BACK VIBE PROGRAM STEP 3: INCREASE STRENGTH Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 1
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STEP 3 INCREASE STRENGTH By now, you should have learned to address muscular imbalances and started a stretching program with your vibration machine. You should have learned how to contract your stomach (abdominals) and your butt (gluteus maximus) muscles. You should also be feeling looser with your body after starting the stretching program. Majority of the stretching involved muscles that do not appear to be in direct contact with the low back. You know now that the whole body is affected if there is tightness or weakness in certain muscles. The body is like a chain that is connected by links. If you disrupt one link, it affects the rest of the links. That s why addressing back pain has changed considerably over the years. Rather than just focusing on the back itself, and hoping for the best, we want to work the whole body. You will also notice that we are treating you like an athlete and not a person with back pain. For many years, athletes were provided with full body workouts whenever they got injured. It turned out that they recovered faster than the rest of us. Some would say that s because they were athletes. However, researchers began providing the same program for non athletes. They started getting similar results. Back pain isn t something that should limit you in what you can do. Most people with chronic low back pain get nervous and scared that any activity will hurt them. Experience has shown the opposite. You need to strengthen your whole body in order to get better. You need to focus on whole body conditioning and not concentrate as much on the back pain. Pain is sometimes one of the last things to go away. Before that, you ll feel looser, stronger and have more energy. The pain will come. For others, pain starts going down as their strength and flexibility begins to improve. Regardless, everyone is different. Take your time with the program and move forward step by step. That now brings us to the strengthening part of the program. When most people think of strengthening, they think of low back exercises. They don t usually think of strengthening their thighs, calves, or even their upper body. However, this path is one of Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 3
the most effective ways to improve your back pain. For some, going straight to low back exercises may be the most beneficial. For others, that may not be possible and you may be limited by pain. If this describes you, it s best to begin strengthening the rest of the body and slowly work your way to focusing on back strengthening exercises. The strengthening program that we are outlining here focuses on distal muscles first. Then we work back towards the low back exercise. The goal is to progress towards the low back exercises. If you find that some of the first few exercises are easy and don t challenge you, skip them and keep progressing until you get to the low back ones. Note: The strengthening exercises here are different than the low back section of the Exercise Database. These strengthening exercises are designed to give you a good overview of where to start. For each body part area, you can reference the Exercise Database for more comprehensive exercise progressions. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 4
CALF STRENGTHENING Stand on platform with hands on handles. Bend knees slightly and stick butt out. From this position, raise heels high, ensuring you don t bring your knees past your toes. Hold position. On a pivotal machine, increasing distance between your feet increases level of difficulty of the exercise. THIGH STRENGTHENING Stand on platform with hands on handle. Bend knees slightly, while sticking butt out slightly. On a pivotal machine, increasing distance between feet increases level of difficulty of the exercise. The goal is to stay in a semi squat position without feeling low back pain. This exercise strengthens the thighs. Ensure your back is in a proper lordosis position. This is a progression of the squat exercise. Notice how the lower you go, the more you stick your butt out. Make sure you maintain the normal curve in the back. Ensure you can stay in this position for at least 30 seconds before you attempt to advance to the next deeper squat exercise. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 5
Deeper squat is for the more advanced user. To increase intensity of the exercise, we recommend first increasing the distance between the feet. Once you can do that, then bring your feet in and go into a lower squat. Repeat again until you can go into a deep squat like this one. Notice the upper body leaning forward and the butt sticking out the further down you go. HAMSTRINGS This exercise can be done on a stepper or on a floor. This is a bridging exercise but the toes are pointed up. This position activates the hamstring muscles. You can start in this position, gently pressing your heels into the platform. This will help contract the hamstrings. Repeat over the course of the exercise session. This is a more advanced hamstring exercise. When you are able to, lift up your hips while keeping your toes up and your heels pressed down. Hold position through the exercise session, or bring back down and lift up again. This should be done slowly to ensure you focus on the hamstrings. Keeping your hands out helps with balance. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 6
TRICEPS The triceps dip can be done while sitting on a stepper. Use books if you don t have a stepper. Sit and lean back, placing your hands on the platform. The goal is to gently lean back and hold. Keep elbows bent to target the triceps muscles. Ensure you keep a good normal curve in your low back. Do not forward flex your low back. This is a variation of the triceps dip. Notice how the hands are further out and slightly rotated outwards. There are three muscles in the triceps muscle. Bringing the hands outward targets other parts of the triceps muscle. Ensure you don t raise your shoulders. Keep elbows bent. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 7
BICEPS This is the start position for the biceps curl. When starting out, make sure you do one arm at a time, while holding the handle with the other. You can use a band or weights. This is the starting position, making sure your palm is facing away from you. This is the end position of the biceps curl. Keep your elbow close to your body and raise your arm up, pulling the band, or weight, up through a full range of motion. Increase the level of difficulty by spacing feet further apart or even getting into a squat position while doing the biceps curl. CHEST STRENGTHENING Kneel down in front of the platform. Place hands on the platform and slightly bend your elbows. Shift weight slightly forward towards the platform. Hold position for the exercise session. Spacing your hands on a pivotal machine increases level of difficulty of the exercise. Make sure you do not forward bend your low back. Keep the normal curve or lordosis. Progress to more difficult exercises in the Exercise Database. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 8
MIDBACK STRENGTHENING Mid back strengthening is a similar position to the chest push, except the elbows are nearly straight. Focus on squeezing the mid back while slightly shifting your body forward. Hold position and concentrate on the mid back. Bending the elbows will focus more on the chest and we want to avoid that in this exercise. Keep a normal curve in the low back. LOW BACK STRENGTHENING (BRIDGING) This is similar to the hamstring strengthening exercise, except the feet are flat on the platform. You can lie down on a stepper or the floor. In this exercise, focus on contracting the stomach and butt muscles and gently pressing the feet down on the platform. This is to be done if you cannot lift your hips off the ground or if you are just starting out and need to address muscular imbalances. You can also tap the stomach and butt muscles to increase focus on contracting these. This is an advanced version of the previous exercise. Lift your hips off the floor and keep your feet flat. Make sure you keep your stomach and butt muscles contracted and squeezed. Hold position for the remainder of the exercise, or slowly go up, hold and slowly bring your hips back down. On a pivotal machine, further spacing of the feet increases the intensity of the exercise. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 9
LOW BACK STRENGTHENING (PLANKS) The plank is probably one of the BEST exercises for the low back and core. Place forearms on the platform. Clenching your fists helps tense your forearm muscles and makes it easier to hold the position. Shift upper body forward while keeping the back straight, with a slight normal curve on the low back. Don t forward bend your low back! The plank is an endurance exercise. It s designed to be held as long as possible. Keep stomach muscles contracted through the exercise. The side plank addresses different low back muscles. Please note that the low back is made up of various muscles, large and small. It s important to address them all. Lie to side of machine, or at an angle in front if there are handles to the side. Place forearm on platform. Clench fist. Raise your upper body up and hold position. Keep the upper body in a straight line and look straight ahead. ABDOMINALS We often not recommend sitting abdominal exercises unless you are well advanced. To be honest, you don t need these if you can do a plank or any of the above exercises. However, some prefer to have these. Sit on a platform and lean back 45 degrees. (Do NOT go past 45 degrees or else you will be stressing other body parts). Cross your hands in front and hold position, keeping stomach tight. Check out the Exercise Database for proper progression of exercises. Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. VibrationExercise.com Page 10