Lower back pain is one of the most commonly treated conditions today. Our sedentary lifestyle—sitting behind computers, stuck in traffic, or sitting in school and meetings—takes a serious toll on the lumbar spine. That’s why lower back pain is no longer just a problem for adults. Teenagers are showing signs of spinal issues too. It’s a growing problem.
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How Lower Back Muscles Work
To fix lower back pain, you need to understand how the lower back is designed to function—and how our habits disrupt that design. Think of it like using a smartphone. You learned some basics to use it. If something goes wrong, that basic understanding helps you figure out the problem.
The same goes for your lower back. When you understand how it works, you can identify daily habits that lead to pain and start correcting them.
Here’s a quick anatomy breakdown:
- Cervical spine – neck
- Thoracic spine – mid-back
- Lumbar spine – lower back
- Sacrum – base of the spine (fused vertebrae near the pelvis)
The thoracic and sacral regions naturally curve outward (kyphotic curve), while the cervical and lumbar regions curve inward (lordotic curve). These curves are healthy—but when poor posture takes over, they become exaggerated.
This isn’t just a local issue. Bad posture results from muscle imbalances throughout the body, not just where the pain is. The lower back ends up paying the price.
Between each vertebra are discs that cushion the bones. Ligaments connect the vertebrae, and nerves pass through the spinal column, linking the brain to your muscles and organs.
The sacrum works with the pelvis to form the pelvic girdle, which connects to your leg bones. Over these structures lie your muscles.
For lower back pain, we focus on two key muscle groups:
- Abdominals – run from your rib cage to your pubic bone (front of body)
- Paraspinals (erector spinae) – run along both sides of the spine (back of body)
These muscles should balance each other. When one works more than the other, it creates instability—leading to pain and injury.
How Lower Back Pain Occurs
Most lower back pain results from lifestyle habits and bad posture. If you have lower back pain without an obvious injury, these are likely to blame:
- Sitting for long periods
- Poor ergonomics
- Working behind a computer
- Exercising with poor form
- Using smartphones or laptops
- Playing one-sided sports (like tennis)
These habits throw off your posture and muscle balance.
One common postural issue is hyperlordosis, where the lower back curve is exaggerated. You’ve seen it—when someone’s butt sticks out. This compresses the lumbar spine and causes muscle spasms in the lower back, along with weakness in the lower abs. Even “good” desk posture can lead to this if you sit long enough.
Another issue is when the mid-back curve increases, shifting your center of gravity forward. Your lower abs can’t stabilize your pelvis in this position—another recipe for back pain.
So yes—poor posture has everything to do with lower back pain. And it doesn’t just affect sedentary people. Active people get it too. Why?
Lower Back Pain from Going to the Gym
Six-pack abs don’t guarantee good posture. In fact, many gym-goers with sculpted abs have weak lower abdominal muscles. They’ve trained the wrong way—and now their body pays for it.
Crunches and typical ab workouts often miss the mark. If you’ve done ab exercises and ended up with neck pain, it’s because your abs weren’t really doing the work.
There’s a proper progression in how your abs should activate: lower, middle, then upper. Most people skip straight to the upper abs, leaving the lower abs weak and underused. That creates imbalance and dysfunction, even in people who look strong.
Take glute workouts. The intention is to strengthen the glutes, but often the lower back compensates. You end up straining your back instead of activating your glutes.
Let’s go deeper.
Biological Breathing and Functional Movement
Breathing is the foundation of movement and stability. Around 3 months of age, we all start developing movement based on biological breathing patterns.
But modern life—sports, dance, tech, bad posture—messes that up. We lose those early patterns and replace them with dysfunctional ones.
A major issue I see is neck breathing. Instead of the diaphragm initiating the breath (expanding the abdomen), the neck muscles take over. This disrupts core stability and contributes to lower back pain.
If you don’t breathe correctly, you can’t move correctly. That’s why breathing is the first thing I work on with every patient—no matter the complaint.
Check out this video and start working on it daily:
You can do all the workouts and Instagram exercises you want, but if your breathing is off, your lower back will suffer. That’s why babies—without doing a single crunch—can stabilize and move better than many adults.
Will Lower Back Pain Go Way On Its Own?
If your pain comes and goes, it means the root problem is still there. A massage might feel great. Some stretches might help. But unless you fix the cause, the pain returns.
Developmental kinesiology and postural neurology offer real solutions. Your brain has a map of your body—called the homunculus—and that map changes based on injury and lifestyle.
Postural neurology helps us identify which parts of your movement map are off. Developmental kinesiology restores normal movement patterns through exercises based on how we moved as babies.
Watch this video to learn more:
Lower Back Pain Exercises
The foundational exercises for lower back pain are the poses between 3 and 6 months of age. In the video below you can see how a 3-5-month-old baby begins to develop the lower ab. I often find in the majority of my patients that their lower ab is extremely underused, so much so that the patient has a hard time locating the muscle (in the brain) to activate it.
Note that in this pose we only want activation of the lower portion of the abdominal muscle, not the upper which is overly active in many people. Once a strong lower ab is developed, or the map of that area in the brain is made more clear, we can move to a pose that really challenges the lower ab and lower back muscles to work together and maintain a neutral spine. This next video is a 6-month prone pose.
Although the main mover in this movement is the triceps, the requirement is a neutral spine that requires the lower ab and lower back to do their part. Give it a try and you’ll feel what I’m talking about. If your lower back is dipped when doing this pose, you’re doing it incorrectly.
Lower Back Pain Prevention
One of the simplest ways to protect your back is a movement I call the tuck under—tucking your tailbone under while standing. I do this every time I’m at a counter (kitchen, bathroom, office). By pairing it with daily activities, I make it a habit.
Watch how to do it here:
When doing your tuck under, pay attention to not bend your knee’s. Practice your tuck under daily to relieve pain and prevent it! Another great way to prevent lower back pain is by working on the map in your brain in regards to your lower back! When your brain loses that strong connection with a body part, there is a lack of movement and activation in that area. Lack of movement in the lumbar-pelvic area, just like any other part of the body, will result in restriction and pain.
There are many more exercises that you will find on my Youtube channel and I strongly suggest you hop over and check them outI Check out the ones under the playlist Lower Back and make sure to subscribe.
Dr. Shakib