If you thought your moody teenager was stubborn, just try to move a few excess pounds of lower back fat. And, while you can confine your teen to her room, there’s no hiding when it comes to back fat. For a part of your body that you never see, the lower back causes a lot of anxiety. It can be the catalyst for a lifetime’s worth of pain that makes it painful to sit, stand or do the most basic of movements. But it can also accumulate an unsightly amount of fat – fat that stubbornly refuses to disappear.
By learning to target your lower back through smart eating and exercise, however, it is possible to build a strong platform for your core that will alleviate any potential painful injuries, while sculpting a tight, sexy lower back that perfectly complements your front. Let’s discover how.
Back anatomy
Lats (LatissimusDorsi): The lats have their origin at the lower four ribs and insert on the medial side of the humerus. This muscle provides the much sought after “V” shape to the upper body. It provides for extension, adduction and medial rotation.
Middle Back (Rhomboids): The Rhomboids have their origin at the spine and insert at the scapula. Their function is adduction of the scapula.
Lower Back (Lower Trapezius): The lower trapezius allows for depression of the scapula.
Erector Spinae (Lower back): This large, powerful muscle group run along the side of your lower spine. A pair of spinal erectors forms the main muscle group in your lower back. This muscle, as the name suggests, keeps your spine erect, straightening your torso out of a bent position. It also assists your obliques as you twist at the waist.
Smart nutrition
You probably already know that you cannot reduce body fat only from a specific area of your body. You need an overall approach. And that approach needs to start with your diet. Of course, people generally don’t want to hear that. They want a magical exercise or pill that will get the job done with a minimum of effort and exertion. Well, let’s get rid of that notion, once and for all. Nutrition must always be first and foremost. That doesn’t mean that you have to get complicated with what you eat. The best way is the easy way. Here are three key steps to getting it done:
(1) Get rid of bad carbs and replace them with good carbs – you know what good foods look like and you know what junk looks like. Getting your carbs primarily from green, leafy vegetables will help to flush toxins and fat. Kale, broccoli, spinach and asparagus are all great choices. Turn your back on white pastries, donuts, cakes, and bread. Sugar is the main hidden sneaky food that will pile fat around your core area. It is vital that you check the labels on products at the supermarket. Many assumed healthy foods, such as soup, have way too much sugar for flavouring.
(2) Get as many one ingredient foods as you can – the more ingredients, the less natural a food will be. Go for them first. Vegetables, meats, chicken, fruits and nuts should be your go to choices. Sticking with this one ingredient rule will go a long way to helping your control over that unsightly lower body fat.
(3) Drink more water and cut out soft drinks – you should be consuming two litres of water every single day. You need to simultaneously eliminate sodas and fruit juices from your diet. These contain way too much sugar, along with numerous chemicals that are toxic to your body. By simply cutting out soft drinks, you will be able to lose up to 25 pounds of body fat in a year.
Smart exercise
Losing lower back fat will not happen if you just focus on lower back exercises. That is what you will do when you are ready to start strengthening it. Right now you need to put your energy into burning as many calories through exercise as you possibly can. And that means that you need to be doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).
So, what is high intensity training? It is simply the performance of an exercise that you are able to do at absolute full tilt (the sprint portion) for a short period of time, followed by an even shorter period of recovery. The sprint portion should be done in multiple repetitions, with a constant recovery period between each cycle.
It’s important to choose the right exercise to perform your HIIT Training with. You need to select a movement that you will feel comfortable performing at absolute maximum intensity. Running is a good option, but you may also choose to sprint on a cycle, perform an exercise such as Burpees or Power Jumps (See exercise descriptions for these movements at the end of this chapter).
Here’s an example of what HIIT training might look like:
(1) Get yourself to an open field or running track that will allow you to run in a straight line for 20 seconds.
(2) Set your watch to beep at intervals of 20 and 10 seconds.
(3) Perform a two minute jog as a warm-up
(4) Start your watch and go directly into a sprint. You need to push yourself to the absolute maximum (imagine that you are being chased by a Doberman!)
(5) When you hear the 20-second beep, stop sprinting and begin your recovery – but keep moving!
(6) After exactly 10-seconds, move into the second sprint. You challenge here is to push just as hard as you did the first time – don’t allow the intensity to drop. Go all out for the full 20-seconds.
(7) Recover for 10-seconds, and then go into your next sprint. Continue for a total of 6 sprints.
(8) Collapse on the ground!
This type of cardio is light years away from what you’d see going on at your local gym. You won’t be able to listen to your IPod, or read your IPad while doing HIIT training. It is intense – but it’s also short. In fact, the workout just described will take a grand total of six minutes – and that includes the 2-minute warm-up. You’ll have your entire cardio work-out in the bag before those gym bunnies have finished tying their shoe laces.
The other great thing about HIIT training is that it is extremely effective. It churns through a ton of calories while you’re doing it. But there’s more. This type of training produces an after burn effect which will allow you to turn your metabolism into a fat churning factory. In fact, just one 6-minute session will boost your metabolism for the next 24 hours, allowing you to burn more calories even when you are sleeping.
There are a number of different ways to incorporate HIIT training into your program. The 6-minute workout described above is an ideal foundation for your cardio training. It will get you fitter than anything you’ll ever do in the gym. Get yourself outdoors to an open space 3 times per week on alternate days. Do this first thing in the morning before eating and you’ll burn even more calories. Drink 300 ml of water before your session and hydrate immediately after your last sprint session.
Exercise descriptions
Burpees
You probably did these back in your school days. Here’s a recap:
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Crouch down and place your palms on the ground. With your arms supporting your body kick your legs back. Immediately draw your legs back then thrust yourself back up to the start position. That is one rep.
Replace your sprint with burpees for 20 seconds. Set a goal for the first set – say, 8 reps. After your 10 second recovery, work your hardest to get the same number of reps as you did on the first set.
Power Jumps
Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Crouch down into a squat and then explode up into a vertical jump. Bring your knees up as high as possible. Continue in a fluid motion without any rest until the minute is complete.
Lower Back Strength
One of the greatest things that you can do for your overall well-being and long term pain free life is to strengthen the muscles of your lower back. The following routine uses nothing but your own body weight (you will need a Swiss ball for a couple of the exercises), meaning that you can do the program right in your own home. Perform this workout in a cycle, doing one set of each movement then going directly to the next exercise. You should do 12-15 reps on each exercise and build up to three cycles with 2 minutes rest between each one. Complete the workout three times per week on alternate days for best results.
The workout
Get down on your hands and knees, keeping your back flat. Take a deep breath, allowing your stomach to bulge out. Then forcibly exhale and round your back like an angry cat as you lift your navel up towards your spine. When you can exhale no more, keep your back rounded and your navel in as you purse your lips and take shallow breaths through your nose for several seconds. That’s one repetition and it should take between 20-30 seconds. Inhale as you flatten your back to the starting position.
Prone Superman
Lie face down with your legs straight and your arms stretched straight in front of you, with your hands on the floor. Lift your arms, head, chest and lower legs off the floor simultaneously. Hold this position for 1 to 5 seconds, keeping your head and neck at the same height as your shoulders throughout the movement. Return to the starting position.
Bird Dog
Start on all fours, with your knees and toes on the floor and your palms face down in front of you. Pull in your abs; straighten one arm and the opposite leg, extending both limbs parallel to the floor while keeping your torso and hips in a straight line. Hold for 5 seconds, and then lower your working limbs and repeat with the opposite arm and leg. That’s one rep.
Back Extension
For this exercise you’ll need a Swiss ball. Lie with your abs and chest on the ball, your back rounded, and your legs straight behind you, braced against the base of a wall. Fold your arms across the ball (or stretch them out in front of you for a greater challenge).Uncoil your torso until your chest is 2-3 inches off the ball.
Side Bridge
Lie on your non-dominant side. Support your weight with that forearm and the outside edge of that foot. Your body should form a straight line from head to ankles. Pull your abs in as far as you can, and hold this position for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side. (Note: just do one rep on each side for this exercise).
Jack-Knife
This movement also requires the use of a Swiss ball. Get into push up position with the tops of your feet and your shins on the ball and your hands on the floor. Pull your knees close to your chest letting the ball roll slightly forwards. Keep your arms straight and squeeze your abs hard at the top.
Summary
The 3-step programme outlined above will allow you to shape up your lower back quickly. The nutritional changes will allow you to stop piling unsightly fat around your lower middle, while the HIIT Cardio will super charge overall body-fat loss, including around lower back. Finally, the bodyweight strengthening exercises will allow your erector spinae to become strong bands of muscle that support and take the load off your spine. Not only will your lower back look stunning, it will do the vital job of keeping your core powerful – warding off debilitating aches and pains forever.
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