In this video, I'm going to show you how to decompress your full
back at home. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe from SpineCare in St. Joseph,
Michigan. In this video, we're going to focus on decompression
exercises. Think a deep pulling motion throughout the whole
back, known as traction, that just helps open everything up.
It can quickly get rid of tightness, tension, pressure,
and pain. All of the exercises, they work just a little bit
differently. So, go through them all, use what gives you
the most amount of relief. As a bonus, all of these exercises
can be done at home. I'm going to be doing of them on a couch
and you may find give quick back pain relief, even in as
little as 30 seconds. So let's get started and fix that back
pain right now. So here's an exercise I call the couch puppy
because I'm going to be using the armrest of a couch but you
can also use a sturdy chair (one without wheels) or the edge of a
bed. What I'm going to do is start off on my knees, so make
sure to put a pillow or towel underneath them for extra
comfort. Take your arms, bend them and take your hands, place
them right on your shoulders. Put the backside of your arms right
up on that flat edge of whatever you're using. From
there, you're going to tuck your chin towards your chest.
The movement from here is very easy. We're going to rock our
whole body backward, kind of like taking our butt down
towards our heels. The more that you go down, the more that
you're going to feel a deep stretch throughout the whole
back. It usually feels really really good. When you can't go
any further, try to hold this position comfortably for 20 to
30 seconds. Just do nice, slow, controlled breathing also. When
you need a breather, just come back up just like this. I try
to do this one for about three to five complete repetitions
and with each repetition, I try to stretch into it just a
little bit more. You can take this one to the next level by
incorporating some dynamic movement in there with a
position called the cat camel. It's a popular yoga pose. So,
I'm going to get back into that same position just like this
but this time around, what I'm going to do is arch my back
upwards while sucking my stomach in and engaging the
core muscles. I hold this for a couple seconds and then I'm
just going to allow everything to relax and let my stomach sag
downward towards the floor. You'll feel the back open up
just a little bit differently and this really helps
decompress the spine but I just do this one nice and slowly for
about 10 to 15 repetitions. If you feel like you have a little
bit more energy, you can throw in another set or two. You can
do a different variation of the puppy also. This one's more
like a child's pose so I just slide my pillow back a little
bit and this time round, I'm going to grip into the armrest
or whatever you're using with your fingers, tuck your chin
towards your chest and the movement is the same. Just take
your butt down towards your heels. Go down as far as you
can and when you can't go any further, just allow your chest
to go down towards the floor. I think that this one right here
for me anyway, it hits the upper back especially in
between the shoulder blades a little bit more. So, if you are
focused more in that area, give this one a try. Again, 20 to
30 second holds. You're just going to relax, three to five times and
with each repetition, try to build into it just a little bit
more. So, you can take this one also to the next level by
instead of going straight on with it, tilting your body just
a little bit in one direction. So, if you have a pretty short
armrest just like me, what I tend to do is I'll move the
pillow over just a little bit, my lower body is going to be
going straight at the couch but I'm going to tilt my upper body
in the other direction. So, this time around, I'm tilting a
little bit towards my left and then repeating this. This is
really good for one-sided back pain because whatever side that
you're going towards, you're going to feel a stretch on the
other side. So, if you have right-sided back pain, go all
the way towards the left and give this one a try but
experiment with different angles. Go all the way towards
the left, go all the way towards the right and whatever
works best for you. At that point, stop and throw more
repetitions in. So, here's the full body and back decompress
position. It's very easy to do. This one is really good if you
just want something simple that you can do for a couple of
minutes that just feels really really good especially good for
back pain. So, you're going to want something that's elevated
like the edge of a couch, a chair, something like that
where you can bend your knees and rest your calves right on
top of it. You're also going to want a small pillow or towel to
put underneath the lower back. Just put it right underneath
the curve, allow your butt right here to sag downwards
towards the floor. In this position right here, it should
really good like everything is just nice and relaxed and I try
to hold this one for about three to five minutes but if it
feels pretty good, you can hold it for longer. Just grab a
book, your phone, whatever you want to use, just take your
mind off of it and just allow everything just to decompress.
So, with this one, you can also take it to the next level. This
is Loki by the way. By focusing a little bit more
through up the or I should say going upwards towards the upper
back. You can use what called a peanut tool which are two
tennis balls placed in a sock. You just twist the sock, tie a
knot, and at that point, you have something that looks
kind of like a peanut. Why I really like this one is because
you can put your spine right in between the two grooves, the
balls right here. So, it kind of feels very comfortable
and allows the two balls to hit the muscles off to the side of
the spine. So, wherever you're having more discomfort or you
want to focus on a little bit more, just place that peanut
tool directly right over that spot. So, I kind of have it
centered right in my upper back right through here. This time
around, I'm going to take my arms like this and just allow
them to go downward towards the floor. Kinda press down in
there as much as you can. You'll notice that it hits the
back. It opens up the back just a little bit more over the spot
of the tennis ball. I try to hold this one comfortably for
20 to 30 seconds. I can just kind of come back up like this
and repeat this one three to five times. You can also
experiment by just putting your hands on the back of your head
and then winging your elbows down too. This one really
really good and sometimes I do get a sudden release into those
segments that I have the peanut tool over but just give that a
try experiment with different spots and any spot that you
feel needs more tension throw more time and repetitions in so
this decompression exercise is what I call the reacher there's
two different variations that you can do using a couch the
first one I'm going to take a couple pillows place them on
the top of an armrest I'm going to position my body so my upper
body is pretty much over the edge of that armrest while my
lower body including my hips and legs just go straight down
like this. Support your lower body weight, your leg weight on
your toes and just allow gravity to take your leg weight
down. In this position right here, you should already start
to feel a gentle stretch in the lower back. This is how we're
going to focus on getting a good stretch all the way
through the back. So, I'm going to tuck my chin towards my
chest, reach out in front of me, grip into the couch with my
fingers. From here, I'm going to keep crawling full as much
as I can until I feel a really good deep stretch. So, again,
I'm just reaching in front of me and I hold this position for
about 20 to 30 seconds. Just do nice, slow, control breathing.
When you need a breather, just come back up on your forearms
just like this but I try to do this one three to five times
and with each repetition, take your fingers and really just
crawl forward a little bit more to get a deeper decompressive
stretch. So, the second variation of the reacher
doesn't involve using an arm rest but rather the flat edge
of a couch. We're going to position our body very similar.
Put your pillows right here at the edge of that flat edge and
I'm going to have my hips to my legs supported up on the flat
edge. Upper body is going to be off. Start in this position on
your forearms. This right here should feel like a very gentle
stretch but if you want to intensify it, what we're going
to do is allow our chest to go down towards the floor and
reach out in front of us just like this. Grip into the floor
with your finger and crawl forward as much as you can.
Again, you want to hold this one for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Just do nice, slow, controlled breathing. When you need a
breather, just come back up on your forearms like this. I try
to do this one for three to five repetitions and with each
repetition, try to stretch into it just a little bit more. If
you want to take this one to the next level, instead of
going straight with it, angle your body off to one side.
Again, you'll notice that it hits the other side just a
little bit more. So, I experiment with going all the
way towards the and then I will experiment going towards the
right. Whatever feels the best, throw more repetitions in at
that point. So, this is the banded traction method. It's
super easy and we're going to let a pull-up band do all of
the hard work for us. So, a pull-up band, you can get these
locally at any sporting goods department. You can also get
them online. If you would like to get them online, I will
leave a link in this video's description but if you have
chronic lower back pain, this right here is a worthwhile
investment. So, let's get set up. Start taking the pull up
band and looping it on the other sides doorknob on the
door and then you're going to close that door firmly so it is
a stable anchor point it's not going to come back and whack us
in our face from there I'm going to lie flat on my back I
want to put my body into a position in which this pull up
band will be straight it's not going to be tilted you're going
to bend your knees keep your feet flat rest your head right
on the floor the movement from here is very easy just use your
legs right here to push back away the door. The more that
you go back, the more that you're going to feel a deep
stretch forming from this pull-up band right here. Once
you feel that deep but comfortable stretch, we're
going to hold this position for an extended period of time. I
would work your way up to three to five minutes but if it feels
good, you can hold it for longer. The key is just to
relax as much as you can. Just do nice, slow, controlled
breathing at this point. When you need a breather, you can
just scoop forward just like this but on the next rep if you
do break this up into repetitions, just scoop back a
little bit more. Always challenge yourself to open up
the back even further. From there, you can take this one to
the next level by putting some more motions in there that will
target the back just a little bit differently. So, what I'd
like to do is go back to that original deep stretch,
straighten my arms just like this up towards the ceiling and
then just let them come down towards the floor. The more
that you go down, the more that you're going to feel a little
bit more in the middle and upper back. It just feels
really really good. Again, you can hold for an extended period
of time. You can also do what is called a floor angel. So,
I'm going to go down all the way and then I'm just going to
bend my elbows down towards my body. I like to hold this one
for about five seconds and then I just slowly come back like
this and reach in front of me overhead as much as I can and
hold this one for five seconds. Just do this one for about 10
to 15 repetitions and with each repetition, try to build into
it just a little bit more. You can do a couple sets of those
if you feel like it is helping. You can also tilt your body to
target one-sided back pain. So, I just pull my arms down like
this again and then I'm just going to tilt through my waist
moving my shoulder in one direction. When you do this,
you're going to feel a very deep stretch off to one side.
Again, you can hold this for an extended period of time.
Experiment going all the way towards the left, go all the
way towards the right. If one helps out a little bit more at
that point, just put more time and repetitions in. If the
exercises help, please support the channel by giving this
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get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for watching!