Why Rest Alone Won’t Fix Your Back

And what actually helps: building strength in all directions

Back pain is one of the most common reasons people stop training, stop moving, or get told to “just rest.”While short periods of rest can calm acute irritation, rest and avoidance rarely fix the underlying problem—especially when pain keeps coming back.

In most cases, the real issue isn’t that your back is “too weak to move”…It’s that it’s not strong enough to move in all the ways life demands.

Your spine is built to move.And more importantly—it’s built to handle load while moving.

The real culprit: lack of strength, not movement

When we stop moving an area out of fear, the tissues don’t magically heal themselves into resilience. Instead, they often become:

• Less tolerant to load

• Less coordinated

• More sensitive when movement finally happens

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What usually helps long-term isn’t avoiding movement—but progressively exposing the spine to controlled, intentional strength work. Not just in one direction.But in all directions.

Train your back like it was designed to work

Your spine moves and stabilizes through multiple planes. A solid back-strength program should include controlled work in four main directions:

1. Extension

Learning to actively arch and focusing on recruiting the correct muscles for it without dumping all the work on your lower back is key for extension. When we do extension based drills such as the one demonstrated in the video we want to engage our glutes, legs, lower abs and back muscles. Yes, there will be lower back invloved but when we use the above mentioned muscles, the work will be more evenly distributed and less straining for the lower back.

2. Flexion — controlled rounding without fear

Flexion is another direction people are often told to avoid.But again—lack of exposure creates fragility.

Smart flexion training:

• Builds strength through spinal rounding

• Improves segmental control

• Reduces fear around bending and lifting

  
  

The Jefferson curl is a great way to start building strength in flexion. I always recommend people to start doing it with no added weight and gradually add some light resistance.

3. Side flexion — strength from left to right

• Side flexion work:

  • Improves spinal stability

  • Addresses left–right imbalances

  • Supports hips and ribs working together

  This is often a missing link in people with recurring back discomfort.

  
  

Great drill for improving side flexion is the one demonstrated in the video. It challenges both the core stability, as well as the hips and shoulders in an overhead position. Gradually you can add load overhead using a dumbbell or a weight plate.

4. Rotation — controlled twist, not stiffness

Rotation training:

• Improves coordination between ribs, spine, and pelvis

• Builds resilience for sport and daily movement

• Reduces the shock when rotation happens unexpectedly

  
  

The video below is great to teach the core to stabilise the spine in a rotational movement. Start without any weight and focus on keeping the body flexed and the core engaged. Gradually add light load such as a 3-5 kg dumbbell.

If resting your back truly fixed the issue, the pain wouldn’t keep returning.

If you want to build a resilient back that can move in all directions and don´t know how to approach it don´t hesitate to contact me!