Can You Reverse Straightening of Lumbar Lordosis? Here’s What Helps Most
Apr 18, 2025
Have you ever noticed your back killing you when you stand up after sitting for a long time? Or are you gradually losing your ability to bend, twist, or move without discomfort? These challenges can signal a problem with your posture. More specifically, they can indicate an issue with the natural curve of your spine. Your spine has three curves that help distribute weight, absorb shock, and allow movement. When viewed from the side, the lumbar (lower back) curve is supposed to have a slight inward (lordotic) curve. Straightening of lumbar lordosis (also known as lumbar hypolordosis) refers to a reduction or loss of this natural curve, leading to stiffness, pain, and decreased mobility. The good news is that with the right approach, you can restore this natural curve and get your back to functioning correctly. In this article, we’ll explore the straightening of lumbar lordosis in detail, including its causes, how it can affect your health, and practical ways to address it.
Table of Contents
What Causes the Straightening of Lumbar Lordosis?
The lumbar spine's natural inward curvature, or lordosis, supports spinal health. Lumbar lordosis acts as a shock absorber and helps evenly distribute weight and mechanical stress along the spinal column.
Proper lumbar curvature helps maintain balance, optimal alignment, and function of the entire spine, reducing the risk of injury and degenerative diseases.
What Happens When Lumbar Lordosis Loses Its Natural Curve?
A straightening of lumbar lordosis involves a loss of the spine's natural, healthy curvature in the lower back, which can lead to flatback syndrome.
To better understand how straightening the lumbar lordosis affects the spine, let’s first explore some basic spinal anatomy and types of spinal curvature.
Spinal Anatomy and Curvatures
A healthy spine will have a soft ‘S’ shape when viewed from the sides and appear straight when viewed from the front and back. This “S” shape is due to the spine's natural curvature types:
One that curves inward
Towards the body's center
One that curves outward, away from the body's center
The spine has three main sections:
Cervical (neck)
Thoracic (middle/upper back)
Lumbar (lower back)
Each spinal section has a corresponding curvature type. The neck and lumbar spine feature lordotic curves that bend inward, towards the body's center, while the thoracic curve features a kyphotic curve that bends outwards, away from the body's center.
How Loss of Natural Spinal Curves Impacts Biomechanics and Alignment
Maintaining spinal alignment, made possible by the spine’s natural and healthy curvatures, affects the health and function of the entire spine and its biomechanics.
The vertebrae (bones of the spine) are rectangular, stacked on top of one another in a straight alignment, and separated by intervertebral discs. Suppose the spine loses one or more of its healthy and natural curves. In that case, it becomes misaligned, which can be caused by various spinal conditions, including a straightening of lumbar lordosis.
Symptoms of Lordosis
If a person is diagnosed with a straightening of the lumbar lordosis, their lower back has lost some of its natural inward curvature and has become unusually straight. Over time, this can cause the development of flatback syndrome.
The spinal curves must be balanced for people to have economical posture and gait, meaning a minimal energy expenditure is needed to maintain body positioning. If the spinal curves are balanced and the spine is aligned, a person's gravity line naturally falls through:
The head
Cervical spine (neck)
Behind the pelvis
The center of the hips
Impact of Loss of Lumbar Lordosis on Overall Spinal Biomechanics
Loss of natural lumbar lordosis disrupts the spine's overall biomechanics, shifting the body's center of gravity. This imbalance can affect the entire spinal structure, leading to compensatory curves in other spine sections. These compensatory changes further exacerbate misalignment and may cause additional postural issues.
Common Symptoms and Impact of Straightening of Lumbar Lordosis and Flatback Syndrome
While every case is different, with each patient having their own unique set of experienced symptoms, some common symptoms of a straightening of lumbar lordosis and flatback syndrome include:
Balance issues
Asymmetrical postural changes
Difficulty standing upright for long periods
Fatigue due to an uneconomical posture and gait
Lower back pain
Neck pain
Thigh and groin pain
A swayback appearance
Daytime Progression of Symptoms and Compensatory Mechanisms in Flatback Syndrome
Again, while every case is different, related symptoms tend to increase throughout the day as the body struggles to compensate for the uneconomical posture and gait.
It's common for people with flatback syndrome to flex and/or bend at the knees and hips to maintain an upright position, which can become more taxing as the day progresses. People can also experience neck and upper back pain as the upper back struggles to maintain alignment due to the uneven forces introduced by the loss of lumbar lordosis below.
Treatment Options for Straightening of Lumbar Lordosis and Flatback Syndrome
The symptoms above can range from mild to severe. If a condition worsens, flatback syndrome can result, making it challenging to keep up with daily tasks and responsibilities.
Now that we've explored some basic spinal anatomy, the different curvature types, and the symptoms one can expect when lumbar lordosis straightens, what are the treatment options?
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Is Straightening of Lumbar Lordosis Reversible? Steps to Start Healing
Treatment for back posture correction should be specific to the underlying cause. Loss of lumbar lordosis is not a diagnosis. Instead, it’s a sign of an underlying condition, and treatment must be tailored to the specific cause.
Before effective treatment can be initiated, a thorough diagnosis and assessment must be performed to determine the exact cause of the lumbar spine’s straightening.
What To Expect During An Assessment For Loss Of Lumbar Lordosis
Through a functional and chiropractic-centered approach that integrates different treatment disciplines for the most customized and specific results, the first step on the road to treatment involves diagnosis and assessment.
As mentioned, a straightening of the lumbar spine is associated with an underlying condition, so the underlying cause of the lordosis loss must be determined first and foremost to guide the design of effective treatment plans in the future.
Diagnostic Process for Straightening of Lumbar Lordosis and Flatback Syndrome
A comprehensive physical examination would include taking the patient’s full medical history, including whether they have had spinal surgery or have a genetic predisposition to specific spinal conditions/issues.
Patients’ posture is also observed, and digital photos of the patient are taken using software to analyze posture. Any necessary X-rays are taken. These images provide important information about the total effect of the abnormal curves on the overall spinal mechanics. While no treatment results can be guaranteed, once the underlying cause is determined, I customize a treatment plan that addresses important patient/condition characteristics.
Proactive Treatment Approaches to Restore Spinal Biomechanics and Alleviate Pain
As the condition is impacted on a structural level by reducing the unnatural spinal curves and restoring as much of the healthy curves as possible, this improves the spine’s overall biomechanics, and related symptoms such as:
Back
Neck
Hip
Leg pain can be reduced
Any treatment effort that improves the spine’s biomechanics is proactive, as it helps preserve the health and function of the spine’s parts, prevents the condition’s severity, and improves overall spinal health.
Exercises For Straightening Lumbar Lordosis
Here’s the list of 5 exercises to fix the straightening of lumbar lordosis; most of them are strengthening exercises, but let us start with positioning.
1. Positioning For Straightening Of the Lumbar Spine
When you have a severe low backache and your MRI report indicates loss of lordosis, positioning plays a crucial role during this phase. So, how do we do it?
This positioning strategy can only be carried out in a prone position, i.e., lying on your back. For this:
You need a towel or a bedsheet.
Roll the towel to a sufficient thickness.
Lie prone and place this towel roll below the lower back area. This supports the curve of the lower back and, hence, maintains the lordosis.
Practicing this for a minimum of two weeks can tremendously affect your pain.
2. Quadruped Leg Lift Exercises For Lumbar Straightening
Your severe pain should have been reduced when we performed this exercise. From here on, every exercise we will do is a strengthening exercise. This is important to strengthen the muscle around the lower back, which is crucial for lordosis.
To perform this exercise:
Get down on all fours with your hands shoulder-width apart and your knees hip-width apart. Make sure your wrists are stacked under your shoulders, and your knees are stacked under your hips.
From this position, lift one leg and the opposite hand off the ground, keeping your knee and elbow fully straightened. Keep your core engaged and your hips level throughout the exercise.
Hold this position for 5 to 10 seconds, then lower your leg and hand back to the starting position.
Repeat the same movement on the other side, lifting the opposite leg and hand and holding for 5 to 10 seconds.
Aim to complete at least 10 repetitions of this exercise during a single session.
3. Side Bridging On Knee Exercise For Straightened Lumbar Curvature
Our next exercise for straightening the lumbar spine is side bridging. This exercise aims to strengthen muscles on the sides of the lower back. Unlike regular bridging exercises performed lying on our back, side bridging is done in a side-lying posture.
To perform this exercise:
You must start by lying on your side, with your elbow supporting your upper body.
Ensure your hips are straight and your knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. You can place a pillow between your knees to make me more comfortable.
Slowly raise your hips until the sides of your lower back are straight while keeping your knees and feet together.
Hold this position for 5 to 10 seconds, then lower your hips back down slowly.
Repeat this process for a minimum of 10 repetitions in a single session, and aim to do this exercise twice to thrice daily.
Once you’ve completed the repetitions on one side, switch to the other and repeat the exercise.
4. Prone Leg Lift Exercise For Lumbar Spine Straightening
You can practice “Prone Leg Raises." This exercise is beneficial for strengthening your:
Lower back
Glutes
Hamstring muscles
To begin with:
Lie down on your stomach on a flat surface like a mat or a carpet. Keep your legs straight and arms by your side. This is your starting position.
Slowly lift one of your legs off the ground to a 30-degree angle. It is essential to keep your leg straight and avoid bending your knee.
Hold this position for 5 seconds and lower your leg back to the starting position.
Repeat this exercise with the other leg and continue alternating between legs for a minimum of 10 repetitions in a single session.
If you feel comfortable, you can lift both legs off the ground simultaneously for a more challenging workout.
5. Prone Trunk Lift For Straightened Lumbar Lordosis
The prone trunk lift is the final exercise in our list of straightened lumbar lordosis that aims to strengthen the upper back muscles.
To begin with:
With a slight modification, you must assume the same starting position as the previous exercise.
You should keep a pillow under your lower back to provide support and stability this time.
Once you are in position, keep both hands by your side and begin the exercise by slowly lifting your chest off the floor, as demonstrated in the figure.
While lifting your chest, keep your neck and head aligned with your spine, and avoid straining your lower back.
Once you have lifted your chest, hold this position for 5 to 10 seconds, then slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. Controlling your movements and avoiding sudden or jerky motions that could lead to injury is essential.
For optimal results, it is recommended to perform 10 to 15 repetitions of this exercise in a single repetition twice daily.
The Benefits of an Integrative Approach to Treating Loss of Lumbar Lordosis
Relying on only one of the aforementioned treatment modalities could fail to restore a loss of lumbar lordosis. An integrative approach has the potential to induce a structural change and effectively stretch and loosen the lower back’s extensor muscles. This keeps the spine as loose and flexible as possible, making it more responsive to treatment.
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