If you suffer from lower back pain, the thought of doing any type of strenuous exercise can seem daunting, mostly out of fear of injuring yourself. You're not alone as a good majority of people (especially those who work at a desk 8-10 hours per day) are right there with you. So, what can you do? Here are three relatively easy, low-impact, high-return exercises you can do to strengthen your lower back.

If you feel pain doing the exercises below, shorten the range of motion or perform the moves more slowly.

Child’s Pose
Gently relieves tension in the lower back. When your pain is acute, use these easy moves to gently mobilize — increase the pain-free range of motion — in your back.

To Do This Exercise:
1. On a mat or blanket, kneel down, and if possible, sit on your heels.
2. Lean forward, extending your arms in front of you, and rest your head on the floor in front of you.
3. Hold the position for 30 seconds to two minutes.

If It Hurts:
Cross your arms on the floor and rest on your forearms.

Clam
Supports healthy hip movement, which takes pressure off the lower back during everyday activities.

To Do This Exercise:
1. Lie on your left side with your knees bent 90 degrees in front of you and your feet stacked.
2. Keeping your feet together and your hips vertical, lift your right knee as far away from your left as possible.
3. Hold for a moment, return to the starting position, and repeat for 15 reps.
4. Turn onto your right side and perform 15 reps.

If It Hurts:
Make sure your lower back doesn’t twist throughout the movement and limit the move to a pain-free range of motion.

Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch
Restores proper positioning of the hips, taking tension off the lower back.

To Do This Exercise:
1. Kneel on a mat or pad and step your right foot flat on the floor in front of you.
2. Keeping your torso upright and your back in its natural arch, lunge forward towards your right foot.
3. Press the top of your left foot into the floor behind you.
4. Hold the stretched position for 30–45 seconds, then switch sides and repeat.

If It Hurts:
Contract your abs and flatten the lower back as much as possible throughout the stretch. Also, try shifting your hips back and coming out of the stretch a bit.

If you're out of practice when it comes to exercising or if you're recovering from an injury, your best bet is to get started with a low-impact routine. But, just because we call it low-impact does not mean it should be considered a low-result workout. Low-impact exercises help you burn calories and lose weight just as well as high-impact moves.

The following are a few favorite low-impact activities along with some ideas for getting the most out of your exercise.

Walking
Walking is by far the most popular low-impact exercise, and to get your heart rate up, there are some things you may want to try.

• Walk faster. One mistake we often make is walking too slowly to get the heart rate up. Picking up the pace can help you up the intensity of your workouts.
• Try interval training. By adding short bursts of speed or an occasional steep hill to your walking workouts, you can increase the intensity of your workouts as well as your calorie-burn.
• Use your arms. Make sure you're not holding onto the treadmill and, when you're outside, swing your arms to keep the intensity up. Holding weights as you walk is a no-no (it can cause injury), but consider using walking poles as an alternative.
• Mix things up. If walking is your only source of cardio, cross-train with other activities to keep your body challenged. Walking is something we do every day and, therefore, we're very good at it. Learning something you're not as adept at can be a significant boost to your endurance and fat loss.

Walking the Stairs
Walking up stairs, whether they're real stairs or the revolving staircase at the gym, can be an incredibly intense workout and a great way to get your heart rate up. If you're a beginner, try adding a few minutes of stair climbing to your usual workout. You'll find you don't have to go very fast to get your heart rate up.

Hiking
Hiking can be another robust, low-impact activity, especially if you're hiking on an incline. The changing terrain requires a lot of work from the lower body and walking up a mountain involves the large muscles of the glutes, hips, and thighs - precisely what you want for an intense cardio workout. Add a backpack, and you're burning even more calories.

Step Aerobics
Step aerobics can be a great alternative if you like choreographed exercise. Because you're stepping onto an elevated platform, you can typically get your heart rate up without doing any jumping. Using your arms can add more intensity to the workout as well.

Other Alternatives
You can also choose other activities that have no impact, but still offer high-intensity workouts like cycling, swimming, cross-country skiing, or rowing. Any of these activities can be intense if you work hard, but you may also want to cross-train with impact activities to keep your body challenged in different ways.