In this video, I'm going to show you how to pull open your
back for instant pain relief. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to do
pulling motions known as traction, or decompression, to
help open up the back, reduce pressure, and tightness, and
hopefully get some quick pain relief. All of these exercises,
they hit the back just a little bit differently. So, go through
them all, take what works best for you. This first exercise is
known as a prone leg kick. We're going to do this at the
edge of a bed. Start off by placing a pillow or towel at
the edge for extra comfort. I'm going to lay on my stomach.
Pretty much my lower back on up is going to be supported flat
on this bed. I'm just going to let my hips and legs rest off
the edge. I'm also going to place something underneath my
toes that is going to glide and take friction out of this
movement. So, if you have carpeted floors, you can use
something like a furniture mover like I'm using, you can
use a paper plate or a piece of cardboard. If you have hardwood
floors, you can just use socks. So, let's get to position. What
I'm going to do is outreach my hands like this, straighten my
arms at the elbow, and grip into the bed with my fingers.
Let's do a slight chin tuck taking our chin towards our
chest also. With your fingers, crawl forward just a little bit
until you feel a very good stretch in the upper back going
all the way down. With this one, you want to focus on
getting a deep initial stretch to begin with. I pretty much
feel it from my upper back to my tailbone. Once we hit that,
what I'm going to do is then kick outwards with my toes,
straightening my legs and my knees and really reaching away.
So, I'm gripping forward with my fingers reaching or reaching
away from me with my hands and then trying to reach away from
me with my toes. When we do this, I almost feel like a
full-body stretch. It feels really really good. What I want
to do is hold this one comfortably for about 30
seconds but if it feels good, you can hold it for longer up
towards towards a minute. When you need a breather, just bring
your legs back like this. You want to on the next repetition,
build into a just a little bit more by reaching forward and
then kicking out. Always challenge yourself with each
repetition to intensify that stretch. Try to do this for
three to five times. You can also take this one to the next
level by instead of going straight with it. Take your
legs and tilt them towards one direction. So, what I'm doing
is just tilting my legs towards my left. Whatever side that
you're tilting towards, you're going to feel a very deep
stretch on the other side. So, I pretty much feel a deep
stretch from my mid back going down in my lower back, the side
of the hips, and to the legs. It feels really good but give
this one a try. Hold it for about 30 seconds and then from
there, go towards the other side. Try to repeat this one
for 3 to 5 repetitions on both sides. If you do have something
like one-sided pain or even more like a sciatica, leg pain
going down. What you can do is build into the stretch and then
just focus on one side by kind of flossing with it. So,
I'm just going to focus on driving leg back. What this
will do is open up that sciatic pathway and might give you a
lot of quick relief but give that one a try, just one at a
time and see if that helps you out just a little bit more but
I do recommend going through all of these motions. If you
feel like one just targets your back pain a little bit more,
make note of that. Always throw more reps in with the movements
that offer you the most amount of relief. This exercise is
called the anywhere back opener. You can do this one at
home, at work. We just need a Doorframe. It's a two-part
exercise, very easy to do. I'm going to place my toes right up
against the door frame. I'm going to cross my arms over
like this, grip into the door frame with my fingers. From
there, I'm going to tuck my chin towards my chest and then
slowly lower my butt away from me. Kinda like taking it
diagonally towards the floor. The more that we go down, the
more that you're going to feel a very deep stretch throughout
the whole back. I actually feel it all the way down into my
legs. It feels really good. I try to hold this for about 20
seconds. From there, I'm going to relax and then come forward.
I'm going to place my hips, my pelvis flat against that door
frame. I'm going to take my hands, place them on my hips
like this, drive them forward for a stable anchor point. So,
we don't want our hips lifting off during this next part. From
there, I'm just going to take my shoulders and upper
backwards as much as I can. This is known as a cobra pose
and it puts extension or a backwards movement into the
back which helps take pressure off of it and it feels really
really good. Go back as far as you're able to go. Once we hit
a very deep comfortable stretch, let's hold this one
right here for about 20 to 30 seconds. You're just going to
relax and then just repeat this cycle 3 to five times and with
each repetition, try to stretch into it just a little bit more
to get that better stretch and hopefully more pain relief.
Here's one of my favorite ways to help open up the back with
an exercise known as the soup can back opener. I'm going to be a
large tasty can of beef barley soup and a large bath towel.
I'm going to go next to a door or a wall. Lay flat on your
back. You want your hips, your knees, and a nice straight
line. Knees bent roughly at 90 degrees. I'm going to press
into the door or the wall with my feet. I tend to wear shoes
with this because I have a little bit more grip making the
exercise just a little bit easier. So, let's take our soup
can and then center it right over the spot that you're
having back pain. I place the towel over the suitcan too for
extra comfort. I'm having a little bit more right above the
belt line. So, I have that centered and what I'm going to
do is take my legs right here and slowly lower my body down
over that soup can until I feel a very deep but comfortable
stretch. Once we hit that point, we're going to hold this
for 30 seconds. Relax as much as you can. Do nice, slow,
controlled breathing. If this feels pretty good, you can hold
it for 30 seconds or longer. I mean, if it feels really good,
can hold it for a minute or two. Grab a book, an iPhone,
just take your mind off of it but when you need a breather,
just lift up with your legs like this. On the next
repetition, you want to press down into a just a little bit
more to intensify that stretch. I try to do this for about 3 to
5 complete repetitions. From there, you can move the soup can
up or down to target different spots as needed. If you want to
take this one to the next level, you can do a little bit
more of dynamic movement in there to target those muscle
and hopefully open up the back just a little bit more. So, do
a simple knee to the chest with one side. Take your left leg
and just grab at the knee and then pull your knee towards
your chest. You'll notice that more pressure is put over the
soup can. So, give this one a try and then try it on the
right side. If you feel like one just hits it a little bit
more, throw more repetitions in at that point, target the spots
and the movements that are the most effective. From there, if
I have a little bit more of back pain to one side. This is
how we can take it even to the next level. What I'm going to
do is straighten my arms like this and then overlap my hands.
Let's say I have a lot going on on my left side. What I'm going
to do is lower my arms as much as I can and from there, tilt
my body away from the painful side. So, if I am left-sided
pain, I'm going to tilt my upper body from my waist all
the way through my fingers right here towards the right,
this feels really really good. It's going to target a muscle
off to the side the QL, or quadratus lumborum, a big
instigator of back pain. I pretty much feel it from the
middle back right here all the way down to the hip. I try to
hold this one for about 30 seconds then just relax. On the
next repetition, try to drive down with your body weight into
the soup can a little bit more and stretch over to the side
but give that one a try and it might help with your one-sided
back pain. Go through all of the motions and again, if one
works the best for you, throw more repetitions in at that
point. So, if you stuck around to the end of the video, you're going
to be rewarded with a great back pain relief exercise that
you can do right at home. This is called the kitchen sink
opener and just like the name applies, we just need a kitchen
sink. Let's go right up to it. What I'm going to do is space
my legs a little bit away from that countertop, that kitchen
sink. Outstretch my arms straight, anchor in right at
the edge. From there, I'm going to keep my legs straight at the
knees and then I'm going to tuck my chin towards my chest
and slowly just rock my whole body backwards is as I can.
Allow the chest to go downwards towards the floor too. I'll
help open up the upper back. I like this one because you're
also going to get a very deep hamstring stretch into the back
of the legs but go back as far as you feel comfortable. Really
focus on feeling it into the back itself. Once we hit a very
deep comfortable stretch, let's hold this for about 30 seconds.
From there, you can just rock forward and take a breather. On
the next repetition, try to stretch into it even more.
Always focus on getting a better stretch because it'll
open up the back and hopefully give you more relief. From
there, I try to do this three to five times. To take this one
to the next level instead of going straight out with it,
let's angle our body just a little bit in one direction.
So, in this case, I'm going a little bit towards my left and
then, I'm going to repeat this exercise. What you'll notice is
it helps pull open the back just a little bit differently.
So, go all the way towards the left. Go all the way towards
the right. If you do feel like one works a little bit better
for you, throw more repetitions in at that point. We can focus
a little bit more on the upper back with a technique called
threading the needle. So, let's get back into that original
stretch just like this. What I'm going to do is take one arm
off, bend it at 90degrees and then just rotate my whole upper
body towards the opposite direction. So, my right arm is
going all the way towards my left. This one just hits the
upper back a little bit more. You'll really feel a lot of
muscles fire up there. So, reach over as far as you can.
Hold that for about 20 to 30 seconds and then repeat it on
the other side. Again, if one just works a little bit better
for you, throw more repetitions in at that point but go through
all of those motions. If one feels like it helps you a
little bit more, throw more reps in and I hope that that
gives you a lot of back pain relief. If the exercises
helped, please support the channel by giving this video a
like and maybe subscribing too. If you have any comments or
questions, please leave them below. I'll get back to you as
soon as I can. Thanks so much for watching!