Ah, the good ol’ friend of every Jiujiteiro – pain. If you’ve been training BJJ for a while, something is going to start hurting; whether it’s your shoulder, your elbow, your neck, or your back. And no wonder! As you roll, you’re placed in all sorts of these weird positions, in which you have to use force to either defend or submit people.
But the trouble begins when the pain becomes long-lasting, and when it starts posing problems not just to your Jiu Jitsu, but to your whole life… With the lower back pain being one of the biggest problem-carriers in this regard.

Let’s take a look at two things that you can do to solve lower back pain.

GET YOUR LOWER BACK CHECKED OUT BY A DOCTOR FIRST

However, a word of precaution first. The following advice is rather general and will help a lot of people, most of the time – not everyone, all the time. Especially not those who are injured.
And, because you can’t know if your lower back pain is due to injury or something else, your best bet is to take a trip to the doctor’s office; and ask him/her what you should do.

The last thing you want to do is put your spine through additional workloads. What if one, or more of your discs, are compromised?
Go to your doctor and ask for recommendations. Better safe than sorry.

FLEXIBILITY AND STRETCHING

Now, the first concrete step that you can do to alleviate pain in your lower back is to improve your flexibility. You need to stretch.
But, you may be asking: „How am I supposed to stretch my lower back? Isn’t that difficult to do?“ Well, it isn’t too difficult – but it’s not what you’re going to stretch out anyway.

You see, doctors are well acquainted with a simple fact; that the location of pain doesn’t have to be the source of pain. In other words, just because your lower back hurts, it doesn’t have to necessarily mean that you’re having problems with your lower back!
Instead, a lot of Jiujiteiros are suffering from this pain due to tight hamstrings and tight hip flexors.

So, if you can stretch out and work on the flexibility of these two areas frequently, you’ll quickly notice that a lot (if not all) of your lower back pain will disappear! Just make sure to stretch regularly, every day if possible.
Here are two videos, one with an effective stretch for your hip flexors, and the other one with a couple of stretches for your hamstrings:

CORE AND GLUTES – STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE

Other than the lack of flexibility and, therefore, hindered mobility, the biggest thief of your lower back’s happiness is the lack of strength and endurance. More specifically, it’s the lack of strength and flexibility in two of  arguably the most important muscle groups: your core and glute muscles.
These two muscle groups – and especially the core (there’s a reason why it’s called the „core“) – are incredibly important in carrying you throughout the day. Quite literally carrying you; keeping you upright and moving around with as much efficiency and as least strain as possible. So what happens when they’re weak? Your lower back takes on more of the load than it should, which results in pain and injuries.

To prevent this from happening, simply work out your core and glute muscles regularly, at least 3 times per week. Here are two great videos on strengthening them to get you started:

Pair the strength with the flexibility work, and you’re going to get rid of that lower back pain fast!

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