Your core isn’t weak; you’re just bracing too much

You’ve been doing your core work. You’ve built up your plank time. You’re engaging your abs. So why does your lower back still hurt? 

Planking teaches your core one thing—how to brace and hold. But daily life doesn’t work like that! You’re not holding still all day. You’re twisting to grab something off a shelf, bending to tie your shoes, and rotating to look behind you. 

You have back pain because you need to learn how to move your core. 

The real story behind back pain injuries 

Acute injuries usually come from too much load being borne by one part of the back; a part that’s not ready for it. 

We call this the “socks moment”. 

Say you can hold a plank for two minutes. You assume your core is strong and your back is protected. But one day you reach down to put your socks on, and bam: pain. 

It wasn’t the socks. It was the fact your core only knows how to brace in one position. You haven’t been twisting side-to-side or moving your spine through different ranges. So when you turned your ribcage and reached your arm down, your back got confused. 

The segments that should have helped distribute the load weren’t available—because they’d never been trained to move. 

What makes lower back pain chronic? 

What makes lower back pain chronic is what happens after the injury: 

• You brace up and protect the area 

• You don’t learn to unbrace once the area is healed 

• Fear and pain encourage continued bracing and pain persists 

Bracing the muscle around an injury is essential for healing. But if you don’t learn to unbrace that area, the pain continues. This is where gentle movements based around the spine, like those in Pilates, can help. 

Why engaging your core isn’t the answer to back pain 

The fitness industry often pushes this dogmatic view that you always have to engage your core. You don’t. 

The amount of core activation should be matched to the amount of load that you’re putting through. Try a little activity: stand up and swing your arms side to side.  

Now pick up a couple of weights; one in each hand. And swing your arms from side to side again. 

Notice how your body braced when the weight was added.  

Your core adapts to the load. You don’t constantly need to brace or force your core to engage. For people with long term back pain, they’ve often spent so much time bracing to protect their back that they’ve lost mobility—and that’s what makes the pain and stiffness persist. 

Their hips are stiff, their upper back is stiff; they need to focus on moving every segment of the spine. When this happens, their core naturally starts to work better again.  

What spinal articulation does that planking doesn’t 

Articulation means moving as many segments of the spine as possible. When you have good articulation, any movement (including weight training) will be shared evenly through your spine. 

Think about coming into a heavy squat. You’ll likely brace to create rigidity in the back, making moving that weight easier. 

In functional training with lighter weights (or Pilates reformer training!), your core is required to adapt, not brace. And your spine is able to articulate better. 

Both exercises are great! But if you just do strength exercises without addressing movement, your body will keep defaulting to the same segments it always uses.