Burpees and back pain
Burpees and back pain seems be a general assumption. Burpees are often criticized online as a “dangerous” exercise for the lower back. The argument usually sounds simple: burpees involve bending the spine, bending the spine must therefore be harmful, so burpees must be bad for your back.
In reality, it is more nuanced.
Burpees are not inherently harmful to the spine. For many people they are an effective conditioning exercise that combines strength, coordination, and cardiovascular demand. The spine is designed to bend, load, and adapt to physical stress.
However, burpees can aggravate symptoms in certain people with low back pain. When that happens, the issue is usually not the movement itself. The issue is that the exercise may exceed the current tolerance of the tissues and nervous system.
Understanding this difference helps explain why some people tolerate burpees well while others temporarily struggle with them.
What Happens to the Spine During a Burpee
A burpee moves the body rapidly through several positions. Most variations involve squatting or hinging at the hips, placing the hands on the floor, jumping or stepping the feet back into a plank position, and returning to standing.
During this movement the body repeatedly transitions through hip flexion and varying degrees of lumbar flexion. The exercise is usually performed quickly and for multiple repetitions, which introduces fatigue.
Spinal flexion itself is a normal and necessary movement. People bend their spine regularly when tying shoes, picking up objects, or getting out of a chair. The spine is built to tolerate these motions.
The factor that changes things during exercise is often fatigue. When the trunk muscles fatigue, coordination between the pelvis and thorax can change slightly. Research examining repetitive trunk movements has shown that fatigue can alter lumbar spine stability and trunk coordination patterns during repeated flexion-extension tasks (Larson & Brown, 2022).
This does not mean injury automatically occurs. It simply means movement control can change under fatigue, which may increase symptom sensitivity in some individuals.
Why Burpees Can Trigger Lower Back Pain in Some People
Most people tolerate repeated bending movements without any issues. However, some individuals with low back pain demonstrate a pattern often described as flexion intolerance.
People with this pattern often report that their symptoms increase with repeated bending or prolonged sitting. They may notice that their back feels better when standing or walking and worse after activities that involve repeated forward bending.
For these individuals, a high-repetition exercise such as burpees may temporarily provoke symptoms. This does not necessarily mean the spine is being damaged. In many cases it simply means the exercise demands exceed the individual’s current tolerance.
Exercise tolerance can vary widely between individuals. Someone who regularly performs high-intensity conditioning may handle burpees without difficulty, while someone with a recently irritated back may find the same exercise uncomfortable.
What the Research Actually Says About Spinal Flexion
Discussions about burpees and back pain often focus on the idea that spinal flexion itself is dangerous. The scientific literature does not support that simplified claim.
Several key points consistently appear in spine research.
First, spinal flexion is a normal movement. Everyday tasks require the spine to bend, and healthy spinal tissues are capable of tolerating these loads.
Second, repeated loading combined with fatigue can influence how the spine moves. Studies examining repetitive trunk flexion have shown that muscle fatigue can alter trunk stiffness and coordination during movement (Larson & Brown, 2022; Green et al., 2002).
Third, low back pain is not explained by a single movement pattern. Modern clinical research emphasizes that back pain is influenced by multiple factors including physical loading, tissue sensitivity, psychological factors, and overall conditioning.
Large reviews of low back pain research highlight that movement itself is rarely the sole cause of persistent back pain. Instead, symptoms are often influenced by load tolerance and individual variability in response to physical stress (Hartvigsen et al., 2018).
In other words, the research does not show that bending exercises like burpees are inherently dangerous. What matters more is how the exercise fits into a person’s current capacity and training history.
When Burpees Are Usually Well Tolerated
Many people perform burpees without any back issues. This is more likely when a person has good conditioning, tolerates repeated bending without symptoms, and maintains reasonable trunk control during fatigue.
For these individuals, burpees are simply a demanding full-body exercise.
When Burpees May Need Temporary Modification
If burpees consistently increase lower back pain during or after workouts, it may help to modify the exercise temporarily while tolerance improves.
Common adjustments include stepping the feet back instead of jumping, slowing the tempo, reducing repetitions, or performing the movement with the hands elevated on a bench. These small changes can reduce loading and fatigue without eliminating the movement entirely.
The goal in most rehabilitation settings is not to avoid bending forever. Instead, the goal is to gradually rebuild tolerance to a wide range of movements.
The Bottom Line
Burpees are not inherently bad for your back.
They are simply a demanding exercise that combines bending, loading, and fatigue. For many people they are well tolerated. For others—particularly those with flexion-sensitive lower back pain—they may temporarily aggravate symptoms.
When that happens, the issue is usually not the movement itself. The issue is that the exercise currently exceeds the person’s load tolerance.
With appropriate modifications and gradual progression, many people are able to return to these types of exercises as their capacity improves.
References
Foster, N. E., Anema, J. R., Cherkin, D., et al. (2018). Prevention and treatment of low back pain: Evidence, challenges, and promising directions.
Hartvigsen, J., Hancock, M. J., Kongsted, A., et al. (2018). What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention. The Lancet, 391(10137), 2356–2367. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30480-X
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29573870/
Larson, D. J., & Brown, S. H. M. (2022). Influence of back muscle fatigue on dynamic lumbar spine stability and thorax–pelvis coordination during repetitive flexion–extension movements. Journal of Biomechanics, 133, 110959. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2022.110959
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35081464/
Green, J. P., Grenier, S. G., & McGill, S. M. (2002). Low-back stiffness is altered with warm-up and bench rest: Implications for athletes. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 34(7), 1076–1081. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12131244/
Originally posted on May 17, 2022 @ 4:37 pm