hey everybody it's doctor Jo and Gamecock Kali, and today we're gonna show
you seven stretches for your back when you can't get on the floor.
so let's get started.
so a lot of you often ask, "how am I supposed to do these
stretches? I can't get on the floor." well a lot of times if you're doing stretches
lying down, you don't have to do them on the floor. even though I'm on the floor,
you can do them on your bed. you can do it on your couch, but today I'm going to
show you some stretches for your back that you can actually do seated in a
chair. so a lot of times it is hard to get on the floor, and sometimes it hurts
to do stuff lying down. so if you're seated in chair, or especially if you're
at work and you can't lie down anywhere, these are really good. they're modified
ways to stretch your back, but they're great ways to stretch your back. so the
first one is kind of just a modified cat-cow. and so the cat-cow, or sometimes
I call it the cat dog, is when you're on all fours and you're doing the movements
that make you look like a cat and then dropping down looking like a cow or a
dog. so you can do that seated in a chair. and so just the way to do that is
when you go into the cat, you're going to tuck your chin in and then kind of arch
your back back towards the the backrest. so you're just coming down like this
pushing your pelvis back to kind of going into that arch. so that would be
the cat part. and then you're going to come up bring everything forward and
then bring your head back. so that would be the cow or the dog. so just coming
down maybe holding for five to ten seconds, and then coming back and
stretching, kind of arching everything forward. so you could just do that back
and forth maybe five times each. if you're limited on your time, three times
each, doing that maybe 10 to 15 second hold or just a 5 to 10 second hold. but
it is really going to get kind of the same movements as you would do for a
full cat cow on the floor or on your bed. so then the next one is just going to be
a pelvic tilt. and so same kind of thing this one would be if you were lying down
on your back doing a pelvic tilt, but you can do it in a chair. sometimes if you
can't quite get the movement, you can use a rolled-up towel and all as I mean is
when you're doing a pelvic tilt you're kind of sinking
down and coming forward. so this might be a little hard for some people, but this
is just a tilt in the chair. if you make your surface that you're sitting on
slightly uneven so you have that roll just on the end, it's a little easier to
sink down and roll forward. see I'm almost rolling back over the towel and
then front in front of the towel. so you can see though that I'm tilting that
pelvis or doing a pelvic tilt. so you can kind of hold for like three to five
seconds each way, or you can do like I started just kind of doing a continuous
movement, but that would kind of be a modified pelvic tilt in a seated
position. so then you can also do a knee to chest. doing a knee to chest in a
seated position is the same if you're doing it on your bed or the floor lying
down. so all you're doing is just like it sounds, bringing your knee up to your
chest. so it would be kind of this position here and that kind of helps
open up your back. if you have knee problems, grab underneath here and hold
that stretch, but if you don't have any problems sometimes it's nice just to
kind of hug on to it like this. and so this would be a full 30 second stretch.
you're gonna hold it here for about thirty seconds. and just a little side
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subscribe button if you haven't already. so 30 seconds like I said each side
switching back and forth doing that about three times. so the next one is
just going to be crossing your leg over to do a piriformis stretch. this is
actually one of my favorite piriformis stretches. you can again do these lying
down. you can do a piriformis stretch in a pigeon pose or on your back, but
this is nice because you can really do it anywhere. so if you can, bring your leg
up the side you want to stretch. you're going to cross it over. and so this is
kind of a figure-four. that's why a lot of times people call it the figure four
stretch or the piriformis / glute stretch. and when
that's tight, that really does tend to irritate your back. so if you're having
back pain, this is a great stretch. the key to this, since you don't have the
floor or your bed protecting your back keep your back straight, you don't want
to curl over like this. I'm getting no stretch doing this. you want to keep your
back straight and lean forward at your hips. and just going to there I can feel
that piriformis muscle underneath my bottom stretching. and so a lot of times
people will be like, well the piriformis doesn't have much to do with the back,
but it has a lot to do with the back. so this is a great stretch to do, and again
this is 30 seconds. so it's a it's a hold. so it shouldn't be painful. it should
just be tension in there and again doing both sides, stretching both sides 30
seconds on each side. so the next stretch is going to be a seated ql stretch which
is quadratus lumborum. and that's the muscle in the back a lot of times people
forget about, but it's really important. a lot of back pain comes from the QL so
with this one, you're going to put one hand just kind of down. you can either
sit on it, you can push it down, sometimes I'll have people bring it over this way,
but the side you want to stretch you're gonna bring your arm up and over. and
you're not necessarily curving over, you're bringing your arm straight up and
over like you're going towards the other corner of the room. so I'm gonna just
kind of push down on my chair and then come up and over. so that's the QL
stretch. you should be feeling it stretch right through there. so pushing down with
the opposite side, and pushing up and over. so this is a full stretch you're
gonna hold it for 30 seconds and then do that three times on each
side. so again kind of pushing down stabilizing on this side and then up and
over like I'm trying to point towards the opposite corner of the ceiling, and
then really getting that nice stretch all the way through here. 30 seconds,
three times. so then the next one is going to be a hamstring stretch. a lot of
times for the hamstrings, it's hard for people because 1, their hamstrings are
tight. 2. it is hard to keep their back straight while they're stretching. so you
can do this a couple of different ways. you can use a little step stool or
something in front of you, or you can just put your foot out in front of you,
but I always like having something you can kind of prop
your leg up on while you're sitting. and it would be the same way stretching it
if you were sitting on the floor. you want to keep your legs straight. so you
don't want your knee bent, you want your legs straight. and if you want to get a
little bit of extra stretch in your calf muscles, pull your toes up towards you.
and then all you're gonna do is keep that back straight, that's the important
part, and lean forward at your hips. so just to
here. I'm already getting a hamstring stretch, now if I curl down and try to
touch my toes, I could touch my toes, but I'm barely getting a hamstring stretch.
so keep your back straight and that also makes sure you're not hurting your back
to be able to stretch those hamstrings. so that's a great way to modify that
stretch without having to get on to the floor. and then the last one is just a
super simple trunk rotation stretch seated in the chair. so all you're going
to do with that is if you have arm rest, sometimes that works even better because
you can grab on the arm rest, but even if you just have a back into your chair
like this, just kind of grab on and do a little twist. now if you're not sure what
your back pain is from, be a little careful with the twisting. you can still
twist, but just like any stretch or exercise
you should only go to tension, and not go to pain. so just kind of turning getting
that nice stretch in there, and this one you could do a little less than 30
seconds if you want to. if you want to do a 15-20 second, just trying to get that
stretch, you can. so there you have it. those are seven stretches for your back
when you can't get on the floor. Kali says if you like to help support our
channel, make sure to click on the link up there, and don't forget to subscribe.
and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.