hey everyone my name is dr jeff peng this will be a quick five minute stretch and exercise routine
to help provide relief for low back pain now i recommend doing this routine at least three
times a day in order to increase mobility and to increase range of motion feel free to follow
along as we go through all the movements in real time you can also use the time stamps
or find a description of the routine down below so the first thing we're going to do is cat cow
so let's get on our hands and knees and get your wrists below your shoulders knees below your hips
and then arch your back try to touch your belly button into your spine and look down
and now reverse it so look upwards now and rotate your pelvis backwards
and then alternate between the two now this is a really good stretch
and mobility exercise to open up our low back in our hips
and 30 seconds good the next thing we're going to do our back
extension so lie on your belly and then push up
just like this now this is a really good exercise to help
increase range of motion and mobility of the spine and get all the back muscles stretched out
and if you can't get all the way up here you can start on your forearms over here
and then push up and then day by day as your range of motion increases see if you can get
on your hands and end up somewhere around here and we're going to hold this for 30 seconds good
the next one we're going to do is knee to chest lie on your back and pull your knee towards you
just like this and we're going to do one side first and we're going to hold this for 30 seconds
and then we're going to move on to the other side and we're going to do the other side for
30 seconds and this is a really good stretch if you got really tight low back muscles is going
to help really open up the low back it's also going to really help open up the hips
and 30 seconds on this side and we're going to switch sides in three 2
1 go ahead and switch sides so bring the other knee up and just hold it like this
i'm going to hold this for 30 seconds now if you can't get all the way up here because if
your muscles are too tight or it's just really uncomfortable that's okay you can start farther
down here and hold on to your knees like this and then again as you increase that range of motion
you should be able to slowly pull it up towards your hip and get a nice bigger
stretch kind of doing it like this okay i'm gonna hold this for 30 seconds on this side
in three two one good the next movement is a line trunk rotation so just like knee to chest lie down
bring your knee to your chest but this time you're going to rotate it towards the side
just like this now this hand you can put gentle pressure on the knee to try to touch it
to the ground and that's going to rotate your trunk even more to get a bigger stretch
you want to also try to open up your chest by bringing this shoulder and see if you can
touch it to the ground so opening up the chest rotating the trunk feeling that deep stretch
in your low back if you have tight glutes you're also going to feel it in your hips
you're going to feel it all up and down your spine so 30 seconds on this side good switch sides
so same thing knead a chest and then rotate towards the other side
open up the chest over here
this hand gentle pressure on the knee to try to push it down towards the ground
feel that big stretch as you rotate your trunk you're gonna feel it in the spine you're gonna
feel it in the hips i'm gonna hold this for a total of 30 seconds so three and two and one
good the next stretch is a hamstring stretch so just extend your leg and try to touch your toes
just like this now if you can't make it all the way to your toes and you can only make it to your
knee that's fine just try to feel that stretch in the back part of your hamstring all the way
down here you don't want to try to bend your back like this hinge at the hip try to touch your chest
to your knees or try to touch your chest to your toes and that's the goal of feeling this stretch
and we're going to do this side for 30 seconds and then we're going to switch
sides so three two one good switch sides and the reason we're focusing on our hamstrings
is when people have really tight hamstrings it actually pulls down on the back of your pelvis
and we call that a posterior pelvic tilt and people who have a posterior pelvic tilt it puts
chronic tension on your low back muscles so over time you're straining it you're overloading it and
it's a very common cause of persistent low back pain so 30 seconds on this side three two one good
so the next stretch we're going to do is we're going to work on our gluteal muscles so get into a
90 90 position which is 90 degrees here 90 degrees here and then lean forward towards your knee
just like this now if you can get on your forearms here that's good you can stay on your hands over
here that's fine too where you want to feel it is in the gluteal the posterior part of your hips
where all your gluteal muscles are and we're going to hold this side for a total of 30 seconds
now our glutes are incredibly important for pelvic stability and when people have tight glute muscles
when they have weak loop muscles they tend to have poor posture they tend to have abnormal movements
and 30 seconds good so switch sides and you can also do a pigeon pose which is a 90 degrees here
extend your back leg and then lean forward like this and if you can get on your forearms like this
you get a bigger stretch in the posterior part of your hip you're going to feel that
all the way in your glute muscles and again the glutes are so important for pelvic stability that
if you have tight glutes if you have weak glutes you're going to overload your spine you're going
to overload your back muscles and that can lead to persistent pain in the back so 30 seconds good
the last movement we're going to do is child's pose so just get on your
hands and your knees like this and then sit backwards and try to reach out with your hands
just like this and we're going to feel it this is really going to help elongate
the spine stretch out those back muscles it's going to also help open up the hips
and if you have shoulder pain you may even feel a stretch right here in the back part
of your shoulder so we're going to hold this for a total of 30 seconds as well
so in three and two and one good all it takes is five minutes to stretch out and strengthen
the low back do this routine three times a day in order to provide relief for low back pain
if you found this information useful please share with others please also consider liking the video
and subscribing to my channel i can be found on twitter @jeffreypengmd
and i write on my blog at jeffreypengmd.com