Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm gonna show you my five favorite ways
to relieve a backache. so let's get started.
So these are going to be just for a general backache, no specific diagnosis,
if you maybe just overworked yourself in the yard a little bit, or overworked
yourself in gym a little bit, but not a specific injury. this is just if you got
some aches and pains. so the first way to help relieve the backache is just going
to be a chair stretch. with a chair stretch all you're gonna do is just lean
forward and curl your body down. now if you've seen some of my stretches for
hamstrings and things like that, I tell you to keep your back straight. with this
back stretch, you do want to curl your back, so just let your arms kind of hang
down and just slide down towards the floor. so just go as far as you
comfortably can, and just hold that stretch for about 30
seconds. so if you can only come to about right here, that's fine don't feel like
you have to force yourself all the way down, but as you relax, your body should
just slowly keep going towards the floor. so again hold that stretch for 30
seconds come back up. let that back relax a little bit and then do that three
times. so again just rolling down getting that nice stretch and the nice curl
rolling it back up. so after you've done that, we're going to do a thoracic
rotation stretch. so this is going to get a little more of the upper back. take
your hands and just kind of place them behind your head. if you want to lock
your fingers together, you can and then you're just gonna rotate down like
you're taking your elbow towards the opposite knee. so just kind of rotate
down this way. just a little pause maybe three to five
seconds, this doesn't have to be a 30 second hold because it's a pretty big
stretch, and then alternate back down the other way. so just a nice hold there
getting a good stretch coming back up. so I'd probably do about five on each side,
again don't feel like you have to touch your elbow to your knee or even get as
close as I'm getting, you just go as far as you comfortably can until you
feel a nice stretch through that upper mid-back area. then after you get those
stretches in the third way to help relieve a backache is using some kind of
relief gel, and this is Dr. Pats ultra freeze gel, and the folks at vive health
sent me this. these kind of things are awesome the gel has a nice cooling
effect and the main ingredient is menthol so it's got a nice nice scent to
it, and it's nice and cool. it really gives you that relaxing kind of feeling
and you can see here that gel just rubs right in and a lot of times when you
first put it on if you just kind of put it on your back and and rub it in it's
nice and cool, it just feels like some gel on there, but it usually takes a
little while to really kick in. what I like about this particular brand the
Pat's, is that it doesn't go so quick where it's shocking, so once I put it on
its it's a nice slow cooling effect you don't really feel the full effects
sometimes for about five or ten minutes which is fine because sometimes you put
on some of those creams that you just get from the grocery store, and as soon
as you put on it's, you know, hot and fiery and sometimes itchy and
uncomfortable, but this is a nice cool soothing feeling and it feels really
good, and once you put it on it just lasts for a while and it's really nice
to help relax those muscles, so if you've got some ache in there
it's an arthritis type thing, or a strain or sprain somewhere, it doesn't
have to be just for the back it can be anywhere it can be the neck is a great
place, it could come be on your quads, it can be down into your shins, your calves,
even if your your hands if you have some arthritis, so this is a really good thing
to use, and I like it a lot. so if you're interested in purchasing, it make sure
you click on the link up here. so number four is going to be a prayer stretch, or
some people call it a Child's Pose. this is one of my favorites because you
can really just relax, let your back get stretched out. it stretches your
shoulders as well so just start off in this position.
if you have painful knees you might not want to start sitting back like this, but
you can start forward and then come back, but just you're gonna put your arms
straight out and just relax as much as you can. so just a nice stretch forward
and then bring your forehead down to the floor. so this is another one where you
just want to stretch for about 30 seconds a nice hold. if you've got a
little bit of ache on the sides, you can go over to the sides a little bit just
to get the stretch on the sides as well, and then you can come back up and then
go this way, but if you just want a nice stretch all the way through the mid
lower back, you just go straight down and again hold that for 30 seconds and then
do that three times. so again if you're not very comfortable
with your knees back this way, you can start up kind of in an all four position
and put your arms out and then come back this way. so sometimes that's a little
more comfortable if you don't have a lot of flexibility in your knee joint, so you
can do it that way as well. and so number five the last stretch is
going to be my absolute favorite just because it's named after animals, and so
it's the cat dog. some people call it the cat cow, cat camel, cat always seems to be
in it, the dog should always be in it, but anyway so what you're gonna do is get on
all fours or in quadruped. so just make sure that your shoulders are pretty
directly above your hands. if you're too far out or too far back it's just going
to put a lot of stress on your shoulders, and so you don't want to fix your back
and then make your shoulders hurt, so make sure you're in a nice comfortable
position, and you're going to start off with the cat so you're going to arch
your back up and tuck your chin in. so you're just gonna go this way
and so for this instead of a 30-second hold since sometimes it's a little hard
for people, I say just hold it for about five to ten seconds and then drop down
into the dog where your hips are going to go down and then your heads coming up.
so really you're doing a lot of hip motion here just to loosen up that lower
back and that upper back, so then going up
and then rolling back down. so those are my five favorite ways to help relieve a
backache, and woo Dr. Pat's really makes my back nice and cool now, it feels
really good. so if you're interested in purchasing that, make sure you click on
the link up here, and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down here. and
remember, be safe (feel nice and cool), have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.