There are many reasons for back pain. It may be caused by excessive stress, strains in muscles in any part of your body, sprain in your ligaments, osteoarthritis, a slipped disc, or your life style, and so on. If exercise is chosen to alleviate back pain, then the routine should be comprehensive. It should work by stretching the weak muscles and making the loose muscles stronger. Muscles in your hip and back need to be stretched to prevent back pain. The question that arises here is, are crunches good back pain relief exercises?

Crunches are actually exercises to strengthen muscles in the abdomen. However, there are many other muscles that keep your back and spine healthy. So, crunches may not be the sole exercise to alleviate back paint. As crunches are practiced by most of the people for a flat tummy, overdoing them causes problems in your back, and they can upset your posture resulting in a rounded back. So, never overdo the crunches as they will harm your back more.

Pay attention to your back rather than pay attention to your flat tummy! Remember that crunches are not the only thing that can reduce the fat in your tummy.

Are Crunches Good Back Pain Relief Exercises

Are crunches bad exercises for your back?

Most people refer to the over-popular exercise the crunch, or a variation of the crunch. The crunch is an exercise that gets overused by many people, leading to muscular imbalances in the core, causing a rounded back posture.

 

The main purpose of the muscles in your midsection/core is to hold your spine upright. The motion of the crunch pulls the rib cage down and rounds the back. By overusing the crunching motion in a workout routine, you are effectively training in a way to promote bad posture. This is never a good thing.

 

The argument is that people want a six-pack or a flat tummy, which is a completely valid goal, but the main way to achieve that is through reducing the body fat around the midsection, to show the muscles underneath. This can be achieved through overall calorie burn and a well-rounded routine of core exercises that promote good posture.

 

Good examples of such exercises are the plank or stability ball pass, or many of the variations of the plank.

 

Along with weight loss one of my main focuses while training people is to help them reduce joint pain and lower back pain, which is experienced by most people at some point in their lives. By performing crunches you are actually adding to the problem by adding additional stresses to the discs in the lower back, in the L4, L5 region.

 

You can prevent this by doing exercises that balance out the muscles on both sides of the spine. Some of the previous exercises that I’ve covered that do this are birddogs and Supermans, and by performing exercises that train the core while keeping the spine in a neutral position.

 

It will take time to notice the changes, but over time as your core muscles become balanced by performing proper core training, you will notice increased range of motion and reduced lower back pain.

 

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Here is a good video about how to do crunches to alleviate your pain and strengthen your core:

And another that shows you a good crunch technique to avoid back pain:

A comprehensive and well-rounded exercise routine gets you a flat tummy without over doing crunches. Crunches also add to the stress in your body, which can result in stress and strain of your back and its muscles. So, balancing your exercise routine without straining any of the body muscles excessively is the right approach. Are crunches good back pain relief exercises? We do not know, yet the improvement in physical health should be beneficial.