The Importance of Training The Posterior Chain

So many of my clients suffer from sore hips and lower back pain and in many cases it’s a result of over working the anterior muscles at the cost of the posterior chain.

The all important posterior chain includes the muscles that run from your foot, up through your calves, along the back, through your buttocks, lower back, along either side of your spine, finishing just under the skull.

A weakness in these muscles can result in lower back pain, and postural imbalance. When the glutes (the largest group of muscles in our body) are weak, the hamstrings and lumbar erector spinae muscles are placed under greater stress. When weak, these major muscles which work to stabilise and extend the hip, stop doing their work. The hip flexors then become overactive, resulting in an anterior tilt of the pelvis and a lordotic curve at the lumbar (lower) spine = an almost fail proof recipe for sore hips and lower back pain!

The following muscles make up the posterior chain so be sure you include them in your workouts to avoid any postural imbalance;

Calves, hamstrings, glutes, multifidus, external obliques, erector spinae, trapezius and posterior deltoids.

The following exercises are good examples to work the posterior chain and it’s definitely worth getting a fitness instructor or personal trainer to check your technique.

Barbell hip thrusts, Good morning. Kettlebell swings and Deadlifts.