Hi, it’s Dr. Jonathon Pinnow, your chiropractor for low back pain in Sun Prairie, WI.
I’m here to teach you three exercises you can use at home, today, to help with lower back pain.
I have Victoria here (see above video) to help demonstrate some of these exercises with us.
Hamstring Stretches for Low Back Pain
The first exercise is the classic exercise you’ve seen for hamstring stretches except it includes a little twist.
So, the first thing I want you to do is get a hand towel or a towel, just long enough so that you can put it underneath the bottom of your foot to help stretch.
Lay back onto the table or flat surface and then straighten this leg up as straight as you can, which is the most important part here.
Once that leg is straight, pull with your arms and bring this leg back toward you as far you can (safely) to get that stretch back through the hamstrings. You’ll hold this for 10 seconds, up to 20 seconds, and do it three times, once a day.
That alone will help take a lot of the tension off through the hamstring, which then attaches into the lower back and the hips, which can cause some of the issues that you’re experiencing in through the lower back.
Cat-Camel Stretches for Low Back Pain
The next stretch is a similar set-up to cat-camel, but the motion is completely different because we want to isolate that lower back.
Go ahead and position yourself on all fours on a flat surface.
In a traditional cat-camel, you arch and bring the back down, and then arch and bring the back all the way back up.
For this low back pain stretch, what you’ll do instead is work on just the lower back. What you want is for your hips to rotate forward and backwards (as seen in video).
All the motion is through your hips, rotating up and down through there.
Again you want to do 3 sets, 10 reps (down and up is one move). And you can do that 3 sets
once a day.
Cobra Stretches for Low Back Pain
Finally the third exercise is another similar position to yoga; it’s the cobra position.
Start by laying on your stomach. Keeping your forearms (hands to elbows) on the floor near your shoulders, lift your chest up.
It’s a smaller movement where you’re just beginning to arch your lower back. I don’t want you to go all the way on to your hands and push yourself all the way up. We don’t need that much range of motion through this low back pain exercise.
This exercise is the best if you feel a lot of tension, like a locked up feeling in that low back area.
In this position, just relax as much as you can. And you can be in this position for a minute or two.
What we’re looking for is that this area of the low back will start to feel like it’s melting or sinking to the floor. The hips will roll forward, like you felt doing the cat-camel, and the stomach kind of drops down. And you just feel a little bit of release in through this area, and then you’re done.
That’s all you have to do with this exercise. It’s really effective right away in the morning, midway, or even at night to alleviate your low back pain.
These are the three best exercises you can do at home right away to help with your low back pain today.
Try them out, practice them daily, and see how they go.
Give us a call here at Noble Choice Chiropractic in Sun Prairie, WI if you need any help.
