“People go to the gym and lift weights, and if their quads are killing them for a few hours after or even the next day, it’s seen as a sign of a hard workout. When it’s the muscles in their lower back, people tend to panic, questioning if they did something wrong or if it was too much.

“Usually, it will just be the same muscle soreness from training any other muscle, but the panic means more avoiding, and more avoiding means more pain.”

How to build a stronger lower back

Move through all ranges

Who here has heard that they should always maintain a ‘straight spine’ when they exercise? While that’s the correct instruction for many exercises, it shouldn’t be the only way we move.

“Make sure your training isn’t limited to a neutral spine. Flex, extend, rotate and bend – that’s literally what your spine is designed to do, and by moving through all these patterns you’ll build a strong back that doesn’t struggle to carry a kid or catch a ball or climb a mountain or whatever you want to do with it,” Varvarides says.

Should you strengthen your lower back? 4 moves to strengthen your low back