In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix lower back pain
off to one side. Stay tuned!
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare
in Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go
over some great lower back pain relief exercises that are
geared towards pain off to one side and it's going to be
broken up into a very easy to follow three-part guide. All
three parts, they focus on something just a little bit
differently but when you put them together, you'll get the
best results. Go through all three parts. Take what is most
effective for you. As a bonus, all of these exercises can be
done at home, don't require any special equipment and may get
quick lower back pain relief, even in as little as 30
seconds. So, let's get started and fix that lower back pain
right now. In this part, we're going to focus on a big cause
of lower back pain which is muscle tightness. Think muscle
spasms, muscle knots, trigger points, you name it. One of the
easiest ways to be able to target these is with this
method. I go right next to a door and I place my feet flat
against it. I would recommend using shoes with this because
you'll have more grip making this exercise a little bit
easier. Knees are going to be bent at 90°, our knees and our
hips are going to be in a nice straight line. We just lay flat
on our back just like this. If you do need some extra comfort
for the neck, throw a roll-up towel or pillow underneath it.
I'm going to be using an everyday tennis ball for this.
If you don't have a tennis ball, just roll up a couple
socks instead. So, the movement is very easy. What I'm going to
do is lift my butt up by using my feet right here. Kind of place
your weight right in your heels and then just take the tennis
ball and go right over a spot of tightness in the lower back.
When you do this, only place the sock or the ball over
muscle or soft tissue. Don't put it directly over the spine
because that can cause irritation. So, let's say I
have a lot of pain right off to the left side of the lower
back. I'm just going to center that tennis ball right over
that. The nice thing with this is that I can control the
amount of pressure going down into the tennis ball by lifting
or lowering my butt just like this. So, only go towards a comfortable
amount of pressure. From there, what I want to do is you can
either hold this for a little bit if it feels good but I like
to throw more motion in there. So, I go side to side with it.
Just use my legs, my hips, my pelvis to swing my body over
the ball just like this and do it for about 15 to 20 seconds.
Again, applying enough pressure in there where it feels good
but not causing discomfort. From there, you can just relax,
take a breather, and if it feels a lot better, you can
switch over different spots but I tend to do this for about
three five repetitions and with each repetition, I try to drive
down into the ball just a little bit more. You can also
experiment by going forward with it and you can also do
like a hula hoop motion. So, go through different motions, see
if that targets it just a little bit better but I would
recommend doing this pretty much from the belt line all the
way up. If you want to target a little bit more off to the side
too, what I tend to do is tilt my body towards one side like
this. So, if I have a lot of left-sided issues, I tilt my
pelvis, my hips towards the side and then do it. You'll
notice that it becomes a little bit more pinpoint over the ball
because more body weight is being placed over the ball. So,
give that one a try. If you want to take this one to the
next level, let's reposition that ball over the spot of pain
and I'm going to add some dynamic movement in there. So,
I like to do a pelvic tilt. That is just putting my hands
on my hips and then rocking my butt forward and backward just
like this. You'll notice that it engages a lot more muscles
and you might find that this just becomes more affect and
getting that muscle tightness out. If you want to take this
one to the next next level, what we can do is a knee to the
chest. So, I just take one leg off like this. In this case,
it'll be my left and I bring the knee all the way up towards
my chest. You'll notice that this again acts or activates
the muscles and this will become a much more intense self
massage into that area. So, you can hold this position right
here for about 15 to 20 seconds. You can just relax and
then repeat this one for a couple repetition Experiment
with going towards the other side too and if that one feels
like it helps out, you can throw again more repetitions in
but from there, just switch over different spots as needed
and I hope that gives very quick lower back pain relief.
In this part, we're going to focus on improving mobility in
the lower back, that is just loosening up tight joints. In
this part, we're going to focus on improving mobility in the
lower back that is improving muscle tightness and joint
stiffness with great lower back pain relief stretching exercise
let's start with a very easy one that you can pretty much do
anywhere it's known as the ballerina so what I'm going to do
is start with very good upright posture whatever side that
we're having pain let's say I have pain on my right side I'm
gonna take this leg and then just put it over the other side
so it's kinda in front of the other leg what I'm gonna do
from there is take the hand on the side that you're not having
pain so in this case my left place it on my left hip the
first part what I'm going to do is apply pressure into my left hip
to then move my pelvis slightly towards the right. Push over
just enough until you feel the muscles activate and you really
start to feel it a little bit more on the right side. From
there, what I'm going to do is take my right arm, bend it like
this, place it overhead and then, I'm going to press into
my left hip while I then bend my body towards the left. When
you do this, you're going to feel a very deep stretch into
the right side. This really targets a muscle known as the
QL or quadratus lumborum is a big instigator of lower back
pain. You want to hold this one comfortably for at least 20
seconds, but if it feels good, hold it for longer. You can
hold it for a half minute up to a minute. When you need a
breather, just relax like this but you want to do this for
three to five repetitions and with each repetition, try to
stretch more into it. Always challenge those muscles to get
more tightness out and when you're done on one side, always
switch to the other to keep them both in balance. So, here
is a great lower back pain exercise that you can do first
thing in the morning in bed. You can also do this one on the
floor. What I'm going to do is take two of my favorite yoga
poses, the cobra and the child's pose and put them
together to really focus on getting quick lower back pain
relief even more so off to one side. So, I'm going to start off
on all fours in bed just like this. I like to go to the edge
of a bed grip into with my hands. It makes this a little
bit easier to do. Let's tuck the chin towards the chest and
then from there, I'm going rock my whole body back like this.
Pretty much taking my butt down towards my heels. The more that
you go down, the more that you're going to feel an intense
stretch pretty much through the whole back. You wanna keep your
elbows locked and straight during this exercise too but go
down as far as you're able to go. Once you hit a very
comfortable stretch and you really feel it into the back.
Hold this one for 20 to 30 seconds. You can hold it for
longer if it feels good. You want to also do nice, slow,
controlled breathing. Let the tension out more you relax the
better this exercise will work from there I'm going to go into
the cobra so I'm going to rock forward like this to the point
where my hips my pelvis are going to go flat on the bend my
elbows are just going to be slightly bent this puts the
back into extension and it should feel like a very deep
stretch into the lower back if it's too intense just use your
elbows to bend a little bit more like this and bring your
chest down but the more that you lift your chest up the more
intense the stretch will get but when you do this exercise, you
want to make sure that the hips down to your toes are flat.
It's not arching up like this. The only thing that should be
arching is your back into extension. Hold this one for 20
to 30 seconds. You're just going to relax and then what
you're going to do is then build back into the child's
pose. You want to do this one nice and slowly for about three
to five repetitions and with each repetition, try to stretch
into it just a little bit more. Always challenge those muscles
to hopefully get more pain relief. This is how we're going
to modify it to then take it to the next level and focus a
little bit more on one-sided back pain. So, let's get back
into our original position. I'm going to do the child's pose
again but what I'm going to do is focus on turning or tilting
my upper body to hit one side. Let's say I have a lot going on
on my right side. So, instead of going straight out with it,
I'm going to go towards the opposite direction. So, I'm
tilting my body towards the left, just the upper body and
then I'm going to lower my butt down towards the heels. When
you do this, you're going to feel a lot, a really good deep
stretch into that right side. So, experiment by going as far
as you're able to go and then repeating this exercise and
then you can do the same thing with the cobra. So, I go
straight ahead with it just like this but I'm just going to
then tilt my body a little bit in the opposite direction but
with each repetition with this one, try to focus on going
towards the other direction as much as you can build into it
to get a better stretch. With this we're going to focus on
dynamic movements that is targeting a lot of muscle
groups in a short amount of time notably the piriformis and
QL or quadratus lumbar muscles two big instigators of lower
back pain I'm going to start off on the floor one leg is
going to go straight just like this doesn't matter what side
you start with because we're going to do it on both the
other side I'm going to bend the knee and then I'm going to
take the foot and place it on the inside of the straight leg
pretty much centered right at the knee press into it just a
little bit two to create a stable anchor point. The side
of the bent knee, I'm going to keep that arm straight at the
elbow. Just place my hand back like this for a little bit more
stability. The first motion is pretty easy. We want to just
make sure that we have very good upright posture as much as
you can. So, kinda take your hand and just press up with
your upper body as much as you can. We also want to try to
keep the bent knee flat against the floor during this exercise.
I'm going to take the hand, place it on the bent side's
knee, and do what is known as a corkscrew. So, I'm going to my
whole body towards the side of the bent knee just very very
slowly you should feel a very good stretch pretty much from
the upper back all the way down to the lower back really focus
on that with this one too you might get a sudden pop crack or
release into the back it's quite common this exercise just
puts a lot of mobility into the back but don't try to force it
just go for a deep stretch once we hit that deep stretch let's
hold this one for 20 seconds from there you're just going to
relax and then you can do for three to five repetitions with
each repetition try to stretch into it just a little bit more
this is how we can focus on taking this to the next level
and hitting a little bit more off to the side so I'm gonna go
back into the corkscrew I'm gonna lift my hand off the
floor like this put it overhead and then I'm going to just
laterally tilt or bend my body towards the opposite direction
so if my right knee is bent I'm tilting my whole body towards
my left side and this feels wonderful very very deep
stretch to the side right here. It's really hitting that QL or
quadratus lumborum. Again, hold this one for about 20 seconds.
You're just going to relax. On the next repetition, try to
stretch more into it and repeat this for three to five
repetitions and then when you're done on one side, always
switch to the other to keep them both imbalance. A leading
cause of one-sided lower back pain is due to imbalances and
weaknesses in the back. If we don't address that, no matter
what stretch you do, the pain will keep coming back. So, if
we want to get rid of the lower back pain for good, we have to
strengthen everything and this is a very easy exercise to be
able to do that. It's known as the butt walk. It sounds funny
but yes, it does really work. It's going to target a lot of
muscles, pretty much the legs, the glute buttock. It's going
to work the core, the quadratus lumborum, the lower back
muscles. It's really good for bringing both sides into
balance. I'm gonna start off on the floor. You might find that
doing this on a hardwood floor will be a little bit easier
than doing it on carpet but I'm going to just straighten both
legs like this. I'm gonna take my hands, place them into a
prayer position and then put my hands right on my chest just
like this. Just drive it right in. Let's have very good
upright posture as much as possible. From here, the
movement is really easy. I'm going to just take one leg, the
heel right here, and then drive it forward, the whole leg and
the whole side. Activate those muscles. From there, I'm just
going to do the same with the other side but when you do
this, I lift up a little bit and then I start to just drive
my whole side forward. So, I'm walking with my butt. Again,
this can become very challenging if you have a lot
of weakness going on but it's going to work both sides. Try
to do this for about five seconds. If you're able to work
up and go longer. The more that you do this, the more strength
that you're going to build but once you hit a point where you
feel like you need a break, take a breather and then on
that point, let's go in reverse. Or tackle the muscles
a little bit differently but this is just a good way to
really focus on building strength, build balance in both
sides, and have a little bit of fun at the same time also but
try to do this for about three to five repetitions. If the
exercise has helped, please support the channel by giving
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get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks so much for
watching!