hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and cool Remy, and Remy says "don't crack your back, do
these seven stretches and exercises instead." so this get started.
so I want to start off by saying that cracking your back, or technically what we call it is
either manipulating your back or adjusting your back, there's nothing
wrong with that, when it's appropriate. so sometimes I get a little worried when
people say, oh I'm just cracking my back and I don't know what's wrong with it,
but it feels good, or it kind of hurts when it happens. because there are some
diagnoses that if you have that you should not be cracking your back. and
there's ways you can do stretches and exercises that will actually get that
adjustment that you need. you might not feel that wonderful pop, but you might, so
this is a great alternative especially if you're not exactly what sure what is
going on in your back. if you're not sure about that you really don't want to just
be cracking your back, or adjusting, or manipulating your back. so I'm just gonna
start off with some pretty simple stuff lying down, but you can do this on your
bed or on the couch. you don't have to do it on the floor if you can't get down on
the floor comfortably. so the first one is really just a simple bridge, and what
bridging will do, will kind of loosen up the back, the hip area. and so if you've
got something that's tight or maybe slightly out of line, this will help get
it back into alignment. so with bridges, if you've seen my videos before, you want
you know your knees to be about hip width apart. you want your feet to be on
the floor, and you really want to lift up in a slow controlled motion. almost like
you're rolling your back up and down. you don't want to just come up and down
because that's using momentum, and then that's not getting that segment movement
which is what you're looking for to kind of get that adjustment or that
manipulation in there. so you're just rolling up as high as you comfortably
can. if you can't get this high, that's okay, and then slowly rolling back down.
if you feel like your hamstrings are cramping a little bit, if you bring your
feet a little bit closer to you, that takes the hamstrings out a little bit
more, makes you work your glutes a little bit more. so if you feel like your
hamstrings are trying to cramp, bring your your heels a little bit closer to
your bottom. so I would just start off with maybe 10 of those. you can do a
couple sets of 10, a couple of times throughout the day. so
then the next one is just going to be a simple of knee to chest stretch. and
again this is just kind of stretching out the back. sometimes you don't need
that you know pop or that manipulation, you just need to get everything
stretched out. so it'll loosen up. so a simple need to chest stretch is just
what it sounds like, you're bringing your knee up to your chest. I like keeping my
knee bent. some people like stretching it out. it'll
also help stretch out your hip flexors if you do that, but if you're first
starting off, this will help kind of support your back a little bit. you're
just going to take both hands, you can go on the front of your knee. if you have
some knee issues you can go underneath your knee, and just pull it towards your
chest as far as you comfortably can. make sure you're doing some nice deep
breathing while you're doing this. sometimes once you get in that position
if you take a nice deep breath you might actually get a little bit of that pop or
that adjustment in your back. this is going to be a full 30 second hold, and
then you're gonna do that three times on each side. I like to alternate back and
forth, but you don't have to. if you want to do them all three on one side and
then switch, you can, but again make sure you're doing that nice deep breathing to
help relax those muscles and to help adjust your spine a little bit. so then
the next one is just going to be what we would call a trunk rotation. you can do
this two different ways. if you're first starting out, you might want to do this
one first because it's a little bit less stress on your back. so keeping your
knees and your feet together, you're just going to roll gently to one side try and
keep your shoulder blades on the floor or the bed. but you can let your hip come
up off of the floor or your pelvis. and then just gently roll side to side as
far as you comfortably can. now you can do either way. you can do it a continuous
motion or you can come to the spot where you feel a stretch, and hold it for about
10 or 15 seconds, and then maybe go back and forth about five times. if that's not
really getting much of a stretch for you, you can do a bigger trunk rotation
stretch where then you're gonna bring one leg down and you're gonna lift the
other knee up to the hip and knee being note about 90 degrees, and then you're
gonna take your hand and just help gently roll your body over
to the side. now this one sometimes you actually might get a little bit of a pop
or crack in your back if you're doing it. don't force it, don't push hard. you're
just going into the stretch, so you can do this one where you're holding it for
maybe thirty Seconds, or just go till you get to that spot where you feel that
nice stretch. and again take that nice deep breath, let it out, go a little bit
more, and sometimes again you might you might get that little crack or that pop
or the adjustment or the manipulation. so the next one, especially if you're having
maybe some issues in the pelvic area or that SI joint, you can do what we would
call a muscle energy technique. but this is also just kind of isometric exercises
which sometimes helps get that adjustment if you need it.
I like sometimes just using a roll underneath one leg, you don't have to, but
I feel like it gives you a little something you can push into to help. so
with this one, often you might want to know if one side's
out of alignment or not, but if you don't have something out alignment, you're just
looking for that adjustment, you can do both sides. so what I'm going to do is
I'm going to bring this knee up, and I'm going to place my hands just on top of
my thigh here. so I'm going to do a motion where I'm pushing up this way, but
my hands are gonna prevent me from doing it. so I'm pushing up into my hand at the
same time I'm pushing down into that roll with my knee and kind of squeezing
my glute muscles. so just kind of doing that at the same time, pushing up with
this one, pushing down with this. your heel might even come off of
the floor, or the mat a little bit, and that's fine just hold it for three to
five seconds, and then relax. I would probably do it three to five times in a
row just depending on how comfortable it is. you don't want it to be painful, but
you do want to feel that tension or pressure in there. so again this one's
coming up this way, that one's going down that way, but they're not really going
anywhere. you're just activating those muscles to help kind of realign
everything. so again if you don't have a side that's particularly rotated, you can
do both sides. so again bringing this side up, pushing in, going up this way and
then pushing down with that one at the same
time so you're kind of getting that you know contraction down that way in the
contraction up this way. holding again for about five seconds, doing that
three to five time.s so then the same kind of concept now we're gonna do a hip
abduction going out, but it's going to be isometrically. so just take a belt, if
you've got kind of a yoga strap or something that'll work, but you want it to
be solid. you don't want it to be a resistive band because you don't want it
to go anywhere. again this is an isometric exercise which means you're
contracting the muscle, but you're not moving the muscle. it doesn't have to be
a specific distance apart, you can actually do a little bit you know, do one
here, doing here, doing here. so the distance doesn't matter a whole lot as
long as you feel like you're activating the muscles. so this time I'm pushing out
into the belt with both sides to activate those outer muscles, and that
helps kind of open up that pelvis a little bit too. so you again sometimes
people might feel a little crack or a pop with this, so I wouldn't start off
with a hundred percent of all your force pushing out. maybe start off with 30 to
40 percent, and see how you feel just pushing out that five seconds or so. and
then if it feels okay, each time you can do a little bit more pressure pushing
out. so again maybe three to five times a day, and then you're just going to go in
the opposite direction. so now you're gonna be squeezing in. you can use yoga
block if you have a yoga block. if you don't have something like that, you can
use a sports ball, soccer ball, basketball, volleyball. if you don't have anything
like that either, you can't just fold up a pillow and put
it in, but with this one you do want it to be about hip width apart. so you don't
want something super small. you can use your fist in between, but you want you
don't want it to be where your knees are so close together. you do want some
distance apart. and so now this time you're squeezing into the ball. and so a
lot of times with this one, with my patients and sometimes with myself, if
I'm out of alignment this is the one that will give me that pop. so if I'm
squeezing in I might feel a little pop in my pelvis area or even back in the SI
joint. and so that's just everything again trying to adjust or self
manipulate yourself. so then the last one is going to be
rolling over onto your tummy. now this is one that if you're not sure what your
diagnosis is, you might not want to do this because going back into that
extension for some things like stenosis or things like that, you probably
wouldn't want to do this. so again if you're not sure, you probably don't want to
do it. if you have something like a disc issue, this is okay, but just go to your
comfort zone because some people might just have to start off propping up on
their elbows. so you can see I've got a little bit of an extension in my back,
but it's not a big forceful extension. so this one is really just propping up on
my elbows for about 30 seconds. again if you haven't done this before and your
back is pretty sore, you might just want to start off with 10 to 15 seconds and
then come back down and relax. you don't want it to be painful. a little bit of
pressure, a little bit of uncomfortableness is okay, but again you
you don't want it to hurt. so again if you're not sure what your diagnosis is
you might want to hold off on this one. so there you have it. don't crack your
back do these seven stretches and exercises instead. Isn't that right Miss Remy?
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have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.