Back pain from arch ups

A couple of days ago when practicing arch ups, I experienced back pain that was so bad that I could barely finish my workout because my back was tight, stiff, and painful. This pain and stiffness have been occurring for a few days now that has been interfering with my training, but I came across a video demonstrating how weak glutes can cause back pain. Today, I did some leg lifts and other exercises that focus on the medial glute and found that this provided me with some temporary relief and greater range of motion in my back which leads me to believe that I have weak glutes that I need to focus on. I nervously performed a few experimental reps of arch ups while focusing on contracting the medial glute along with muscles in the back and found this to be easier. I was wondering if this was a good idea and proper form to contract the medial glutes during arch ups? 

Hi Devon,

Actually, the glutes main purpose is to extend the hips.  As you said, when the glutes don't active in extension, then the back takes the work. We also see a lot of this with people in APT.

Normally in the arch-ups, your glutes should activate for the first part of the movement, then the back. 

In your case, I would suggest you to look for a therapist to fix this before injuries occur.  The glutes are big stabilizers, they have to be strong!

You will want to initiate the lift with a strong glute contraction, then the back can help finish the movement. Think about thrusting the hips forward into the pad. The low back should not be the prime mover for hip extension but will compensate in this scenario that someone has weak glutes or an improper firing pattern.

Some of the sPL and SLS iM progressions may be good to perform extra of, many of them work the glutes.

Thank you, Etienne and Daniel! I don't think I was using the glutes at all when performing this exercise, but when started contracting the glutes at the beginning the movement it felt much better.

Just a general remark re: glute activation/awareness: I have a desk job and I made it a habit to actively engage my glutes whenever I take a short walk. I find that this enhances my posture and relaxes my hips and hip flexors, and it reminds the body what it feels like to engage the gluteal musculature in the context of general movement. I started doing this after reading that inactive glutes can also cause hamstring tightness (because they take over hip extension activity), which in turn can be a limiting factor when trying to engage in APT (e.g. during pancake work).

39 minutes ago, Michaël Van den Berg said:

Just a general remark re: glute activation/awareness: I have a desk job and I made it a habit to actively engage my glutes whenever I take a short walk. I find that this enhances my posture and relaxes my hips and hip flexors, and it reminds the body what it feels like to engage the gluteal musculature in the context of general movement. I started doing this after reading that inactive glutes can also cause hamstring tightness (because they take over hip extension activity), which in turn can be a limiting factor when trying to engage in APT (e.g. during pancake work).

Thanks for the input! I am going to give this a try.

You will notice that engaging the glutes while walking causes your pelvis to 'swing' a bit. Just let it happen. As an additional bonus, I noticed that slightly elongating my spine (walking 'tall', without lifting the ribcage) while engaging the glutes during walking also provides a little stretch to the psoas. Not a bad thing in my opinion!

On 2018-03-12 at 3:18 PM, Daniel Yarnes said:

You will want to initiate the lift with a strong glute contraction, then the back can help finish the movement. Think about thrusting the hips forward into the pad. The low back should not be the prime mover for hip extension but will compensate in this scenario that someone has weak glutes or an improper firing pattern.

Some of the sPL and SLS iM progressions may be good to perform extra of, many of them work the glutes.

Agreed. Try for example Straddled Donkey kicks (im from Planche in F1) these have helped me with this issue.

3 hours ago, Mats Trane said:

Agreed. Try for example Straddled Donkey kicks (im from Planche in F1) these have helped me with this issue.

Thanks! I will definitely work on these.