In this video, I'm going to show the worst back pain relief
exercises and the best ones to do instead. Stay tuned!
Hey, everyone. Doctor Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I'm going to go over
four common but bad back pain relief exercises that you
should stop doing today. Instead, let's focus on four
safer alternatives that are less likely to cause back
irritation and more likely to lengthen and strengthen the
back, leading to long-lasting pain relief. All of these
exercises can be done at home require no special equipment
and may give quick back pain relief even within 30 seconds.
So, let's get started and fix that back pain right now. One
of the absolute worst back pain relief exercises that I see
people doing is what I call the schoolhouse popper. So, let me
know in the comment section that I wasn't the only one
doing this in grade school. It's where you put your hands
on the back of your head and then forcefully slam your back
into a chair in hopes to get it to self pop, crack, or
release. Anytime that you use a lot of force with a back
exercise it's a recipe for disaster, so don't do it! Here's
a safe alternative known as the figure eight. This one can be
done in a chair, just scoot towards the edge. Have very good
upright posture. What we're going to do is trace an eight
with our elbows and put the back into many different
movements to hopefully pinpoint spots that need a little bit
more attention, giving more long lasting relief and, hopefully, in
a much much safer way. So what I'm going to do take my hands
place them on the back of my head, have my elbows straight in
front of me. My elbows again are going to trace an eight but
the movement is very easy. While we're tracing the top
part of the eight, we're going to go into extension or a
backward movement just like this. When we're tracing the
bottom part of the eight, we're going to go into flexion or
leaning forward. So, I'm going to start right in the
middle of the eight and go upward into extension to begin
with. Create a big loop as much as you can with your elbows and
build into extension as you reach the top part of the
eight. Once you reach the top part of the eight, you're
really going to focus on bending backward into it to get
a very deep of a comfortable stretch. You want to hold this
one for a couple seconds and then from there, you're just
going to slowly come back down towards the middle. Once we hit
the middle part, again, what I'm going to do is create a big
loop with my elbows and then lean forward into flexion. Once
we hit the bottom part of the eight, we're going to hold this
for a couple seconds leaning into it and then, create the
other side of the loop but you want to do this one nice and
slowly about 5 to 10 times and with each repetition, try to
build into it just a little bit more and when you're done with
that, switch directions to challenge the muscles just a
little bit more. When you do this too, you're probably going
to notice that one certain position really just feels
tight and achy. It's hitting that back pain the best. Like
let's say it's going into extension creating the right
part of the loop right here for me. I make note of that. What
I'm going to do is put in more repetitions creating that part
of the loop until I really start to feel that back pain
start to release and lessen. At that point, I then just build
into doing the complete cycle again but go through all of
those movements. If one movement feels like it needs
more tension, throw more repetitions in and I hope that
that gives you very quick back pain relief. I'm sure at one
point or another, we've all been guilty of doing this
twisting stretch, kind of grabbing the edge of a chair
and just cranking over as hard as you can get a deep stretch
or a self pop, crack, or release. Common sense would
tell you though, you're probably over stretching the
back leading to more harm than good. So, let's focus on an
exercise that's really going to target more muscles through
dynamic movements and probably get rid of that back pain a lot
quicker and much more safely. So, let's take the chair and do
this instead. So, let's take our chair. Hopefully, a sturdy
one, one without wheels and put it right out in front of us.
I'm going to bend one leg, put my foot up on the chair at the
leg is going to go straight at the knee right behind me. I'm
going to have very good upright posture. Take your hands, put
them right on your hips. The first movement, we're going to
focus on a muscle group called the hip flexors right in the
front part of the legs. Big instigator of back pain. So,
I'm just going to simply lunge forward with my body weight
until I feel a deep stretch forming in the front part of
the straight leg. You should feel it in the front part of
the leg, towards the hips, towards the groin, and all the
pelvis. Once we feel that deep stretch, I'm going to put my
arms in front of me kind of like a genie position just like
this and now we're going to build into rotation. So, I'm
going to just slowly rotate my upper body towards the painful
side as much as I can. You'll feel a deep stretch only go to
your comfort level. Once we hit that point, you want to hold
this one for about 15 to 20 seconds. Just do nice, slow,
control breathing also. From there, just relax, take a
breather. On the next repetition, try to into it just
a little bit more but this time around go towards the
non-painful side. You'll notice that it hits the muscles again
just a little bit differently but I try to do this one nice
and slowly building into each repetition and doing it for
three repetitions on both sides. From there, you can take
it to the next level and focus on a muscle group called the
quadratus lumborum or the QL muscle. It's a big instigator
of one-sided back pain. So, to do this one, we're going to go
back into our position but I'm going to take the arm on the
painful side, put it overhead just like this, really lunge
into it, and now bend away from the painful side as much as I
can. You'll feel a deep stretch pretty much from the bottom of
the rib cage going down into the lower back into the hip. It
feels really good. Again, I try to hold this one comfortably
for about 15 to 20 seconds. I just relax, take a breather,
and then I build into it just a little bit more. Try to do this
one for three to five repetitions. And with these
exercises, whatever you do on one side, always switch to the
other to keep them both in balance. One of the worst back
pain relief exercises that I see people doing is taking the
knees and hugging them up towards the chest just like
this. The thing is, a lot of people get back pain from
forward leaning flexion, we're in that state all day long that
builds pressure and tension in the spinal discs leading to
irritation and ultimately pain. This exercise right here
actually builds flexion into the spine, so while it might
stretch things out in the beginning and give you
temporary relief, it tends to cause more harm than good in
the long run because it irritates those spinal discs
even further leading to more pain. So here's an exercise that
you can do that will help strengthen and lengthen the
spine and won't put it into flexion. This one can be done in
bed or on a floor, just lie flat on your back just like this. So
what I'm going to do just have everything in my back nice and
relaxed. Bring your legs up, have them roughly at 90
degrees. What I'm going to do is overlap my hands and put
them over one knee. The movement from here is very
easy. I'm going to drive one knee backward but I'm going to
resist against that movement. This becomes an isometric
exercise or activating the muscles with very little
movement. You'll feel a lot fire in the leg. You're
going to feel it in the hip, across the pelvis, and into the
back. Really challenge a to bring that knee and resist
against it as much as you can. You want to hold this one for
about 5 seconds. From there, you're going to relax and then
switch to the other side and repeat. You want to do this one
for about 10 repetitions on both sides and with each
repetition, really challenge yourself to drive that knee
back a little bit more. If you feel like you have a little bit
more energy, you can throw in another set or two. The more
that you challenge those muscles, the stronger they will
get but you should notice too that this will help improve
flexibility because it's loosening up the muscles at the
same time. If you want to take this one to the next level and
focus a little bit more on core strength and targeting more
muscles, you can do what is known as the dead bug. So, get
back into that position just like this but what I'm going to
do is slowly lower one leg down like this, straighten at the
knee and allow the leg to hover about an inch off the bed or a
floor. Really focus on contracting the abs with this
one too. You want to hold this position right here for about 5
seconds and then from there, you can just relax, take a
breather, and then repeat it on the other side. This is a great
daily strengthening exercise for the core and the back but I
try to do this one nice and slowly for about 10 repetitions
on both sides. Again, if you feel like you have a little bit
more energy, throw in another set or two. Another common but
bad exercise that I see a lot of people doing is leaning
forward trying to touch toes to loosen up the hamstrings in the
back of the leg. The problem with this one, a lot of people
bob into it jarring the lower back but they also round the
back causing irritation and tension to build throughout the
spine including into those spinal joints and spinal discs.
So, here's an exercise that you can do instead that will keep
the spine straight but also target a lot more muscle
groups. We just need a sturdy chair but you can also use a
desk or any that's elevated that you can grip onto. So,
start off with very good upright posture. You're going
to take one knee, bend it, and then grab in front of the ankle
just like this. You can also grab at the back of the pant
leg but what you want to do is bring that leg backward as much
as you can until you feel a deep stretch in the front part
of the leg. It's going to hit the psoas and the hip flexors.
Big instigators of back pain. So, once you feel that deep but
comfortable stretch from there, you're going to slowly pivot
forward through the waist through the hips. So, we're not
trying to round our back into this one but instead, we're
pivoting forward through our waist. You're going to feel a
deep stretch starting to form on the backside of the straight
leg. This one hits the hamstring. So, the great part
about this one is you hit the front part of the leg and the
back part of the leg at the same time. Get a two fur but
you want to hold this one comfortably for about 15 to 20
seconds doing nice, slow, controlled breathing also. When
you need a breather, just come back up like this and then
slowly repeat this one three to five times. With each
repetition, try to build into it just a little bit more but
when you're done on one side, switch to the other to keep
them both in balance. If the exercises helped, please
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