The 3 Core Strength Tests Every Back Pain Sufferer Should Try

[00:00:00]One of the biggest myths in back pain is that you need a strong core. But what people actually need isn't core strength, it's core endurance. Today, I'm putting my own core to the test using three of the most researched endurance tests ever [music] created.

[00:00:13]And by the end of this video, we'll know if my core is actually strong enough to meet the standards of a healthy spine.

[00:00:19]Let's try.

[00:00:23]In test number one is our side plank endurance test. [music] This primarily focuses on lateral chain stability.

[00:00:28]Primarily the QL muscle, the quadrus lumboreum and the glute meet. The QL is a deep abdominal muscle which is a primary spine stabilizer. It controls lateral flexion and spinal extension and attaches from the hipbone, the illium to the lumbar spine and bottom rib. The glute me assists in hip abduction and connects from the illium to the femur.

[00:00:49]For this particular test, holding the [music] plank under 15 seconds means low endurance. 15 to 29 seconds is developing. 30 to 59 is moderate. 60 to 89 is good. And 90 seconds or more is considered excellent. The goal is to hold for over 90 seconds. And for there to be no greater than a 5% difference between sides. Let's see where I land.

[00:01:09]All right, here we go. How long do you think I can hold this? Comment right now below and whoever's closest wins a cookie. I'm going to set my timer. Let's do this. 1 2 3 go.

[00:01:26]>> [music] >> And remember, the point of this is not seeing how much your core can lift. It's how long the muscles can stabilize your spine. This is an endurance test, not a strength test. [music] Doing okay so far.

[00:01:48]25 seconds in.

[00:01:53]>> [music] >> Starting to feel some tension build.

[00:01:57]Starting to shake a little bit. It's actually harder to balance this with both feet stacked as opposed to one being in front or back.

[00:02:08]Way through if I want to get to excellent.

[00:02:15]Trying to keep a straight spine.

[00:02:19]Oh, I'm feeling that right QL. Oh yeah, I'm feeling it.

[00:02:24]Minute must not 115.

[00:02:40]Almost to 90 plus. That's the goal.

[00:02:43][groaning] Oh, I'm slipping.

[00:02:49]Almost to 90.

[00:02:52]That's 90 seconds right there. 10 more for extra card. Let's see if I can get it. Oh, it's burning. Oh my gosh, it's burning so much.

[00:02:59]Four, three, two, one. Okay, so 100 seconds.

[00:03:08]Oh, that was decent. Let's look at the chart right here. That score is an excellent. However, I got to compare both sides. And I need to be within 5% on both sides. Will I make it? We'll find out. Got to do it again. If I can't get within 5% of the first side, I'm in trouble. Let's do it. Three, two, one, let's go.

[00:03:47]>> [music] >> The good news is this is probably the longest I've ever done any form of side plank in my life and probably going to be the last.

[00:04:01]25 seconds right there. So far feels comparable to the first side.

[00:04:17]must get within 5 seconds.

[00:04:22]Not 5 seconds, 5%.

[00:04:30]Still pretty comparable to the other side so far.

[00:04:35]That's 60 seconds right there. I need 40 more. Oh my gosh.

[00:04:49]It just feels like my left QL is just cramping. Just getting tighter and tighter. Oh, 20 more seconds if I want to match it. Oh, I'm trying not to fall down.

[00:05:02]Getting wobbly.

[00:05:05]That's 90 seconds right there. 10 more.

[00:05:07]Oh, I think I'm going to get it.

[00:05:17]Oh. Oh. Okay, we did it. Oh, success.

[00:05:24]Both QL's are successfully roasted, but [music] I hit the excellent target and we're within 5%. So, I'm safe so far. Test number two, trunk flexor endurance test. This is for frontal plane stability. This tests the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and obliques. These control spinal flexion bending forward. To conduct this test, put your back support to 60 degrees.

[00:05:51]Have an assistant remove the support and hold. The goal is two minutes.

[00:05:55]>> I'm genuinely more nervous about this one than the last test. If if I don't make it to 90 seconds, feel free to roast me in the comments. Okay, here we go. 3 2 1 go. [music] This is where you really start to determine if you're topheavy or not.

[00:06:17]I should have just only trained legs for like a year before this so I'd have a better counter anchor because I feel like my hip flexors can't keep up with the weight of my upper body and I think that's a significant advantage disadvantage.

[00:06:34]All right, 40 seconds.

[00:06:38]Oh, [music] >> halfway. A little over halfway. Oh my gosh, I want to fall back. I might have lost. I don't know if I lost. The goal is to not move your spine or hip position at all.

[00:07:00]See, most people think a six-pack equals spinal stability.

[00:07:05]It doesn't. A guy can maybe bust out 50 sit-ups, [music] but A guy could maybe bust out 50 sit-ups, but still completely fail this test.

[00:07:20]I'm probably at like 75° now.

[00:07:24]Yeah, this feels like more hip flexor than anything. At this point, my hip flexors were roasting marshmallows, and frankly, I wasn't sure if I had failed or not. You tell me.

[00:07:33]>> How do I look? I wish I had a mirror.

[00:07:37]Oh. Oh, my hips are dying. Oh, my hips are totally dying.

[00:07:43]Oh, that's 90 seconds.

[00:07:46]My feet are literally floating on the ground. I don't even know what they're touching anymore.

[00:07:51]Oh gosh.

[00:07:55]Oh, if I can go a little bit more. Oh, let's Oh, yeah. Okay. I lost. Oh, I started to fall apart. Oh.

[00:08:05]That was again late to stop, but a minute 45, which puts us Oh, I actually want to be at 2 minutes.

[00:08:17]Man, I forgot the I forgot the parameter. If I knew it was 2 minutes, I probably could have hung on for like another 8 seconds, maybe. But I think I lost it anyway. [music] I think I tilted too far back. And I think that counts as losing position. Oh, it's the hips. Oh, more than anything, I feel like I didn't feel my core that much. That was just a freaking hip flexor workout, which most of you need to train more anyway. Hey, real quick. I know you are struggling with pain and obviously want to fix it.

[00:08:45]So, if you just text me the word pain to 317751-9509, I will send you my free back pain fix demo. Just text that number and you can fix your pain. Thank me later. Back to the show. Now, this test actually isn't complete. This has to be compared to the third and final test because there's specific ratios that you want to achieve between tests that determine the final result. Looking back on this footage, I don't think I actually passed this.

[00:09:13]Pretty sus if you ask me. And test number three is the lumbar extension hold test. This tests your posterior chain. This primarily works your spinal erectors which connect here to there [music] and this pulls your spine into extension. The setup for this test is to put the superior aspect of the iliac crest on the edge of the table or bench.

[00:09:32]If you're not sure where this is, just grab both hands, push them into your side, and then push down until you feel the top of your hipbone. The goal is to have someone support your feet and extend your back up, keeping a straight line from your hip to your shoulder. For men, you want to hold this for 2 and 1/2 minutes. And for women, the goal is 3 minutes, [music] which is genuinely intimidating.

[00:09:49]>> All right, this is it. The final test of core endurance. But 2 and 1/2 minutes?

[00:09:54]Really? Comment below if you think I can get this. I genuinely do [music] not know. I can deadlift 500 lb on a weekly basis, but I have no idea if I can hold this. Only one way to find out. Let's do this. All right, so I got my hips lined up right at the edge. I got Daniel over here to hold my feet down. You do need a partner for this one. And let's see what happens here. Ready? Three, two, one, let's go.

[00:10:22]The 2 and 1/2 minute journey begins while holding. [music] Now this is one of the most researched tests in lower back pain.

[00:10:41][music] The interesting thing is that most people with low back pain score significantly [music] lower than those that don't have pain.

[00:10:53][music] Another fun fact, if you score less than 176 seconds, there's a probability that you will experience low back pain within the next year.

[00:11:19]If you score greater than 198 seconds, chances are you will not experience low back pain.

[00:11:26]And on that note, I'm only a little over a minute. Oh my gosh, that's actually insane.

[00:11:36]Yeah, I'm starting to sweat.

[00:11:39]I'm sure I was slowly dipping. Oh, I'm feeling you start to slip. I need your pressure.

[00:11:46]Oh.

[00:11:48]Oh, yeah. Are you Are you losing pressure?

[00:11:52]Oh my gosh. I'm sweating. [music] Yeah.

[00:11:54]I need I need your force, dude. Oh, I'm going to give him a workout. There you go. That's That's easier. Oh my gosh.

[00:12:01]Almost two minutes.

[00:12:04]Fight for me, Daniel. I need you. Oh.

[00:12:09]Oh my gosh, that's almost two minutes.

[00:12:15]Got to keep it up. That's 2 minutes right there. Can I get 30 more seconds?

[00:12:18]I don't know. I'm sweat.

[00:12:24]I think I'm still parallel, but I don't know. I might not be parallel at all. Oh no, I'm pretty low. Oh gosh, I think I lost.

[00:12:32]15 more seconds.

[00:12:34]I think [music] I lost though.

[00:12:37]10 5 4 Okay.

[00:12:50]>> Okay. So, honestly, I don't know if I failed that or not. It's highly possible that I did. It was very difficult. Oh, I just got so aheaded. Oh my gosh.

[00:13:00]Whoa. I just got super aheaded.

[00:13:04]Oh, that's what endurance does see, I guess. So, it is quite possible better to not get two and a half minutes. I'm going to have to look at the footage, see where my back was at, cuz you're supposed to stay parallel, like a straight line from your ankle to your hips to your shoulders the whole time.

[00:13:18]I'm going to have to look at it. Might have failed. [music] I might have succeeded, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless. Okay, now the real calculations. There's a formula to these three tests and how they line up, which determines if you are within healthy ranges for your spine or not. The first one was being within 5% of both sides of the side plank endurance test, which I succeeded. The second one is the side bridge to extensor ratio, where you divide the time by your side bridge by the extensor test, and you want it to be 75 or less. So, let's see. So, my side bridge was 100 seconds cuz it was a minute 40. My extensor test, which is a little bit sketchy. We still don't know if it counted. We got to review the footage was 2 1/2 minutes, which is 150 seconds. So, we're going to do 100 / 150, which puts me at 666. So, I'm 75 or less. So, technically I fall within that range. Now, obviously, this goes with context because if you can only do a few seconds [music] on sidebridge, but you can do a minute or more with extensor, obviously you still failed SideBridge.

[00:14:25]So you still want your metrics to fall within the acceptable ranges of these, but then you want the ratios to align as well. So so far I'm two for two. And the third ratio is flexor by extensor strength. And you want this to be about equal. So what that means is the flexion endurance test. You want to be close to equal but no less than.8 of the extensor test. So, my flexion test was a minute 45, I think is what we're at, which is 105 seconds. And we're going to divide that by the again sketchy extensor test, which was 150 seconds. And already based on the amount of algebra that I know that's not going to match up. So 105 divided by 150 is.7.

[00:15:11]I am below 80%. [music] So I have failed the third specific ratio for flexor to extensor strength.

[00:15:19]Now, what surprised me the most wasn't [music] which test was hardest. It was how much harder endurance can be than strength and how often we don't train like this. Lifting heavy is fun, and it's important, but [music] many of us are not training endurance, especially within our spine. Now, if you are dealing with low back pain, you might not be able to perform these tests. And even if you are, you want to make sure that this approach is the right one for you because many cases of low back pain, disc herniations, and sciatica are not going to be resolved by packing muscle around the spine or improving core endurance because that doesn't change the function and the movement of your spine. So, if you want to know exactly what is causing your pain and then exactly what you need to do [music] to not only reduce your pain fast, but then bulletproof it the right way, then I'd love to help you. So, if you want to dive deeper with me to get a structured plan to healing, just text me the word pain to 317-751-9509 [music] and you can get a tailored step-by-step plan to permanently fix your back or satica issues following our [music] centralization process. And this process on average produces 37% reduction in pain in a single session. And [music] some of our clients, 100% elimination of symptoms within as little as 15 days.

[00:16:30][music] So, text me right now so you don't miss this opportunity to finally get painfree and get strong again. And after you text me, please like the video, subscribe [music] if you haven't already, follow me on Instagram at rehabfix for more free daily videos and insights into my life and what I'm doing to get myself and our [music] clients bulletproof. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you on the next one and I'll see some of you in our program real soon.