hey everybody is Doctor Jo and princess Remy, and today I'm going to show you
some of my favorite back pain stretches and exercises. so let's get started.
so before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click on the
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so the first one is going to be lying down. you don't have to lie down on the
floor. you can do this on your bed or your couch. so if you have a hard time
getting on the floor, you can do it somewhere else.
so just lying down and getting in a nice comfortable position with your feet
propped up. so the first one is just going to be a simple pelvic tilt. pelvic
tilts are my favorite because it's not a big movement, but it's kind of a mix
between a stretch and an exercise. so with a pelvic tilt it's just like it
sounds, you're tilting your pelvic back or doing a posterior pelvic tilt trying
to almost flatten your back into the floor or the bed or the couch. but the
key is not to push your back down. this isn't using your legs to do it, this is
using your pelvic muscles to do it. so if you feel like you're pushing into the
floor with your feet, you're not quite doing it right. so when you usually lie
down, you have a little bit of a curve in your back there, and so with that pelvic
tilt, you're just trying to flatten out that curve. but you should still be able
to kind of pick up your feet a little bit while you're doing it. so if you're not,
that means you're using your legs to do that pelvic tilt. so just going down
getting that nice flat motion, still being able to breathe comfortably while
you're doing that pelvic tilt, hold it for about three to five seconds and then
relax. this shouldn't be painful. so if it is really really uncomfortable or
painful, just modify it a little bit and just don't push down as hard until your
back is used to it. so just a little tilt, that feels okay, then tilt just a little
bit more. but again you're using those pelvic muscles. you're using those
abdominal muscles to do that tilt back. you're not using your legs. so again
about a three to five second hold maybe just start off with five. you can work
your way up to ten to 15 a couple times a day. but remember they don't feel like
a lot, but they're a lot more than you think, so I would just start with a
little bit and and progress to a little bit more. so
then the next one is going to be a bridge. though this time you are you're
using your glutes and your hamstrings to bring your bottom up off of the floor or
the couch or the bed that you're on. so if you sometimes have issues with cramps
in your hamstrings, you might want to bring your heels a little bit closer to
your bottom because that will take the hamstrings out of it a little bit. so if
you start going up into the bridge you feel like they're trying to cramp, then
come on back down and bring your feet up a little bit more. but I want to get the
hamstrings as well as the gluts a little bit to get the bridge. but with the
bridge I like to kind of go up one segment at a time. you don't have to stop
at each segment of your back, but you really want it to kind of roll up and
then roll back down. you don't want to just come up and down and use momentum to do
it because then you're not really getting the exercise. you really want to
kind of roll up and then roll back down. so it's almost like you're going into
that pelvic tilt first, and then rolling the rest of your body up. again this
shouldn't be painful. so if you can only come up to maybe like right here to
start off with, that's okay. you can modify it a little bit, but then you want
to eventually try and get all the way up into that full bridge and then come back
down. there shouldn't be any pressure on your neck. if you're feeling pressure on
your neck it probably means you're trying to push up too high, and all that
pressure comes back when I'm rolling up into my bridge. the pressure is down on
the lower part of my shoulder blades. so I'm not feeling pressure in my neck. so
again if you're feeling pressure there, you're probably not quite doing it right.
so again you don't have to hold it up here per se ,you can just do a little two
three-second pause and come back down. but I would start off with a little bit
maybe five or ten a couple times throughout the day and work your way up
because you might not feel the soreness until a little bit later. so start off
with a little bit and then you can start working your way up from there. so the
next one is just going to be a knee to chest stretch. this one again is really
really nice for the back. some people say that you know if you have a herniated
disk, I've heard people say oh you shouldn't do it because you're you're
flexing your back, but you're not really flexing your back. you're getting a
little bit of movement in your lower back but these are generally okay unless
your doctor, physical therapist has told you not to do it. so the knee to
chest is just like it sounds. you're bringing your knee up towards your chest.
and so I'm gonna take a moment to do my thumbnail smile for my pics, so you can take a
picture too if you want to. and then keep on going with that. so with the knee to
chest stretch, I like keeping my other leg bent up just to take pressure off
the back. some people do like to slide it down which you can, and then you can get
a little bit of a hip flexor stretch as well just depending on how your back
feels. so you might want to start with it bent up and then kind of work your way
to sliding it down if you don't have any knee problems. so you can grab on to your
knee on the outside here, but if you have some knee problems, you might want to
grab underneath so you're not putting so much pressure on there. and so again just
like it sounds, you're trying to bring it up towards your chest. sometimes if you
do some nice deep breathing with this this will help you get a little bit
better stretch. so you take a nice deep breath in, you can do belly breathing or
diaphragmatic breathing if you want to. and then as you breathe out just pull a
little bit more in there and sometimes it'll help those muscles relax and give
you a little bit better stretch. this is a full thirty second stretch, so make
sure you're holding it for that thirty Seconds.
I like to alternate back and forth, but you don't have to. you can do them all on
the same side. so again you can grab underneath or if you don't have any
issues sometimes you can get a little bit better stretch if you're if you're
up on the outside of the leg here. and just pulling in. and again if you want to
then slide down especially for my left side I usually need a little bit more
stretch in my hip flexor, so as long as this doesn't bother your back, you can do
that too. you can even pull up those toes on your left side to help
keep that leg straight down, and you'll feel the stretch here and then you feel
that little stretch in your lower back. so thirty Seconds, three times on each
side for that. so the next one is going to be a trunk rotation. this is going to
be a full trunk rotation stretch. sometimes I'll have you with your knees
bent up doing the rotation back and forth, we're going to do a full rotation
over. and with this one it's going to kind of be like the bridge where you
want to go one segment at a time or one piece of your body at a
time to really try and control this stretch. so slide one leg down, and then
put your foot up kind of on your thigh. take your hand grab on your knee. if you
want to put your other arm out to the side to give you a little bit of a
stretch you can. and so when I say one segment at a time, I mean as I roll
everything starts out flat and then I'm just kind of bringing my pelvis up. then
I'm bringing my low back up. then I'm bringing the spine up. but I always want
to keep my shoulder blade down. so if I can only go to here before my shoulder blade
starts coming up, that's what you want to do. and then you want to hold it there.
you don't want to bring your whole body up because then you're not getting that
rotation stretch in your back, in your spine anymore. so really trying to keep
it down. as you can see I'm turning my head I'm talking to the camera, but this
also helps too if you turn your head away from your twist. and so doing some
nice deep breaths while you're in that position as you breathe out, sometimes
you can go a little bit more. but remember try and keep that shoulder
blade down. if the shoulder blade's coming up, then you're kind of losing that full
twist in there. and then as you're relaxed, try and do the same thing. so now
you're coming back. you're kind of getting that rib cage area, you're not
just plopping back down. then you're coming in to your pelvis area, and then
you're coming in to your hip, and then you're rolling back to the middle. so
that just kind of helps get that nice twist in there. if you have some specific
diagnosis with your back, you might want to be careful. you should always make
sure you're asking your doctor or physical therapist about this one. so
I'll do really quickly on the other side just so you can see it. so I'm putting my
leg on my thigh. I'm putting my opposite arm out, or opposite arm I'm grabbing, the
same arm out is to the side, if I can turn my head and then roll
and then coming back up one segment at a time. so with this one you don't have to
do a full 30 second hold. sometimes this is better just to count your breaths and
do some like four or five nice deep breaths instead of a 30-second hold
because as you do that deep breathing, especially if you're doing diaphragmatic
breathing, sometimes that will help relax the muscles and get them nice and
stretch out. so the last one's going to be sitting up. so the last stretch is
going to be a QL or quadratus lumborum stretch. and so this is one of those
muscles in the low back that is sometimes forgotten about, but it can
cause a lot of back pain. so it's a great one to stretch. you can do this seated in
a chair, you can do this kind of with your legs out a little bit. either way
you're gonna get a stretch in there. so what you want to do is you're going to
kind of sit on your hand. and if you're sitting in a chair you can just kind of
hold on to the bottom of the chair if you want to. and it's the opposite side
you're going to stretch. you want to kind of sit over into it. try and get your
your your butt bone or your sit bones underneath your hand, so you're pushing
your weight over to that side. then you're gonna bring the opposite arm up
and really try and kind of reach it up towards the ceiling and then push it
over towards the opposite side. and really try and get that arch there. so
I'm getting that that stretch kind of through here. you're gonna get your lats
a little bit in there too, and to get an extra stretch kind of look up towards
your hand and really almost try and arch your body away just to get that extra
stretch all the way through there. so this again is a 30 second stretch. you're
really trying to get that hold in there, and then after that stretch you can come
up. I like to switch sides. you don't have to. sitting on that side, bringing that
arm up, and then really kind of arching almost like you're making a C while
you're getting that stretch. and if you look up that kind of helps get
everything. but you know you're gonna get your shoulders, you're gonna get your
lats, and you're gonna get that QL. so this is a nice stretch to that thirty
seconds on each side, three times each. so there you have it. those were some of my
favorite back pain stretches and exercises. if you'd like to help support my
channel, make sure and click on the link up there. and don't forget to subscribe
by clicking down there. and remember be safe,
have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.