Foo - Recommended back exercises?

Well, went for another ride on a bike that I need to ride more often. Nearly strained my back again, due to being very out of shape due to work/home and other sedentary pursuits.

By chance, does anyone have a pointer to some back stuff that works? There is a lot of exercises listed on the Net, but I don't know about a number of them, if they are even effective.

Kneel on the floor. Put your hands on the floor so your legs are at a 90 degree angle (lower leg on the floor, thigh straight up). Head down, slowly sit back until your butt touches your feet. If you don't feel it slide your hands out further and arch your back.

Another one is to stand up straight and slowly let your hands hang down and try to touch your toes, then slowly come back up. If your back can lock up you may want to make sure someone is around just in case ;)

Pilates. Crunches.

Core strengthening will actually, physiologically loosen your back.

Sleep on your back with a pillow under your knees, or on your side with a pillow (or dog, cat, partner's leg, etc.) between your knees.

Pilates. Crunches.

Core strengthening will actually, physiologically loosen your back.
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+billion. Strengthening your abs will do wonders.

+billion. Strengthening your abs will do wonders.

Yup! :)

It's called "reciprocal inhibition." Basically, in order for the body to move a certain way when a muscle contracts, the opposing muscle is forced to relax. So, in order to do a crunch, your back muscles, which oppose your abs, need to relax.

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I use one of those big exercise balls to help with ab and back work. You can over extend your sit ups, really work on your balance (which helps your obliques), and flip over on your belly and do back extensions.

come shovel my driveway.

I recommend the book "Stretching" By Bob Anderson it has some really good back stretches and exercises in it

http://www.amazon.com/Stretching-20th-Anniversary-Bob-Anderson/dp/0936070226/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196710867&sr=1-2

Abs are important, but carryying your back with your abs will cause you some nasty bouts of constipation. What you want to do is exercise both. The easiest thing to do is lay stomach down on a chair, and put your legs under something convienient to hold you down, my favorite thing being a reclining chair's footrest. It's an improvised but highly functional way to do a weight room style back exercise. Just go up and down as much as you want or can, and hold weights to your chest to increase difficulty as desired. After many years of back problems, I developed a very strong back that way.