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Low back pain is by far the most common source of discomfort we deal with. The irony is, a lot of times what we feel is rooted in the lower back is actually caused by muscles not in the back at all. In this video, I’m going to show you how the glute medius could be the real cause of your back pain and a quick exercise you can do to relieve your discomfort instantly. Once gone, I’m also going to show you a few additional exercises you can do to make sure your low back pain never returns.
The gluteus medius is sandwiched between the glute maximus and minimus and lies in and around the hip area. The role of the muscle is to abduct your hip or lift your leg out to the side in either standing or side lying and to keep your pelvis level whenever you take a step. Prolonged sitting during the day as well as an unequal weight distribution when standing are two of the most common reasons for this muscle to get weak and imbalanced.
You can quickly test to see if you have the makings of a weak glute medius by standing with your feet shoulder width apart and lifting one foot off the ground. First take note whether or not your opposite hip drops significantly. If it does, this would indicate a glute weakness on that side. You would repeat with the opposite foot as well. When you do this you would also want to see if you had to dramatically shift your weight to one side just to lift that foot off the ground. If you do, this would indicate that you have an unequal weight distribution when standing and it would be especially troublesome when squatting.
To fix this quickly, you will want to lay down on the ground with your affected side on top. If your right lower back was bothering you then you would want to lie on your left hip. From here, take your thumb and place it on the area most sore. You should feel that this is going to happen just to the outside of the bony prominence of your pelvis. From here, push to hold back the trigger point and start flossing your leg down and in front of you and then back and up. Your hip should be extended and then lifted into abduction towards the ceiling (being sure to point the toes down to keep the glute medius in focus). Do this about 10 times until you feel the tension in the muscle release.
Now, you can burn out the spasm in the trigger point by getting into the fully contracted position of the glute medius muscle and holding as long as you can. Generally, because this muscle is often very weak, this may not be any longer than 30 seconds to a minute. Once you cannot hold it any more you will stand up and you should notice an immediate relief of the pain on that side.
This is the quick but not permanent fix for this problem. Since the underlying cause is weakness in the gluteus medius muscle you will want to back this up with some exercises for your low back that you can do a few times a week. I show you three options for this. The first is the hip bump against the wall. The second is called the sack swinger, and can be done with a dog leash if you don’t have a formal dip belt. The last is actually doing the same movement that you did for the treatment, but this time as a strengthening exercise for your low back.
Whatever you do, just be sure you are consistent. You will also see that as you relieve the tension in this muscle that your squat performance improves as well. Your depth should be increased and any low back pain that you felt by doing the exercise should be gone since you will now be able to do them with equal force through each leg.
If you are looking for a program that puts the science back in strength in every workout, head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start not only looking like an athlete but feeling like one as you take your training serious and take your results to the next level.
If you are looking for more exercises and stretches for low back pain as well as workouts you can do with lower back pain, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at
55 replies to "How to Fix “Low Back” Pain (INSTANTLY!)"
Hi, these exercises helped with my sciatic nerve pain. Most importantly my son. Two years ago he had complications from brain surgery, fell into a coma and had to relearn everything. He does a lot of your exercises and they have helped so much. Thanks for everything that you do.
Cool
Wish you a good recovery
I recently almost got rid of my sciatic nerve pain using another one of Jeff’s videos. However just as that’s was going away I threw my back out this week and now I’m slowly recovering. Do you think this will with that also?
Found this video while looking desperately for a vid on how to relieve lower back pain, especially for where the sciatic nerve originates. Your comment helped me so much. I hope your son is recovering steadily! And thank you Jeff and team for sharing the knowledge! ♥️🙏🏼
Joe B what other video helped your pain?
Been suffering from low back pain for 7 years gone in minutes. God bless this guy from the bottom of my heart.
Just over 2 years for me. Have been doing prone press ups with no joy.
Tried this today and instant relief!
@Paul Smith which one helped most you think
Ivehad back pain for 12 month now , some days i can barely walk
@Fatima Hasan
Mee 2 same problem
No recovery
Thumb push on pain spot
4:10 10 times
5:09 Hold for as long as possible
6:35 10,12,15 reps once a day
7:27 sac walk
Legend
Thank for sharing Do we do this on both sides or only on that’s week or in pain ?
you’re right about burgers
Back pain is often a result of poor posture. Fix those flaws in 4 simple moves! => https://youtu.be/g-7ZWPCWv0U
@Marcus Dare uuuuuuuuuu
Jeff, if you read this please help me! I hurt my oblique swinging a bat in baseball. I believe I strained my left side. I’ve already rested a week and want to start working out but still feeling pain. Need your help and advice on this! Thank you sir!
I just done the 1st exercise only as nerves have been pinching me badly, crippling crying alot of the time as exercises r not removing it. Only walk 4 5 mins as burning intense pain cant bend leg and too painful to drive much.
This one exercise I feel better, amazed but I will do all of them slowly then increase as weeks goes on. Thankyou, Thankyou Thankyou
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Buddy I have a question for, I tore my sciatic merve in my right hip area way back in 1997, and my right shoulder is really dropped right down so, it looks like my right side is collapsing. Nearly two years my right shoulder had dropped so bad I started to do weights, I really enjoy watching your videos and copying the exercises that you show us. I’ve really started to tone up now cause it took a little while because I’ve just turned 60 years of age, my question is how can I lift my right shoulder back up, so it’s level with my left shoulder, I would be very great full if you could give me some advice buddy that’s all, and your videos are brilliant I really enjoy watching them, thank you buddy from Stevie boy in Britain.
I’ve been to 4 physical therapists and none of them suggested this was a muscle strength imbalance. I’ve been doing my own research and found articles that match exactly what you’re saying, thank you for providing strength training exercises! I’ve also been doing single leg presses to try to balance out. Ty!
Similar experience for me as well with chiro and pt. I could barely move for 2 days and I tried this and I’m able to move again.
Could you give us a link to those articles?
@Adcppk Sure! (Links at the end)
My overall learning path was:
1) Identifying pain was related to my SI Joint
2) Noticing one side was stronger, definite muscle imbalance
3) Noticing in myself my hips were uneven; Standing I looked down at my feet and saw my pelvis was rotated relative to my torso rotation, one leg also more forward
That BLEW MY MIND how had I never noticed that in myself?!
4) Then I found Scoliosis contributes to all of the above
5) Then found Scoliosis can be functional (muscles, posture habits) or structural (bones)
I worked really hard on:
i) Actively un-twisting my pelvis, that put weight more evenly on my legs. Within a day my “weaker” leg muscles were burning (in a good way, using them!)
ii) Doing exercises to strengthen weak side
iii) Stretching
Most PTs only focused on stretching, but actively thinking about my posture (similar to having to remind yourself to “think tall”) is what fixed it for me. Apparently this was also adding strain to my neck and that’s better too. So much pain for what would be considered “mild” functional scoliosis
These are some the articles in the order of how I made discoveries, the Erik Dalton one is really good
SI joint biomechanics when there’s a muscle imbalance
Fig 5 illustrates how one side is tighter but stronger
https://erikdalton.com/blog/sacroiliac-joint-syndrome/
Twisted pelvis
This contributed to a leg length difference that caused SI joint pain
https://www.lower-back-pain-answers.com/twisted-pelvis.html
Scoliosis
Shows how a leg disparity contributes to SI joint pain
https://releasemuscletherapy.com/is-a-short-leg-contributing-to-your-sacroiliac-joint-pain/
Scoliosis
How to see if you have it
https://scoliosis3dc.com/2015/06/02/signs-of-scoliosis/
Scoliosis signs
What it feels like to have it
https://www.scoliosisreductioncenter.com/blog/how-can-you-tell-if-you-have-scoliosis
Scoliosis
Functional vs Structural; My case was functional aka my posture was bad vs Structural meaning your bones are formed that way
https://www.scoliosissos.com/blog/functional-vs-structural-scoliosis-whats-the-difference/
Sorry for the essay! This whole thing took me years to figure out and if anything helps someone else figure something out I’m happy to share
@Johana Escudero Goddamn, thank you so much. I wish you health, wealth and happiness.
Took me an hour to get out of bed, and I barely made it. Have been lying on the floor doing some exercises and stretching for 4 hours, but nothing helped until I did these exercises. Wow! Instant pain relief, I’m standing up as I type this and don’t feel the need to cling onto anything for support. Thank you so much! Thank you thank you thank you!
How’s the progress?
@GeniusVadim I can say I was the same. It was painful to move. It helped instantly. Definitely do all the exercises you won’t regret it
I just want to THANK YOU. seriously I have tears rolling down my cheeks typing this. Your exercise recommendations literally took away my back pain that I’ve been suffering from for months! People, if you’re reading this comment, THIS WORKS!!
I am absolutely thankful too. May you always be blessed, happy and healthy.
I went to emergency hospital cause I wasn’t even able to walk or move, was in extreme pain. Since three years ago, I always turn to this video when I am in pain again. Thank you so much
However one question, now I am pregnant and the pain kicks in really bad, how long would it take to have a strong back again ? Thank you
How long did you do the workout?
I hardly ever leave comments on videos, but I feel like I owe this man personally. The relief I feel after just a few minutes of “flossing” (I think that’s what he called it) this muscle seems unreal. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude! Thank you for sharing your wisdom 😩🙌🏽
“Flexing”
But it’s important to floss too.
10 years of agony gone with a 10 minute video. Thank you soo much man. Im gonna share this video with whoever is having a lower back pain.
Permanently gone?
Is it still gone bro
Tweaked my back earlier this week trying to progress too quickly on DL. Getting out of bed has been so painful, and I’ve been limping/shuffling around like an old man. 10 minutes of video and 5 minutes of stretching later, feels 90% better. Thanks Jeff!
Same here will have to try this and see if I can resolve the issue caused from trying to DL and doing lots of reverse lunges but losing balance with going too heavy
Had trouble doing jumping jacks since past 3 days due to lower back pain, Gonna try these exercises tomorrow at my gym!
I know. I’m a pro basketball player. This is great news.
Legit the same happened to me man …. Didn’t wait just did these for 5 mins and there is so much relief now. Thank you Jeff!!
All of us here have experienced what you are/we’re feeling. Hope you’re back up and running.
Great workout! I had a really bad low back pain for a couple of days and was using pillows to lie down basically.. After doing these exercises I had a major relieve and could sleep at night! Thanks a lot <3
I was at the bottom of my staircase and couldn’t get up. I can’t believe this video gave me INSTANT relief to get up the stairs thank you so incredibly much!!! I will definitely do the recommended exercises!! THANK YOU!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks Jeff! I’ve been dealing with hip, leg,foot pain for months and after 3 sessions of your workout I am on way to recovery. You’re a lifesaver…funny and entertaining too.
proud to join in and say that also i have had “back” pain for 20 years and since watching this video and practicing these exercises for 3 days i am done with the pain 🙂 thank you so much Jeff and the AthleanX team!
How is it now
Dude! 4 years since you released this video and I just found it. I pulled that muscle area so hard today just walking my dog to the point to could barely move. I couldn’t even get my leg to the upward position at first 😂 but seriously just a few reps and I could move again. Thank you!
This is amazing. I tried it and it helped my lower back almost immediately!! Thank you❤
Jeff, this is absolutely insane! The amount of long-term happiness you’ve just afforded me in 10 minutes – legendary
Thank you so much for relieving this 6 year pain. After 10 minutes it was notably better 2 days in and I can finally tie my shoes again without feeling pain!!
That second exercise helped right away!!! The past three days I could barely walk around my apartment for more than three minutes before I had to lay down to stop the pain and within minutes of just doing that one exercise my lower left side feels so much better!!! Thank you so much.
I cannot believe how insanely much this helped me, i’ve been training pretty consistent and this has alway been a returning issue for me. This seriously gives instant relieve for when it’s bad. Thanks a lot!!