Welcome back to Get Fit Guy. I'm your host, Dr. Jonathan Sue. Every week, I'll share science-backed tips to help you get fit, stay fit, and optimized performance.

Have you ever stood up from a chair hours after a workout or gotten out of bed the morning after exercise to discover a stiff, achy, or painful lower back?

Few people can honestly answer no to this question, especially when you consider that low back pain is one of the most common reasons people visit health care

providers and nearly four out of five people will have it at some point in their lives.

Unfortunately, in proper form during exercise or overdoing it during a workout is an all too

common way to strain the lower back. Even as a physical therapist, I find myself

waking up more often than I like with a stiff and achy lower back the morning after a good workout.

If you're in your 40s or older like me, it's tempting to blame lower back pain on age. It's true

that the body changes in ways that we don't like

as we get older. But from my experience working with people from across the age spectrum,

there are usually more important reasons for post-workout lower back pain than age.

Most of the reasons for lower back pain after a workout are things that you can control.

Here are four common reasons your back might hurt after a workout and what you can do about

it.

Too much forward or backward bending of the spine.

By far, the most common reason for lower back pain after a workout is too much forward or backward

bending of the spine. Take a look at the people around you the next time you're at the gym,

and you'll see what I mean. Too much forward bending of the spine commonly happens when performing

exercises such as deadlifts, single-leg deadlifts, sit-ups, or crunches.

The lower back ends up bending forward too much, making a rounded shape which can strain

the lower back muscles and cause too much compression on the spine.

Too much backward bending of the spine commonly happens during exercises such as squats, overhead

...