Exercise is good for you. I’m not here to argue against that. But the idea that all exercise is beneficial regardless of your spinal condition, your movement quality, or the neurological state of the muscles being asked to perform the movement — that’s an assumption that sends a steady stream of people through my clinic door.
What I see consistently is people who are doing the right thing — training regularly, trying to stay strong, following popular fitness advice — and making their back worse in the process. Not because exercise is bad, but because the specific movements they’re doing are loading structures that are already compromised, in patterns that the nervous system can’t yet properly control.
This article is about understanding why that happens — and why the question isn’t simply ‘which exercises should I avoid’ but rather ‘why is my back failing to handle movements it should be able to manage’.
The Real Problem Isn’t the Exercise — It’s the Neurological State of the Spine
Before getting into specific movements, I want to make a point that I think is more important than any list of exercises to avoid.
The lumbar spine is not a passive structure that simply gets compressed or strained when loaded incorrectly. It is a neurologically active system, governed by constant motor output from the cortex and brainstem, with the surrounding musculature providing dynamic stability in real time. When that neurological control is intact — when the right muscles are firing in the right sequence at the right time — the spine handles significant loads without injury.
When that control is compromised — when cortical output to the stabilising muscles is reduced, when the muscles are neurologically inhibited rather than fully functional — even moderate loads in familiar movement patterns can produce injury or pain. The exercise isn’t inherently dangerous. The neurological state of the spine determines whether it can safely absorb what’s being asked of it.
This is why two people can perform the same exercise with identical technique, and one will be fine while the other develops significant back pain. And it’s why correcting technique alone — without addressing the underlying neurological picture — produces limited results for people with persistent exercise-related back pain.
With that context established, here are the movements I see causing the most problems in clinic, and the specific reasons why.
The Movements Causing the Most Problems in Clinic
The Deadlift
A Great Exercise Undone by One Specific Error
The deadlift is one of the most functional movements in strength training — it mirrors the pattern of picking something up from the floor, which is something the human body should be able to do well. Done correctly, it builds genuine posterior chain strength and teaches the spine to transfer load efficiently.
The problem I see most consistently is what happens at the top of the lift. In the final phase of the deadlift — as the person straightens up with the weight — many people roll the hips into posterior tilt, driving the lower back into hyperextension beyond neutral. Instead of finishing in a strong, stacked position, they lean back over the pelvis.
The iliolumbar ligament connects the L4–L5 vertebrae to the iliac crest, stabilising the pelvis and lumbar spine.
This movement places extreme compressive load on the iliolumbar ligament — a critical stabilising structure that connects the L4 and L5 vertebrae to the iliac crest of the pelvis. The iliolumbar ligament restricts and guides movement between the pelvis and the lumbar spine. When it’s strained through repeated posterior load at end range, the result is pain and stiffness across the lower lumbar and sacral areas that can be difficult to distinguish from discogenic pain. [1]
The same mechanism plays out in any exercise that drives the lower back into posterior hyperextension under load — certain cable rows, Romanian deadlifts performed with excessive lumbar extension, and behind-the-neck pressing movements all create similar risks.
The iliolumbar ligament injury pattern produces pain across the lower lumbar and sacral area that is often mistaken for disc pain or sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Identifying it correctly changes the management approach significantly.
Sit-Ups & Crunches
High Spinal Load for Minimal Return
Sit-ups and crunches remain among the most commonly prescribed abdominal exercises despite a considerable body of evidence suggesting they are among the worst choices for spinal health, particularly for anyone with existing back problems.
The mechanics are straightforward. As the spine flexes against resistance — which is precisely what a sit-up or crunch asks it to do — compressive load on the intervertebral discs increases significantly. Research by Dr. Stuart McGill at the University of Waterloo found that full sit-ups can generate spinal compressive forces well in excess of what the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health considers the limit for occupational lifting safety — and that the repetitive spinal flexion involved accelerates disc degeneration over time. [2]
For someone with an already compromised disc, or with reduced cortical control of the spinal stabilisers, this compressive flexion load is applied to a structure that cannot adequately protect itself. The result, over time, is worsening disc health regardless of how strong the superficial abdominal muscles become.
The further irony is that sit-ups and crunches are poor choices for genuine core stability — which requires the ability to resist movement rather than create it. The muscles that actually stabilise the spine under load (the deep multifidus, the transversus abdominis, the diaphragm) are not the primary movers in a crunch. Developing the appearance of a strong core without developing the neurological stability that actually protects the spine is one of the most common patterns I see.
The Bench Press
When Shoulder Position Becomes a Back Problem
The bench press as a back injury mechanism is one that surprises most people. But the connection is direct and I see it regularly.
When the shoulder is brought too far back during the eccentric phase of the bench press — allowing the scapula to retract excessively and the shoulder to drop below the level of the bench — the anterior shoulder capsule and pectoral attachments are loaded at end range. The body’s compensatory response is to increase lumbar extension, arching the lower back off the bench to protect the shoulder. Under load, this creates significant compressive force through the posterior lumbar elements.
The people most vulnerable to this are those with pre-existing shoulder dysfunction — rounded shoulder posture, anterior shoulder tightness, or rotator cuff inhibition — because their shoulder range of motion is already restricted, and the bench press pushes them into end-range positions that a well-functioning shoulder would handle without compensation. The back pays for what the shoulder can’t properly absorb.
Heavy Squats
Without Adequate Hip and Thoracic Mobility
The squat is a fundamental human movement pattern. The heavy barbell back squat is a different matter — and one that exposes any mobility deficits in the chain immediately.
The most common problem I see with squatting and back pain is butt wink — the posterior pelvic tilt that occurs at the bottom of the squat when hip mobility is insufficient to allow the pelvis to remain in neutral. As the pelvis tucks under, the lumbar spine is driven into flexion under axial load. This is among the most damaging positions for the intervertebral discs, and it occurs precisely at the point of maximum compressive load in the movement.
Thoracic mobility deficits compound this. Without adequate thoracic extension, the upper back cannot maintain an upright position during the squat, and the lumbar spine compensates by extending excessively to keep the torso vertical. The result is a movement that looks approximately correct from the outside but is distributing load through the lumbar spine in ways that progressively accumulate damage.
Desk Worker Mistakes
Exercise That Doesn’t Account for a Day of Sitting
This is a category that has become significantly more relevant since 2020, and one that I’m now seeing as frequently as gym-related presentations.
The pattern is consistent: someone works at a desk for eight or more hours a day, develops low back stiffness and pain, and then goes to the gym or follows an online exercise program to ‘fix’ it. The exercises they choose — often high-intensity, flexion-dominant movements — are applied to a spine that has spent the entire day in a flexed, compressed position. The muscles are already fatigued. The discs are already under load. The cortical control of the stabilisers is already reduced from hours of static sitting.
Exercising hard in this state doesn’t decompress the spine — it adds a different kind of load to an already depleted system. The back pain that results feels like an exercise injury but is actually the cumulative product of the entire day, with the exercise being the final provocation.
The timing and nature of exercise matters enormously for desk workers. Movement throughout the day — regular position changes, brief walks, postural resets — does more for spinal health than a single hard session at the end of a day spent in sustained compression. This is not about exercising less. It’s about understanding what a spine that has been sitting all day actually needs.
Why ‘Better Technique’ Is Necessary but Not Sufficient
The standard response to exercise-related back pain is to correct technique. And technique does matter — the iliolumbar ligament injury from deadlift hyperextension is a technique problem, and fixing the movement pattern reduces the risk.
But technique correction addresses the mechanical input without addressing the neurological output. If the muscles responsible for stabilising the spine during a given movement are neurologically inhibited — if they’re not firing properly because the cortical drive to them is reduced — perfect technique on the surface still results in inadequate dynamic stability under load. The spine looks like it’s being protected but isn’t.
This is the most important thing I want people to take away from this post: exercise-related back pain that keeps returning despite good technique, appropriate loading, and adequate rest is almost always a sign that the underlying neurological picture hasn’t been addressed. The spine is being asked to perform movements it doesn’t yet have the neurological resources to safely manage.
Nutritional factors contribute here too. Muscles that are metabolically depleted — through inadequate protein intake, micronutrient deficiencies, or chronic systemic inflammation — fatigue faster and lose their stabilising function under load more quickly. Exercise-related back pain that worsens with training frequency or intensity is often partly a nutritional recovery problem as much as a technique problem.
When to Get Assessed
If your back consistently hurts after exercise — or during it — and the standard advice (rest, ice, better technique, stronger core) hasn’t produced lasting improvement, the right step is a proper assessment of the neurological and structural picture.
The goal is not to stop exercising. It’s to understand what’s actually limiting the spine’s capacity to handle the exercise you want to do — and to address that directly, so that training becomes something that builds a healthy spine rather than a progressively more compromised one.
Book an assessment with Dr. Trevor Chetcuti at Spinewise → Book here
Book an Assessment with Dr. Trevor Chetcuti at Spinewise
Spinewise — Chiropractic Neurology & Functional Assessment
Book Here →Dr. Trevor Chetcuti is a chiropractor and clinical director at Spinewise, Maidstone, Victoria. He holds qualifications in BCSc, BAppSc(clinical), DIBAK, and CNET, with a special clinical interest in exercise-related spinal presentations, Applied Kinesiology, and the neurological and nutritional drivers of back pain and recovery.