is it true that doing abdominal exercises will help with lower back pain ?
my lower back hurts alot alot alot and i do gymnastics im also going to physical therapy for my hamstring and they said that doing abdominal exercises will help is that true ???
and should i keep doing gymnastics with this horrible pain ?
Public Comments
1. Yes, you will be strengthening your core muscles and the back pain will lesson. Skip the gymnastics for awhile please!2. core muscles!
3. It is true, your making your muscles stronger.
4. Yes that's true.
No, you should be seeking answers for your pain and treat it properly by a doctor.
5. The whole "core stability" mantra has been blown out of proportion and it misapplied in most cases. In truth...very few episodes of low back pain can be attributed to a weak core, but the theory behind it has trickled down all the way into the personal training arena. The journal Physical Therapy recently published a literature review on "core stability" and has found that the evidence for it's use is poor and highly unvalidated.
on an anatomical perspective, when you consider the amount of force that the "core" muscles such as transverse abdominus, multifidus, internal and external oblique can exert on the spine on a segmental level, the maximum force that these muscles can contract on an individual lumbar segment is about 10 fold less than the amount of force that occurs from just being upright. In other words, from an anatomical perspective, "core stabilization" (or abdominal exercises) is a moot point (it's anatomically impossible).
However, in conjuncture with the problem with treating patients with low back pain...exists the possibility that a certain TYPE of back pain may benefit from core stabilization. But at this time, this group of people remains poorly defined.
You don't give any more details about your history, age, level of competitiveness, etc. But, in young gymnasts, there is always concern for an acute "par fracture"...a small fracture of the vertebrae that can be the beginning of a long, arduous period of recovery.
If you haven't had any further work up for your back pain, and you are a relatively competitive gymnast, I'd speak to your physician about having A/P and oblique x-rays to rule out a pars fracture. If so, it will be imperative to modify your activity.
