The key here is not to overwork yourself, do not hold your breath, and do not strain. Start supported on all fours, resting evenly on your hands and knees. Create some tension in your abdomen by gently drawing your tummy upwards to a more flat position. Slowly ‘ float’ one hand off the floor and raise the hand upwards and infront of you. Do not let your back sag or move during this exercise.  Then lower your hand to the start position. Repeat again straight away slowly and smoothly with your other hand.

TIP; When you have mastered this exercise, try generating the same abdominal tension in other ‘every day’ activities if you tend to experience back pain during these activities.

How many how often?

Try to do this exercise for around a minute, slowly raising and lowering alternate arms as the instruction suggests. Then rest and as soon as you feel able, repeat again 3 – 5 times.

What is the benefit of this exercise?

When you are suffering with low back pain the muscles which support  the deepest elements of your back don’t work very well, and your back can feel weak or unstable / unsupported. By doing this exercise you can keep engaging these important muscles, essentially keeping hem ‘turned on’.
This will assist both how you move and the pain during movements.

What can I expect to happen?

Hopefully this exercise will help directly with an overall reduction in low back pain. You might feel that your other back movements are assisted by the benefits of this exercise as your deep muscle activity (lumbar core stability) improves.

Works best with?

Walking, and to be done with any of the lumbar mobilising exercises.