BACK IT UP!
Getting your butt in shape may be the secret to relieving back pain
B ABY got back pain? It’s time for some booty work.
A strong butt is one of your best defenses against back pain, which affects 80 percent of the population, according to Chris Crowley and Jeremy James, authors of the new book “The Younger Next Year Back Book” (Workman).
Your behind “is the most overlooked aspect of back treatment,” James, a chiropractor in Aspen, Colo., tells The Post. “The big, powerful muscles in your buttocks were designed to help you do really important things, like pick things up or keep you erect while you’re walking. They were not meant to be cushions.”
When we make a habit of lazing about on our derrières, it leads to a phenomenon that Crowley, who cowrites the best-selling “Younger Next Year” book series, calls “gluteal amnesia.”
“Your glutes are the big muscle, the biggest support to your back,” he tells The Post. But when they’re routinely under-exercised — or over sat on — “your butt goes to sleep. Your glutes turn into drapery.”
Besides ruining your shot at a decent belfie, weak glutes have a scary domino effect on the rest of your mus- cles in that region. When those big gluteal muscles aren’t fulfilling their destiny, smaller muscles in your backside try to make up the difference, Crowley says. It’s a noble effort, but “those little guys aren’t up to the job,” resulting in strain, pain and a dangerous game of Jenga for your spine. But the duo has some good news: It’s likely that you can build your butt back up to heal your back pain without serious medical intervention.
“The problem here is that your brain has lost connectivity to those muscles and nerves,” James says. “So the fix is reminding your brain how to use them.”
To that end, he’s devised a series of exercises to help perk up your posterior. If you do them correctly, he says — “and we’ve gone into painstaking detail here to make sure you do” — odds are good that you’ll start to feel better.
That’s the thing about back pain: “It isn’t a disease or an affliction that happens to you. It’s not arbitrary. It’s a result of the way you live your life,” James says.
“That means you have control over it. In most cases, getting better is really up to you.”
For back relief, try these glute stren theners. Make sure your spine is in a neutral position (not hunched or arched) and brace your abs before any movement.
Clamshell
Lie on your side with your hips and knees bent. Place your top hand on top of your hip. Dig your thumb inside your hipbone and prod your gluteal muscles with your other fingers. (That helps your brain identify them.) Slowly and carefully raise the knee, with your leg moving slightly away from your body, and then lower it. Repeat 10 to 12 times on each side.
Quadruped hip extension
Get on your hands and knees and find a neutral spine. Keeping your knee bent, push your heel up to the ceiling without arching your back. You should feel the squeeze in your seat crease, not in your leg or back. Repeat 10 to 12 times on each side.
Split squat
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Step one foot about 2 feet in front of the other — a little bit farther than you naturally want to. Slowly and carefully bend your knees, until your thigh is parallel with the floor. Your back knee should point straight toward the floor, and your back should remain straight like you’re sliding down a wall. To rise, begin squeezing from the seat crease of your back leg — not from your quads. Repeat 10 to 12 times on each side.