In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix erector
spinae muscle pain for good. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go over
easy exercises that can give quick and long-lasting pain
relief for the erector spinae muscles. If you're unfamiliar
with them, they're a group of three muscles that run right
next to the spine throughout the whole back into the neck.
Their main function is back extension. Think bending
forward and then having to come back upright. If you have a lot
of pain or difficulty with that movement, definitely check
these exercises out. Because when those muscles become
strained and inflamed, they cause pain throughout the whole
back even pain that will radiate down into the buttocks.
So, to make getting pain relief easy, I'm going to break the
video up into three separate parts. In the first part, we're
going to focus on fixing muscle tightness. In the second part,
we're going to focus on lengthening those muscles and
then lastly, strengthening them to hopefully get rid of that
pain for good. To get the best results, use all three parts.
As a bonus, all of the exercises can be done at home
require no special equipment and you may find give quick
back pain relief even within 30 seconds. So, let's get started
and fix that erector spinae muscle pain for good right now.
So, let's start by getting some quick pain relief by targeting
muscle tightness. This includes muscle knots, spasms, and
trigger points. We just need a couple things. The first being
something soft and round. The tennis ball works perfectly.
You can also use something like a spiky massage ball even a
soft dog toy will work and I would recommend grabbing a
pillowcase or a large sock because I'm going to show you a
really easy way to hit the upper and middle backs with
that. So, with the erector spine muscle group, it pretty
much runs from the lower back all the way up to the top of
the upper back and it runs directly off to the side of the
spine right here and goes over just a couple inches. So, when
you do this self massage, you want to go over the muscle, not
over the spine. So, just go right on the spine right here
and go over just a little bit and press into any area you
feel needs attention. Let's start off with the lower back.
So, let's say I have a lot of soreness and tightness going on
on my left side of my lower back. I'm going to center that
tennis ball right over that spot and then go right next to
a wall. I like to position my body where my legs are slightly
in front of me. That way, I can lean into that wall and apply
pressure with my body weight very easily to get a
comfortable self massage. I tend to put all of my body
weight onto my heels also. It just makes it a little bit
easier to do. For there, I'm just going to support my whole
backside flush against the wall. I'm going to bend my
knees and then do a slight squatting motion. That is just
taking my bottom downward towards the floor. What you're
going to notice is when you do this nice and slowly, it's
going to glide that ball is just going to roll over that
muscle. So, you can control the amount of pressure and then
also control the area where you're going to get that self
massage by bending your knees. Usually feels really really
good. I like to do this nice and slowly for about 15 seconds
from I just relax. If I feel like I need another repetition
or two, throw it in until that tightness breaks up and then
from there, you can just switch over different spots as needed.
If you're focusing on the middle back, what you want to
do is now grab your pillowcase just like this because it's a
pretty tricky area when you try to hold it like this, the ball
tends to fall. So, if you take the tennis ball right here, put
in the pillowcase. Now, you can raise and lower it very easily
to find those tight spots in the middle back so let's put it
right here for this one so I'm just going to target that spot
going nice and slowly up and down with it and then I can
raise it going all the way up into the shoulder blade region
even into the upper back I also like to experiment from there
by doing different motions so instead of going straight up
and down with it go side to side you're going to notice
that the muscle fibers just get hit just a little bit
differently you can also do circular motions diagonal
motions anything that feels like it's attacking those
muscle fibers just a little bit better but it's just a simple
way to go in there and really knock out muscle tightness and
muscle pain very very quickly. So, once we're done getting rid
of muscle knots and muscle spasms, we need to focus on
lengthening the muscle. Here's a really easy stretching
exercise that you can do throughout the day pretty much
anywhere including at work and in class because you can do
this when seated in a chair. Start off right at the edge of
a chair I'm going to show two different ways to stretch these
muscles. The first one is going to focus more on the upper and
middle backs, the second one more on the lower back. When it
comes to stretching and lengthening the erector spine
muscle group, what we need to do is round the back into
flexion. The more that you round into it, the more that
you're going to feel a deep opening stretch. For the upper
back, take your hands, place them right on the back of your
head just like this. You're going to start off by using
your hands to scoop your head forward taking your chin
downward towards your chest. You should feel a very good
stretch forming in the neck and the upper back. Once you feel
that, then we're going to round our shoulder blade reaching
taking our elbows downward towards the floor. Go down as
much as you feel comfortable. I pretty much feel a deep stretch
from my neck into my upper back in between my shoulder blades
to my middle back. You're going to hold this one for five
seconds and then what you're going to do is slowly turn your
upper body taking your elbows upward towards the ceiling just
like this. I'm going towards my right. You should feel the
muscles fire just a little bit differently. Again, hold this
one for about 5 seconds. You're going to come back towards the
middle and then repeat it on the other side. Again, for 5
seconds. From there, I like to build into extension which is a
little bit different. I should say the opposite of flexion
just to make sure that we're covering all bases. So, this
one's easy too. You're just going to take your hands, place
them on the back of your head. This time around though, we're
going to bring shoulders backward as much as we can
really allowing the chest to come forward. You should feel a
really deep stretch in between those shoulder blades. Again,
what you can do is hold this one for five seconds and then
you can start to do some rotations towards one side and
then towards the other side but I try to do this whole complete
cycle for about three to five repetitions and with each
repetition, build into it just a little bit more. So, moving
on to the lower back, what I'm going to do is give back into
my original position but this time around I really want to
make sure that my legs are nice and relaxed have your knees
bend at 90degrees don't have them straight we don't want to
engage the leg muscles we also want to make sure that our
knees are going to be wide enough that our torso and chest
are going to be able to fit through it so I'm going to
start off by having my arms overlap just like this kind of
like a genie position and I'm just going to pivot forward
through my waist bringing my whole upper body and torso
forward towards the floor just like this. Keep going forward
until you feel a deep stretch forming in the lower back. Once
you feel that, we're going to take it to the next level by
taking our hands, putting them on the back of our head, and
doing now that similar scooping motion. Taking our chin towards
our chest and then rounding our back into it as much as we can.
I pretty much feel a deep stretch in my lower back
working its way up to my upper back now. What I'm going to do
is hold this one for five seconds and now I'm going to
build into that rotation. Taking my L elbows upward
towards the ceiling. Five second hold, relax, and then go
towards the other side. You can then repeat this one three to
five times and with each repetition, build into it just
a little bit more. In the spinal part, we're going to
help strengthen the erector spine muscles. If you want
long-lasting pain relief, definitely make this your main
focus. With the erector spine A muscles, it's main function is
to extend the back and the trunk. So, if you have a lot of
bending forward and then having to come back upright maybe of a
lot of pain with that movement, definitely check this out. They
may help. I'm going to go over two different exercises. The
first one is going to target more in the upper and middle
backs while the second one will focus a little bit more on
strengthening into the lower back. This first one is called
the Superman and you can do this one in bed or on a floor.
So, I'm going to start lying on my stomach and I'm going to
show you the easiest way to do Superman and that way you can
progress into more challenging ones as you feel ready. So, the
easiest version of this is to lie on your stomach and have
your arms off to your side, palm side up towards the
ceiling. What you want to do is just start to raise your head,
shoulders, and arms upward like this. So, help put the back
into extension. The more that you go up, the more that you're
going to feel a lot of muscles start to fire. You should feel
it in the back but also into the core. Hold this one come
for five seconds you're just going to relax and then repeat
this 110 to 15 times and with each repetition try to build
into it just a little bit more if you would like to make this
one more challenging what you can do is get back into this
original position but now keeping your legs as straight
as possible lift your feet and heels upward at the same time
you'll feel a lot more fire in the lower back and also into
the legs again with all these positions they're going to be
three to 5 second holds for 10 to 15 rep From there, you can
take this one to the next level by taking your arms overlapping
your hands and putting them right in front of your face and
now doing this movement. You'll notice that the muscles in the
upper back get challenge just a little bit more. Really focus
on trying to just drive those elbows upward towards the
ceiling as much as you can and really feeling it in between
the shoulder blades. In the final position, we are going to
do the full Superman. So, imagine Superman flying. You're
going to put your arms out in front of you just this and now
repeat. I pretty much feel everything firing from my neck
into my upper back into my lower back. This is a really
good one to also help strengthen the core. Five
second hold, relax 10 to 15 times and afterwards, if you
feel like you do have a little bit more energy, you can
definitely throw in another set or two. So, moving on to the
lower back, we're going to do a strengthening exercise that's
going to focus on hip extension off the side of a bed. Just
like the name implies, we need edge of a bed for this one but
you can also use a sturdy desk or table as long as it is
sturdy enough to support your body weight. So, to get into
position, you're going to lie on your stomach but your hips
and legs are going to be off the edge and make sure that you
have a nice grip with your hands right here into the bed
also. During this exercise, I would recommend just letting
all the air out too from your lungs that way you're not
sitting on it. It'll make it just a little bit more
comfortable. So, let's start with the beginning of this
exercise so you can get used to it and that way you can
progress into the more challenging one when you feel
ready I'm going to have both of my legs straight at my knees as
much as I can and then I'm just going to lift one leg upward
towards the ceiling the more that you go up the more that
you're going to feel a really good activation of the muscles
in the legs the glutes around the hips and also into the
lower back you really want to focus on feeling it into the
glutes and the lower back you're going to hold this
position for 3 to 5 seconds you're going to slowly your leg
down and then you're just going to repeat it on the other side.
I'd like to do this one for 10 to 15 repetitions on both sides
and if you feel like you have a little bit more energy, throw
in another set or two but just make sure to always challenge
yourself a little bit more on each repetition. So, if that
becomes a little bit too easy, we can take this one to the
next level by now focusing on both legs at the same time. So,
put your legs and feet together and make sure that you have a
sturdy grip again and then just slowly raise your feet upward
like this. You only want to go up to the point where you feel
a really good deep activation of those lower back muscles.
That's what we're focusing on. So again, hold this one for
about three to five seconds. You're going to relax and then
repeat this one 10 to 15 times and if you do feel comfortable
enough, keep lifting the legs up just a little bit more to
really focus on firing the glutes and the leg muscles.
They all work together. So, if we can strengthen everything,
it's only going to help us later down the road but again,
if you feel you have a little bit more energy, throw in
another set or two. If the exercises help, please support
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can. Thanks for watching.