According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 620 million people suffer from lower back pain globally. Some of them may be your class members. Core training is a key strategy for preventing lower back issues. Water Exercise for Lower Back with Irene Pluim Mentz focuses on core strength, stretching, stabilization and stamina.
Whether you teach this routine in its entirety or cheery pick some ideas for core training in your classes, your students will benefit from exercises that can help alleviate lower back pain and stiffness. Irene is a licensed physical therapist but would like to remind instructors that this routine is not intended to treat or rehab lower back issues. Instead, the goal of this video is to strengthen, stretch, stabilize and create stamina in the core of the body.
CLASS-AT-A-GLANCE
Water Exercises for Lower Back is a 35-minute aquatic fitness video that includes a short warm-up, cool down and four exercise segments. Three of the exercise segments include the use of a pool noodle and one of the segments includes the Aqua-Ohm. The Aqua-Ohm is an affordable piece of drag resistance equipment that can be purchased for $32.95. But be sure to use your Fitmotivation discount to get an additional 10% off, bringing the total cost to below $30.00, along with free shipping. However, please note that this workout can also be done with other drag equipment, a towel, or with no equipment at all. Be sure to watch the video below to learn more about the workout and then read additional information from Irene.
Water Exercises for Lower Back – Additional Information
By Irene Pluim Mentz
When Mark and I started our conversation about making some video's together, Mark related he would like some exercises for the low back. So many workouts already have a core focus, but his desire was to add some with the focus on the back. In this exercise flow I attempted to put emphasis on pelvis, glutes, and hamstrings, using my philosophy of the 4 S's: stretch, strength, stability, and stamina.
This exercise video is not intended to diagnose or treat any specific back pain or injury, but rather to give you some exercise suggestions that can be beneficial for the health of the posterior chain muscles. If you have persistent low back pain or a known medical diagnosis, please talk to your health care provider before partaking in this exercise flow.
Often, we are told we need to strengthen our core when we experience back pain and so we start doing abdominal strengthening exercises. But the core of our body involves so much more than your abs. Yes, our abdominal muscles are a huge part of the barrel that makes up our core, but what about our diaphragm, our pelvic floor muscles, and the muscles along our spine? The position of our pelvis is largely regulated by the tightness and/or lack of strength in our hip flexors, glutes, and hamstrings, and so neutral spinal alignment should be included as well.
Therefore, if we only try strengthening our abdominals, we will still end up having some back pain. We may also feel like our hamstrings are too tight and so we start stretching them. Unfortunately, our back pain continues to flare up. We may not realize that our hamstrings are tight to make up for the lack of strength to still be able to provide stability for our pelvis, which we now took away. And the same frequently happens with the hip flexors. We might stretch them, not realizing we really need to strengthen them. When I ask people to perform exercises to improve strength, I usually do not give them a set number of repetitions. Instead, I ask them to perform those exercises until “fatigue,” which is observed as shaking, or a burning sensation. I instruct them to not go to the point where form is diminished, since that defeats the purpose and could potentially teach the body the wrong movement patterns.
The exercise flow is Water Exercises for Lower Back addresses not only hamstring or hip flexor tightness but also provides exercises to strengthen those muscle groups. The focus in this video is on pelvis alignment. The exercises should be performed with full attention on whether you can keep your pelvis in neutral. I hope you enjoy this gentle workout.
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Fitmotivation extends a big thank you to Irene for sharing her knowledge and passion for water fitness. Stay tuned for two more videos with Irene posting in the coming months, Water Exercises for Hip & Knees and HIIT Station. Below is a fun video depicting Irene’s Florida filming adventures.