Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you some stretches and
exercises facet joint syndrome.
Let's get started.
So the facet joints are the little joints in your spine that
help it bend and twist. So not where the vertebrae are, but the little joints on
the back. So when those are inflamed and irritated, it makes a really painful to
twist and then and do things like that. So we're going to start off with some
stretches on our back, my stock is falling off, and just to start off we're going to
a simple knee to chest stretch. So this is the one where you want to grab
underneath. Some people grab on top, but if you happen to have any knee issues,
make sure you grab underneath. And then just pull your knee towards your chest
as far as you comfortably can and hold that stretch for about 30 seconds. And
then after the 30 seconds,
switch sides. Hold that stretch nice big pull.
You should feel it underneath that lower back area a little bit, and then do that
three times on each side. Then you're going to go into some pelvic tilts. The
pelvic tilts are the ones where you want to kind of flatten out your back tighten
up those core muscles, almost like I like to call it when you're fake
laughing when you go haha and those muscles tighten up but you want actually
movement in the pelvis. So if you're just squeezing and it's not going anywhere,
that's not quite the movement. You want actually tilt it back and flatten out
your back. So it's almost like if someone had their hands there or your hands,
you're trying to squish it into the ground. So hold that for about three to
five seconds, and then do 10 of those. Then you're going to go up into a bridge,
so just bringing your hips up until your body's pretty flat in the air. So coming
up and then when you come back down, come back down nice and slow, that's the
important part. Almost one segment at a time so you're really stretching out
those facet joints as you go.
And then same thing coming up nice and controlled, slow coming up and then
slowly coming back down. The same thing do about 10 of those to start off with.
Now we're going to flip over and go into a child's pose. With the child's pose,
spread your knees out just a little bit so you can come down, put your arms out
in front of you, and just take your bottom down towards your heels, and then
come down as low as you comfortably can. You might not be able to get quite as
far as me, if you're not as flexible, but go down as far as you comfortably can
and hold it for about 30 seconds. And then come back up and then do three of
those. The next one is going to be a little bit of a rotation stretch, but you
want to stretch the upper part of your body versus when you're lying down and
your rotating your legs, this time we're going to rotate our arms. So you're going
to be in this quadruped position, and then take your arm and bring it
underneath and pull through. So you're rotating that upper body to get that
stretch, and for this one you can just hold it for about three to five seconds,
and then come up and then rotate the other way. So going about three to five
seconds doing five on each side. Now we're going to go into some quadruped
exercises and you can start off pretty slow just doing
maybe the arms first, but make sure your shoulders are pretty much in line with
your hands. So you don't want it way out, there's a hair, or you don't want it way under you
want to you know pretty straight up and down to protect your shoulders. And then
you can start off with something easy by just doing the arms, kind of alternating
back and forth. Keeping your back nice and flat so it's not sagging down it's
not coming up, and then you can just do your legs a kick out,
alternating back, and forth just maybe doing about 10 on each side, and then if
those become pretty easy then you can do opposite arm, opposite leg. So some people
call this the bird dog, but try and keep your back pretty flat like there
was something on it you wouldn't want it to fall off. So you're not leaning over
one where the other, you're really working on those core muscles. And then
the last stretch is just the cat stretch. So still on all fours, and you're gonna
arch your back up and tuck your chin in, just like a cat stretching, and then hold
this one for about 15 to 20 seconds, and do five of those. So big hold, getting
that bend, getting that movement in those joints and then coming back down. So
there you have it, those are your stretches and exercises facet
joint syndrome. If you have questions leave in the comments section. If you'd like to
check out some other videos go to askdoctorjo.com And remember be safe
have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.