Home / Guides

How Often to Do Back Extensions for Lower Back Strength

For lower back strength, do back extensions two or three times a week with at least one rest day between sessions. That is the schedule this program uses, and the lumbar-extension studies below found strength rose with training as seldom as once a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday works. So does Tuesday and Saturday. A session takes about 10 minutes. The app does not lock days, so keeping the rest days is up to you.

The schedule by stage

The progression guide covers what each stage involves.

Why a day between sessions

The program reads the next morning to set the next session. Train on back-to-back days and the second session happens before you have that reading, so two changes stack up before you can see what the first one did. A rest day also gives ordinary training soreness time to settle.

A good week makes an extra day tempting. In the sample training log, the one extra session in the month comes right before the flare.

If you have a 45-degree bench and want each dose set from your log, the app does that. The program needs a 45-degree back-extension bench. The first guided session in Low Back Pain Coach is free, and without a plan the pain log, lessons and flare-up help stay free. After that it is $59.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with a 7-day free trial for eligible new subscribers. Week one on the bench shows the first session first.

Can you do back extensions every day?

This program does not schedule back extensions daily. Train again before the next morning's pain log and that session has no next-morning reading from the dose before it. In the Graves study below, every training group gained isometric lumbar strength, including the group that trained once every two weeks. Two or three sessions a week, with a rest day between them, is what the in-app guide says. The app leaves the days to you.

What the frequency studies found

Graves and colleagues trained 114 adults on an isolated lumbar-extension machine for 12 weeks, in groups that trained every other week, once, twice, or 3 times a week. Every training group gained lumbar strength compared with the group that did not train, with no statistical difference among them, though the every-other-week group's training weights rose less. The authors concluded that once a week was enough to build lumbar-extension strength.

Tucci and colleagues then took 50 people who had trained for 10 or 12 weeks and cut them to one session every 2 or every 4 weeks, at the same effort and volume. Their strength held for the 12 weeks of the study. The 10 people who stopped training lost much of theirs.

Both studies used machines that hold the pelvis still, and both measured strength, not back pain. They show that lumbar strength responds to infrequent training. They do not set a schedule for a 45-degree bench or for a sore back.

Why the program uses two or three

Once a week built strength in those studies. The program still uses 2 or 3 sessions because each one is small and each one produces a next-morning reading, and more readings let the dose change in smaller steps. The ACSM position stand on resistance training also recommends 2 to 3 days a week for beginners.

Maintenance

After 6 or more weighted sessions, once your pain logs on at least 5 different days of the past 14 are all at or below baseline, the app offers maintenance. It is only offered on Stage 4, and if you say not now it waits at least 14 days to ask again. Maintenance is about two sessions a week at your current load. A log above baseline switches it off, and the normal rules take over.

Two a week is more than the Tucci study needed. I keep it there because it keeps the movement familiar and keeps pain logs coming, so drift shows up early.

Missed sessions

Do not make up missed sessions by stacking them. After 7 or more days off, the app eases the next session whatever the logs say, and the next-morning logs bring the dose back up from there.

The app