Back Pain News

Let me explain my issue in a bit more depth for you. I have not made a concerted effort to work out that didn’t fizzle after s few months and a large part of the reason is issues that came out of any attempt to strengthen my abs that I have undergone. When I try to do ab exercises I find it nearly impossible to not work my abs and instead I end up causing pain to my lower back.
I have tried the whole imprint idea from Pilates which the instructor told me I was doing correctly. I have tried using crunches as well. Sit ups are difficult and hurt my back even more quickly than crunches. In addition, any exercise that requires me to lift my legs up into the air completely ruins any imprint that I may have been doing. As soon as my legs are up my imprint is gone. It is more than Pilates related work though. I have tried a body sculpting class that is more of a high paced movement class than the Pilates fusion class. I have tried various exercises from a weight training class. That was absolutely the worst. We started out doing bicycles and then modifying that into more difficult exercises. Most of the time I get lots of low back pain and only rarely do I actually feel any burning in my abs or soreness the next day.
The pain I get in my back is what makes me stop because of what kind of pain it is. It isn’t just, “Oh I am a little sore from not being used” or “I am burning because I am being worked” or even “wow this is difficult pain. It is more along the lines of “This feels unnatural and I need to arch and contract to properly do this action (even though it isn’t supposed to be obviously)” pain. I guess a less animated way of describing it is that my back feels as if it is straining and in addition to that the actions is is doing are out of not otherwise being able to successfully complete an action.
I have had different people tell me different things and I don’t really know what to believe at this point. I have heard that it is natural, which I am inclined not to believe because even when I try to fight through the back issue (rarely), I don’t usually feel any work actually being done to my abs. I have been told that it is just because my abs are so weak that my lower back needs to support them which does make some sense. I really don’t know and even at that nobody has yet to be able to give me a way to resolve this problem.
I am now enrolled in swordmanship classes and most of the actions we perform there come from utilization of the core muscles. For that reason I would like to improve them as much as is possible and I would most certainly like to continue with exercising. It seems that I get less involved with a physical activity once working out for it stops working.
Alright, sorry for all of the details but I don’t think that people usually have all of the information to address the entire issue, now I turn to you. First of all what do you think is causing my lower back to hurt when I try to do ab exercises? How would you suggest that I do about working on it? If part of the issue is just that mat work is in some way too difficult for my body at this point what alternatives would you suggest to me?
Oh and I should add that knee issues and lower back issues, such as and/or related to bad posture are very common in my family. That is part of the reason that any straining back pain concerns me so much.
Thank you!