There is one important thing to understand before starting a new stretching routine for your lower back, pain is not good. When you feel pain, you are either doing something wrong, or you are not healthy enough to perform the stretch. The whole mentality of “pain is good” or “no pain no gain” is completely wrong here. If you are feeling pain then you are likely causing further damage to the already injured section of your back. Even if you are a veteran to exercise and stretching it is important that you check with your doctor before starting any new routine to be sure that your body can handle it. This is even more important if you are not an active person who is embarking on a life altering fitness goal.
The purpose of this article is to go into detail with a few lower back stretches that will hopefully help to alleviate your back pain by helping you strengthen weaker and most often ignored core muscle groups
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-The Cat
Being one of the easiest stretches you can perform I thought I would save you the reading and list it first. If you were to visualize the motion a cat makes when it stretches then you should have no problem with this particular lower back stretch.
Stretch Target – The lower back
Positioning – You should put yourself it a crawling like position with your hands and knees under you. You can either perform this stretch while on your bed or on the floor, although I would recommend the use of a mat to save your knees a bit of pain.
1. Slowly angle your heads towards the ceiling (or the sky if you are doing this outside!) while letting your belly drop towards the floor (bed or ground as well) be sure not to angle your head or drop your stomach too far that it causes pain (remember from earlier – pain is bad). You should start to feel a gentle stretch.
2. Once you feel the stretch, reverse the direction you were moving and instead of tilting your head up and belly down, pull your chin towards your chest while at the same time arching your back. Again move through this motion until you feel a comfortable stretch.
3. Repeat five – ten times, each time trying to increase your range of motion.
Advanced Breathing – Once you get the hang of this stretch you can start to add to its effectiveness by synchronizing your breathing with motion.
1. During step one, inhale your breath
2. During step two, slowly exhale your breath as you tuck in your chin.
-The Pelvic Tilt
Target - Lower Back Stretch
Position – laying flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat against the floor.
Once you have gotten into position constrict your abdominal and butt muscles while at the same time trying to push the small of your back towards the floor. Hold this stretch to a count of five and then slowly relax. Repetitions for this should be between five and fifteen.
-The Twist
Target – Lower Back Stretch
Position – Flat on your back with your arms outstretched on each side of your body.
1. In one motion, bend your knees and draw them in towards your chest.
2. Inhale.
3. Keep your knees together and in one motion, slowly exhale while lowering your knees back to the floor angling to the right as much as you can without causing pain.
4. Repeat the process in steps 1-3 with the exception of you lowering your knees to the left instead of the right.
5. Suggested repetitions are 5 on each side while progressively trying to angle your knees further each time.
