Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo. I got an email the other day from Lenish, sorry if that's
not how your pronounce it, that's how we pronounce it in the South. And he was having some low
back pain and his question to me was, he was doing his core workout, and he was still getting
some low back pain. So I was talking to him about some reverse core exercises, or as we
call it in PT some trunk stability exercises. I'm also gonna show him, and all of you out
there, how to do some traction if you don't have access to a pool or traction machine.
So let's get started. Ok, so these are gonna be done on the floor with your back on the
floor so it protects your back while you're still working your core. I'm just gonna do
some progressions and we're gonna start you down on your back here with your knees propped
up. And the first one you're gonna do is just kind of bringing your leg straight out and
coming back up. You can do 5 on one side. Nice and controlled, nothing fast. And then
switch. Do 5 on the other side. Or, you can alternate back and forth. Doing one, back
and forth. If those are pretty easy, then you can bring them up and not put them back
on the floor. So just kind of alternating back and forth like if you were climbing steps
on your back. Keeping that back flat on the ground, keeping your core nice and tight.
Not holding your breath. If you can't talk to somebody, then you're not breathing and
that's not good. You don't ever want to hold your breath. If this becomes easy, then we
turn it in to what we call the dead bug, and you add your arms in to it. So you're gonna
alternate, arm up, arm up. Kind of looks like a dead bug. You can also do a bike kind of
like you're peddling. And all these you want to do maybe 30 second increments. Do it for
about 30 seconds, relax, do it maybe 3 times. And then if those become easy, keep your legs
nice and straight, and do big scissor like moments. This is gonna be a little bit harder,
but if you can, keep your legs nice and straight. There you go, and then relax them back down.
So now, I'm gonna show you how to do some traction. As you can see, we've made our way
to the kitchen, and the best place to do tractions is either a pool or a traction machine in
a therapy clinic, but if you don't have a chance to get there, the next best place is
a counter top where there's a corner. And so you can kind of back up into the corner.
This is gonna be really stressful on the shoulders, so if you have any shoulder problems, don't
do it this way. Make sure you find a pool or PT clinic. So you're gonna slide your arms
out on the corner and just kind of relax down into the corner. And you can either put your
legs straight out if your shoulders can tolerate it, or bring your knees in some and just relax
yourself and kind of let your butt hang low. If that doesn't work, you can come up, push
your hands up if you have good shoulder strength and just relax your body up in the corner
with your feet off the ground. Alright. So there you have it. Those are some core strengthening
for your lower back or trunk stability exercises. And some traction if you don't have access
to a pool or a PT clinic. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section,
and if you'd like to check out some more videos, please got to AskDoctorJo.com. And remember,
be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.