hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and unicorn Kali, and today I'm going to show you
my five-minute stretching routine for back pain. so let's get started.
So before I get started, if you haven't already, make sure you click
on the subscribe button down there so I can see your comments. you can always
find me as askdoctorjo.com. so this five-minute stretching routine
for the back is gonna be a real time routine. so if you want to follow along
with me you can. so we're gonna do just a 45 second warmup, and then we're gonna do
30 seconds twice for each movement. so with the back, you really want to do each
side so we'll just do if it's an each side thing one on each side. in general
if you've watched some of my videos you really the gold standard is 30 seconds,
three times for each thing, but I realized that a lot of times people
don't have 30 to 45 minutes every day to do their stretches. so really doing a
quality stretch versus the quantity of time it's going to be just as important.
so a five-minute stretching routine is really going to help you along the way.
so that's how we're gonna do it. I've got an app on my phone that will just kind
of keep us kind of going, and so I'm just gonna start the warmup. all we're gonna
do is just while you're sitting you're just gonna kind of arch your back one
way and then roll it forward. so it's almost like a seated pelvic tilt. this is
just to kind of get the back moving a little bit. if you want to do the pelvic
tilt lying down you can, but you can also just kind of do it sitting. I'm just
going to go ahead and lie down so you can see it as well that's warm-up. so a
pelvic tilt is just bringing your back down and coming up, so again this is just
warming up the muscles a little bit. you're not really holding it for an
exercise or stretch, but you're just getting it moving. you can also just kind
of do a side to side like you're pulling your hip up towards your shoulder just
again to get that mid back loosened up a little bit. so now we're going to go into
stretches, and we're just gonna start off with a knee to chest stretch. and it's
just like it sounds. you're gonna bring your knee up towards your chest. I like
to keep the other leg bent up. you don't have to, but I feel like that helps
protect your back a little bit. if you happen to have knee issues, you can grab
underneath here, but if you don't you can really just hold on top to give yourself
a nice little push. breathe in real deeply and as you're breathing out you
can push in a little bit more to get that stretch. then you're just going to
switch sides and do the 30 seconds on the other side. so again you can probably
see maybe I have a little bit of tightness the left hip is one that I had
surgery on awhile ago, so it's still not quite to a hundred percent yet, but again
just pushing in as you breathe out just get that extra little push. and you can
see how it goes a little bit further. but it should always be comfortable. it
shouldn't be painful. knee to chest is a nice way just to really open up that
back and get that good stretch in there. so now we're just going to take a little
10-second break to move on to the next instruction. so the next stretch is going
to be a trunk rotation. so you want to keep your knees and your feet together.
and then again, it's just like it sounds, you're just gonna rotate your knees over
to the side and hold that stretch for that thirty Seconds. now my bottom area
my hip is coming up a little bit, but my shoulders are staying on the floor, or
the bed, or the couch. you don't have to do it on the floor. if you have a hard
time getting up off the floor, you can do these on your bed, but you don't want
your shoulder coming up too. you want to keep that shoulder down, but your hips
can come up. and again just breathe in deep as you're letting out everything
just let your muscles relax and a lot of times you can go a little bit further
down. then coming up and then just rotating to the other side. so you can
see my feet are coming up, but they're still staying together just like my
knees are. and so my my hip comes up off of the floor, or the bed, a little bit, but
my shoulder's staying down. it's not coming up into that rotation. so that's
important to get that stretch in the back and really have it feel nice a nice
good stretch. but again really breathing in deeply and then letting everything
out helps those muscles relax as well, so that's a nice way just to kind of get
everything loosened up. so the last one sorry, not the last one, the
next one is going to be just sitting up and so it's going to be a QL
stretch. And the QL is in the lower back. so the side that I want to stretch, I'm
going to bring this arm up and over, and I'm going to just kind of push the
other one down. that QL stretches in the back there, and it's one of the
muscles the quadratus lumborum that really can sometimes cause back pain, but
people don't think about stretching it a little bit. so I'm pushing towards the
opposite corner, and then I'm trying to almost sit down on that side leaning
this way while I'm pushing up that way to get that extra stretch. and you should
really feel it in that QL area right there. and then you're just going to
switch to the other side. so pushing down bringing up and across and then pushing
over to that hip. so my left arm is up and over, and I'm pushing that left hip
or pelvis down into the floor, or bed, some more to get that stretch. almost
like I'm pushing the bottom part this way and the top part that way. and then
pushing my hand down to get that nice stretch through that QL, or that lower
back area. and this one's a nice stretch and it'll really loosen everything up. so
the next one is gonna go into a child's pose.
Child's pose is probably one of my favorite stretches because I feel like
it stretches a little bit of everything. so just kind of you can start on all
fours and stretch your hands up a little bit and come back down onto your knees.
or you can start on your knees and then stretch your arms out, whatever is more
comfortable for you. but the goal is to really be relaxed and
let it stretch. so you see my shoulders are getting stretched, my back's getting
stretched, my hips, and even my knees and my feet. you really want to try and bring
your feet, so if I'm looking through my knees I can't really see my feet. so
they're not rolling in, mine trying to do that, but try and keep them straight. come
back up and then go back into that stretch. so then you're getting the the
feet stretching as well. eventually you want to get your head all
the way to the floor like this, but if that's too tight, but you can put maybe
like a little block or roll up a towel so you can still relax while you're
there if this isn't quite comfortable enough for you. you can also bend your
elbows a little bit more if you have some shoulder pain just to get that
strength in there, and then the last one is just going to be a simple cat cow or
I like to call them cat dogs. but you want to get your hands right over your
shoulders, your knees about maybe two fists width
apart, and all you're gonna do is come up into the cat, you're gonna arch your back
and tuck in your chin, tuck in your tailbone, get that stretch and then come
down into the cow or the dog. so you're dropping almost like a saddle on your
back and bringing your head up almost like you're looking towards the ceiling.
so with this one you don't want to hold each one for thirty Seconds, maybe just a
five to ten seconds stretch and just alternating back and forth. but the key to
this is you're really trying to get that big stretch in there. see how I'm really
dropping my hips, bringing up my hips, arching up, tucking my tailbone in,
tucking my chin in and then dropping everything down like a saddle. and really
bringing that chin up. so I'm talking through but really doing some deep
breathing is a really nice way to get this stretch as well. this feels really
really good on the back. oh yeah. so there you have it, makes you sleepy, that five
minutes stretching routine for back pain. if you'd like to help support my
channel, make sure and click on the link up there, and don't forget to subscribe
we're Kali? you already asleep? down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope
you feel better soon.