therapy or this exposure triggers, it should be done in a controlled environment. Don't do this in the middle of nowhere. Don't do this on your major hikes. Don't do this whatever. Do it in a controlled environment. If you're exposing yourself to pack weight, do it around your local neighbourhood. So, you can just go home if things are wrong. If you're doing stairwell hills, don't go into the middle of a hike and practice it. Just find a stairwell hill in your local neighbourhood.

[40:34] If you struggle with rock scrambling, don't do it in the middle of a trail in the middle of nowhere. Maybe find a dry riverbed that's a bit more accessible or do it around a headland on a beach, whatever it may be. Do it in an environment that you can control. And if things go wrong, you can sort of get out of it. On top of that is ideally we want to do this type of stuff below the pain threshold. And what I mean by that is if we are exposing the body to this type of stuff, we want to do it at a level where we're not leading to pain all the time. So for the in the pack carrying example if we're aware that okay i'm doing this pack training sessions around the neighborhood and i try it out and i put eight kilos in my pack and you know what i did 40 minutes of walking and i actually got in pain and then essentially we think okay we want to actually go back a little bit we want to do maybe six kilos and if we can do six kilos and that's actually comfortable and you're like that didn't lead to pain we do six kilos and we build up from there we do six and a half seven seven and a half eight and slowly build up um essentially we don't want to be doing this controlled exposure stuff which constantly leads to more and more and more pain because it kind of defeats the purpose a little bit. This can take a little bit of trial and error and there is a little bit of a magic, not magic, a little bit of art to figuring this out.

[41:43] But that's very very important and we want to slowly progress this over time so we don't just want to get stuck doing the same thing but slowly but surely making things a little bit harder, a little bit harder, a little bit harder, a little bit harder over time.

[41:55] Now, basically, when it comes down to this, you know, hopefully that covers quite a few bases, four sort of areas, targeted mobility, core training, some more other targeted strengthening, and that exposure therapy. If you can put those four things together and stick with it over a consistent amount of time, it can go a long way to help and support the back while hiking.

[42:14] However, to be clear, as we sort of said before, when it comes down to preventing back pain while hiking, there are many, many other factors that do need to be considered. These things can be really beneficial these things can help a lot of people but there is a bit more of a picture a bit more of other things that go into this picture so other factors that should be considered conditioning fitness in the sense of fatigue and exhaustion is a presentation a respect for the presentation of pain in the body so what are you doing to improve your fitness improve your conditioning to reduce the chance of you getting really tired on the track gear choices so you know your pack your poles your shoes all of that factor can things can factor into back pain in various different situations. Pacing. One of the simplest things you can do to reduce the risk of that back pain is reduce your pacing. Keep it a little bit slower. Make sure you're not power marching along and making sure you're not going at a pace you can't sustain and gets you overly tired. And load management. How much walking, how much hiking, how much stress is going through the back on a weekly and a monthly basis? How are you managing that to make sure there's not dramatic jump ups in regards to how much stress has gone through the back? All of these things are just as important as what we mentioned today. Obviously, we can't talk about all of this because this video is already gone for 45 minutes, but things you definitely do need to consider.

[43:26] Now, ultimately, hopefully this just does give you some ideas around this, but I fully understand that, It's a lot of information, and sometimes it can be hard just thinking about how can I actually put this all together? How can I put this into my life? How can I fit this around my situation? How can I work around the other needs that I have? How does this all come together? So if you were looking at a little bit extra help with this, I would love to chat with you. As I said at the start of this presentation, we offer personalized training programs for hikers to help them get fit, strong, and resilient for their adventures all entirely online. Now, what our packages include is we will create a custom and personalized training program to help you get ready for anything the trainer may throw at you, covering strength training cardio hiking recovering mobility doing everything we need to support your back but also support your hiking as well and coming up with a plan that's going to be personalized around you your needs your situation and your preferences now on top of that we do put a big emphasis into educating you on all the different peripheral factors which can help your back and your hiking things of fatigue management conditioning nutrition recovery a bunch of other things and we will give you the coaching and support and accountability keep you on track through the ups and downs and all the things that life can throw at your weight.

[44:32] Now, if you were interested in learning a little bit more about how we go about this, you can go to summerstrength.com.au slash online. Now, on there, there's another video which kind of dives into our programs in a bit more detail, talks through how we go about things, how it all plays out. And if you were interested in finding more, there's a link on that page where you can book a call with our team. We can sit down, have a really good solid chat, learn about you, your needs, your situation, your goals, and ultimately just see if and how we can help you. And if we are confident we can help you, we can talk you through one of our

[45:02] packages which may fit into your situation. So if you want to find out more, go to summerstrength.com.au slash online and you can check it out from there.

[45:09] So all in all, I hope you've enjoyed today's presentation. I hope you get some information out of it and I really do hope this helps a lot of hikers who do struggle with lower back pain on the trail. Obviously, these ideas, there's a little bit more thought that goes behind it, but hopefully if you can put this into action, and it will make a decent difference for you. So thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you very, very soon.

Want to get
fit, strong and resilient
for your hiking adventures?

Check out
​The Online Summit Program