In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix your lower
back pain with a very easy to follow, step-by-step guide.
Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go over a
very easy-to-follow three-part guide that can give quick and
more importantly, long-lasting pain relief for lower back
pain. All three of these parts are meant to work together and
also in order. So, start with the first one and work your way
towards the third one. As a bonus, all of the exercises can
be done at home require no special equipment and you may
find give quick lower back pain relief E within 30 seconds. So,
let's get started and fix your lower back pain right now. So,
the first thing that we need to do is warm up the muscles. When
it comes to treating lower back pain, I would say that this one
is the most overlooked step but it's really important so don't
skip it. It's important because it's going to warm up the
muscles by increasing circulation. It's going to help
improve flexibility so it makes it less likely that we irritate
or injure the muscles later on through exercise. One of my
favorite warm up methods is the tennis ball method. If you
don't have a tennis ball, no big deal. Just roll up several
socks into a ball instead. If you have a lot of severe pain,
I would do this one on a softer surface like a bed but if you
want a more intense self massage and warm up, start off
on the floor. So, we're going to start lying flat on our back
just like this, knees bent, feet flat. Take your tennis
ball and what you're going to do is place it over the most
painful spot in the lower back. We're only going go over muscle
with this one not directly over the spine. So, let's say I have
a lot going on on my left side. Take your ball, go right off to
the side of the spine and then what you're going to do is
press down with your body weight into the ball until you
feel a really good self massage but not causing any more
discomfort. From here, what you're going to do is take your
body and just rock your hips side to side just nice and
slowly. Let that ball just glide over that tightness and
that spot. I'd like to do this one for about 30 seconds or
until that tightness and pain really starts to go down. From
there, I just switch over different spots with the tennis
ball as needed including going on both sides of the spine.
From here, what I'd like to do is now target a little bit more
muscles to help later on. We always want to engage as many
muscles as possible. So, one of the better ways to do this is
with a pelvic tilt. This one's going to really focus on the
core pelvic hip and glutes. It's very easy to do. So, let's
start by taking our tennis ball and placing it over that
painful, achy spot. You're now going to take your belly button
and just kind of suck it inward towards the spine, really
tightening your abs and your core and then, you want to
squeeze your glutes right here to engage those. You're going
to then take your hands, put them on your hips in a simple
rocking motion. You're going to rock your hips upward kind of
like tucking your tailbone up like this. Hold this position
for a couple seconds. You should feel a lot start to
fire. Again, the core and also the glutes. You're then going
to relax and then you're just going to repeat this one 10
times and then from there, just switch the ball over different
spots and repeat. Let's take this one to the next level and
really focus on engaging those lower back muscles and getting
a really good deep massage. I'm going to do what is known as a
knee to the chest. So again, start by taking your tennis
ball placing it over the spot that attention. You're going to
take the knee on the side of the ball. So, in this case, I
have it centered over my left side and then I'm just going to
grab that side's knee and pull it upward towards my chest. The
more that you take your knee towards the chest, you're
really going to feel those muscles start to stretch and
activate in the lower back. You want to go towards a deep,
comfortable stretch and then really drive your lower body
weight into that tennis ball. This one usually feels really
good. You can hold this one for an extended period of time, 30
seconds or longer until you feel that muscle knot or that
pain start to go down but I always like to take it to the
next level so when I do this what I'm going to do is press
down and now do a slight rocking motion from right to
left just allow your body to glide over that ball and again
just go over different spots go through all of these motions
and if you feel like one is just helping you to warm up and
increase flexibility a little bit more spend some more time
in that position and throw some more repetitions in so after
we're done warming up the muscles we're to move on to the
meat and potatoes which is strengthening. If you take one
thing out of this video, it's if you want long-lasting lower
back pain relief, you have to strengthen the muscles. This is
the most important part. So, I'm going to show you an
exercise that you can do in bed or on the floor that's going to
target not only the back but also the core muscles on the
front. To get the best relief, we need to focus on the front
and the back. So, what I'm going to do is start lying flat
on my back and I'm going to do what is known as a bridge to
begin with. A very back-friendly exercise that
works a ton of muscles. So, you're going to bend your
knees, keep your feet flat. What you want to do first is
engage the core muscles. That is taking your belly button
towards your spine kind of like that pelvic tilt that we did
earlier. Again, you're going to squeeze your glutes. Take your
hands, put them on your hips, and now what you're going to do
is slowly raise your hips upward towards the ceiling as
far as you can. The goal is to have your body in a straight
line from your knee to your hips, to your shoulders. If
you're unable to get into that position, let's say you can
only go up just a little bit before you just have a lot of
weakness or pain, do the best you can. Definitely don't build
into pain, stop before that point but you want to hold this
one for about five seconds and then you're going to relax it
and then repeat this one up to 10 times. If you want to make
this one more challenging, you can do it on one leg just like
this but definitely make sure that one side doesn't sag down
want to keep the hips balanced and always make sure to do them
on both sides to keep everything in balance. I like
to do different motions with the bridge also. This way, it
will help target a little bit more muscles. So, I'm going to
do what is known as a clamshell bridge. This is putting your
feet together and then, you're going to take your knees
outward as much as you can. You should start to feel a very
good stretch forming on the inner part of the leg into the
glutes and also into the hips. You're then going to do your
bridge movement. You're going to tighten the abs, squeeze the
glutes, and now lift your hips upward towards the ceiling. In
this position, you're going to notice a lot more being put on
the hips and the glutes. It usually feels really really
good. Five-second hold. Again, you can repeat this one10
times. The last one I like to do is focus a little bit more
on the hamstrings, the back of the leg. This is very important
for keeping our lower back nice, strong, and healthy. So,
this is called a hamstring walkout. Let's get back to our
original bridge position just like this but this time around
I'm going to press my heels into the floor or the bed toes
are going to be upward and then I'm just going to walk out with
my heels very slowly and when you do this you're really going
to feel the back of the legs start to fire it usually feels
really good so walk out as far as you can relax come back up
like this and just repeat this one for about five repetitions
and with all of these movements if you feel like you do have a
little bit more energy you can always throw in another set or
two to make it more challenging. So, next, what
we're going to do is focus a little bit more on the front
side including the hip flexors and the core. I like to do what
is called the dead bug. In this position, we're going to start
lying flat on our back again in bed or on the floor. Bend your
knees up like this roughly at 90 degrees. What we want to
start off with first is targeting the front of the leg,
the hip flexors right here which are essential for keeping
our hips and our back strong and healthy. Take 2 hands,
place them right over your knee and what you're going to try to
do is drive your knee towards your shoulder but you're going
to resist against it with your hand. When you do this, you're
really going to feel the top part of the leg right here into
the groin start to fire. You want to hold this for 5
seconds. You're going to relax, switch to the other side, and
repeat. Do this one nice and slowly for about 10 repetitions
on both sides. Next, we're going to target the core
muscles which helps stay the spine in the front. What I'm
going to do now is the dead bug. So, with this one, very
easy to do. You're just going to slowly lower one leg down
just like this. Strain your knee but don't let your calf or
your foot touch the bed or the floor. Just let it hover
slightly above. In this position, you're really going
to feel those core muscles start to fire. So, again, I
like to hold this one for 5 seconds. I just relax and then
I do it on the other side. Just nice and slowly. Try to do this
one for 10 repetitions on both sides. Again, if you feel like
you have a little bit more energy, you can throw in
another set or two. So, the last thing that we need to do
is stretching. Stretching is perfect to do after exercising
because it will help keep the muscles loose preventing
tightness and soreness later on. Here's one that you can do
standing pretty much anywhere including at work. It's a great
way to knock out tightness and pain in the lower back anytime
that you need it. So, use it throughout the day as needed.
For this one, we need a door frame and if you don't have a
door frame that works, you can also use something like a
sturdy pole, a squat rack. I've even done this one out hiking
using a tree. So, there's a ton of options that you can use and
I'm going to show you three different movements that are
going to target the back a little bit differently. The
first one is going to focus on the back. The next one is going
to focus on the front. The last one is going to focus on the
side. So, when you put all those you get the best of
everything. Let's go next to our door frame. Put your toes
flush up against it like this and what you're going to do is
cross your arms over like this gripping into the door frame
for a sturdy anchor point. The reason why I cross my arms over
is because it's going to help open up the upper back in
between the shoulder blades just a little bit more. As for
the placement of your hands, you can go high above your
head, head level, or even a little bit below. Experiment
with it because each placement is going to hit the back just a
little bit differently. So, whatever you feel is helping
you out the most, go with it. So, once you have a very sturdy
grip into the door frame, what you want to do is tuck your
chin towards your chest and then you're going to keep your
back straight and then lower your bottom away and down. So,
away and down from the door. The more that you go down just
like gravity take your body weight also. The more that
you're going to feel a deep stretch forming in the back, I
pretty much feel it from my upper back to my hips and even
into my legs and it usually feels really really good I like
to hold this one for about 20 to 30 seconds just do nice slow
control breathing also let as much tension out as possible
from there just relax and then repeat this one three to five
times and with each repetition build into it just a little bit
more if your doorway is not wide enough you can simply fix
this by angling your bottom away from the door kind of at
an angle and then doing it and that should correct that
problem so from there what I'm going to focus on is more to
the core and also the hip flexors. Again, we want to
focus on everything that helps support the spine. So, let's do
what is known as a door cobra. We're going to go back to our
door frame. I'm going to put my feet and toes flush up against
the door frame. Take your hands, put them right on the
small of the lower back and press your hips and pelvis into
the door frame. We don't want our hips to lift off during
this exercise. We want that as our stable anchor point.
Instead, we're going to arch our shoulders and upper back
away from the door frame while pushing our hips into it at the
same time. When you do this, you're going to feel a really
good deep stretch forming in the core muscles and also the
front part of the leg. You want to hold this one comfortably
for 20 to 30 seconds. You're just going to relax and then
you're going to repeat this one three to five times. The last
movement, we're going to focus a little bit more on the sides
with what is called the ballerina and you're going to
find out here in just a second why it's called that. This one
is really good for one-sided lower back pain. It targets a
muscle called the quadratus lumborum which runs pretty much
from the bottom of the ribs down to the top of the pelvis
right through here. So, what I'm going to do is whatever
side that I'm having pain. Let's say it's my right side.
Take that leg, put it over the non-painful side. You want your
feet going straight in front of you just like this. Take your
hand on the non-painful side, put it on the non-painful
side's hip. This hip shift, what we're going to do is press
our hip towards the painful side like this while now
reaching overhead with the painful side and leaning away
from the side of pain. So, I'm pressing into my hip and then
leaning with my upper body away from it like this. You'll feel
a really deep stretch forming into that lower back on that
painful side and it usually feels really really good if you
have a lot of tightness. What we're going to do is hold this
one for 20 to 30 seconds. You're going to relax and then
you're going to repeat this one three to five times Even if you
only have one sided lower back pain, I do recommend doing this
on both sides just to keep everything in balance. Go
through all of those movements. If one helps you out just a
little bit more, you can always throw more repetitions in. If
the exercises help, please support the channel by giving
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any comments or questions, please leave them below. I'll
get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for watching!