cuIn this post, we will go through the must-do back pain relief stretches. This will only take you about 5 minutes and is an effective way to reduce back pain.
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7 Must-Do Stretches For Back Pain Relief
1. Reaching For The Sky
Begin in a tall standing position with weight even on the feet. Then, maintain good alignment with the hips, shoulders, and head. After that, bring the arms overhead and reach a little bit for the sky. Elongate and decompress the spine and decrease the pressure that is happening in the low back to give you low back relief. Finally, relax and repeat the movement.
Reaching for the Sky
This back pain relief stretches is an excellent mobility exercise that you can do anywhere, especially if you have been sitting for a long period of time and you had increased tension in your lower back. It is easy for you to get up and go through with this exercise. You can do this at work easily if your work involves a lot of sitting.
Perform one set of 5 reps in a smooth, controlled movement with a good reach at the top. With the reach, you can hold it for 2 to 5 seconds. The intensity is light. You are looking at decompressing and elongating the spine. Roughly, it falls into a mobility exercise as you try to improve the movement of the spine and also decrease the pressure happening on the spine.
2. Standing Back Arch
Firstly, begin in a tall standing position with weight being even on the feet. Secondly, maintain a good alignment with the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and head. Then, bring the arms overhead and arch back a little bit and extend the lower back. Go back down to the start, and then repeat the movement.
Much of the time, 95 percent of people find that arching the back provides them relief or decreases back pain. However, the other 5 percent of people do not find relief and it and irritates things for them. If this exercise irritates things for you, then do not do it.
Standing Back Arch
Also, perform one set of 5 reps in a smooth, controlled movement with a good stop of 2 to 3 seconds at the end position. The intensity is low or light. This mobility exercise indeed works on improving the movement in the lower back. This is also a great exercise that you can do anywhere especially after sitting for a long period of time or if you sit a lot at your work.
Moroever, combining the first and second exercises will give you a lot of benefits to relieve your back pain.
3. Side Bending
Begin this back pain relief stretches in a tall standing position. Then, maintain a nice alignment with the head, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet. Afterward, increase your stance a little bit to get more balance. Put the arms overhead interlacing the fingers, and then bend from one side to the other side.
Side bending is working on stretching out the tight muscles on the outer part of the back and working on the mobility of the whole spine, which will certainly help on back pain relief.
Side Bending
Perform one set of 3 to 5 reps each way in a smooth, controlled movement with a good stop of 2 or 3 seconds at the end position. The intensity is light. We are working on stretching and mobility.
You can also combine this exercise with the first two exercises. It does not require any equipment. If you have been sitting for a long period of time or if you sit at work, you can combine the three exercises to help give you back pain relief at work.
4. 90/90 Hip Flexor Stretch
Firstly, start with kneeling on the floor in a 90/90 position. The back leg and front leg are in a 90-degree position with ankles, knees and hips. Secondly, tighten the abdominal area and bring the hips forward. Thirdly, contract the glutes as you bring things forward. Afterward, stretch the front of the hip and front of the thigh and hold to that position. Maintain a good alignment with the rest of the body like the hips, shoulders and head. Lastly, the leg behind the hip will target the hip flexors and one of the quadriceps muscles.
90/90 Hip Flexor Stretch
This is an effective stretching and flexibility exercise that helps in relieving hip pain, knee pain, and back pain.
Perform one set of 2 reps on each side, alternating back and forth with 20 seconds hold at the end position. The intensity is light with light stretch. You will get more benefits doing a light stretch than a stronger stretch.
5. Rocking Knees Side-To-Side
Lie on your back on the floor. Put your arms to the side and relax the upper body. Bend the knees and then drop the knees halfway down to one side and then to the other side.
With this exercise, we are lightly working on the mobility in the lower back and hips and stretching out the muscles in the hips.
If you are not getting much intensity or you can handle more intensity, you can separate the feet with a wider stance and go through the same movement, dropping the knees to the sides focusing on rotation in the hip and this will intensify the mobility that you are getting in the lower back, pelvis area and the rotation the hips.
Rocking Knees Side-to-Side
Perform one set of 5 reps on each side alternating back and forth with 1 to 2 seconds hold at the end position. Keep the motions in a smooth, controlled movement. The intensity is light. You are working on the mobility in the lower back area and pelvis as well as doing a dynamic stretch in the hip rotators.
6. Rotating The Legs In And Out
Lie on your back on the floor. Put your arms to the side as you relax the upper body. Rotate the thighs; bringing the legs out and bringing the legs in and continually dynamically stretching the rotators of the hips.
If you are not feeling too much, you can separate the feet a little bit more that will help in targeting things a little bit differently in the hip and hip rotators.
This exercise is a light dynamic stretch in the hip rotators. It is normal that you feel a little bit of a clunk or more movement happening in your hip joint or pelvis area.
Rotating the Legs In and Out
Perform one set of 5 reps each way alternating back and forth. Keep the motions in a smooth, controlled movement with 1 to 2 seconds of hold at the end position. The intensity is light.
7. Open And Close
Lie on your side on the floor with your hips and knees are bent and put your arms out front. Open up the left arm and bring the left hand to the floor with eyes following the hand. Hold the position for 1 to 2 seconds. Go back to the start and repeat the movement.
This is an excellent mobility exercise especially in the mid-back area targeting the movement of rotation in the mid-back and low-back areas.
Open and Close
Perform one set of 5 reps on each side. Keep the motions in a smooth, controlled movement with a good stop at the end position for 1 to 2 seconds. The intensity is light. You are working on mobility in the mid-back area.
Give these seven stretching exercises a go as they will help relieve your back pain.
If you want to overcome your low back pain flare-up so you can go move your back around without worrying if the pain will come back, then check out the Low Back Pain Solved program, here!
