Most of us have had back pain once or many times in our lives. I have discovered a few simple stretches that relieve most lower back pain. These tried and true methods have been used by myself and may others. You will need a foam roller, a wall, and a little space on the floor.
Here are a few exaples of foam rollers.
images from google search foam roller
Now that we have our rollers ready and a space to work its time to begin. We will focus most of our work around the hips. Tight hips are the most common cause for lower back pain in my opinion.
Part 1: Foam rolling
There are a few different techniques you can use when foam rolling. For the blog today we will be focusing on finding a tender area and staying on that area until it relaxes. This usually takes 30 seconds up to 3 minutes. All movements should be slow and remember to take big controlled breaths. If it is your first time it will be very uncomfortable but you have to relax.
-Foam roll the front of your thigh from knee to hip bone
-Roll down the outside of your leg from hip to knee
-Lie on your stomach and roll the inside of your thigh from thigh crease to knee
Part 2: Stretches
After relaxing your muscles a little and and getting rid of some of those pesky trigger points its time to lengthen the muscle. You want to hold all of these stretches for 2 minutes minimum to really allow the muscle to lengthen.
-Couch Stretch: Start on your hands and knees with your feet facing the wall. Lift up one leg, point the foot to the ceiling, and drop the knee about 4 inches from the wall or couch. The closer the knee is to the wall, the more difficult (intense of a stretch) it is; the farther from the wall, the easier it is. Learned this stretch from the book Supple Leopard. Highly recommend the book for mobility and stretching
-Hockey Stretch: Start on your hands and knees. Spread your knees as far away from each other as you can until you feel a strong stretch on your inner thighs. From there you want to try and keep your spine neutral and rock your hips forward and backwards very gently to open up your inner thighs. This stretch really helped my lower back when I was experiencing back pain a few months back.
-Standing pigeon: Similar to the pigeon pose in yoga this pose helps to stretch your hip external rotators. You need to find a bench, counter, or bed that is about hip height. Place one leg onto the bench and lay the ankle and knee flat. This will make your shin parallel to the ground. Hang out here searching around for any tightness.
Thanks for reading! Add any questions or comments you have I would love to answer them
