Good morning everyone, Dr. Alex Hernandez here from Life Chiropractic and Acupuncture. I’m here with Janelle, and we’re going to demonstrate the top 3 exercises for your low back. Many people experience low back pain and they want to know what stretches to perform at home.
In this video we’re going to show you something you can do that is really simple, this is what we teach all our patients. We start out with Janelle lying face out. The first exercise, we call the 555 Stretch. Janelle bends her knees, brings her arms up, and let the legs just drop to the side. Do a count of 5 seconds. Great, let’s go to the other side, let’s bend arms and bend the legs, and what we’re trying to have you do is really stretch the low back out, between the low back and your sacrum. This takes pressure off of the nerves, it takes pressure off of the low back, it creates a very, very nice stretch. Let’s do it again, one more time. Some people may notice that they’re tighter on one side than the other, so ultimately your goal is to try to get both sides to move as evenly as possible. Do this 5 times to each side.
Alright the second stretch, it’s a common stretch called the simple knee to chest exercise. Start off again laying on the back, we’re going to bring the knee to the center, and we’re going to have you pull it as far as you can without causing yourself any kind of pain, and we’re going to hold that for 10 seconds. Then do the other side. You’re allowing yourself to stretch out the low back, you’re pulling in, creating some stretching of your low back, and this also gives you relief into your low back.
Lastly, bring both knees to the center, both knees to the chest and we’re going to need a nice pull, one side pelvis, second side the other pelvis, and then the third, both of them to the center. Again, you’re holding for 10 seconds. So this is the second stretch, and you can do it in that order. First the 555, then the knee to chest, and then the third and last one.
Then have a seat. This is what we call the piriformis stretch, the piriformis is a deep muscle inside the glute, very deep in, and you can only access that by doing this specific stretch. Basically you’re going to cross the leg over and stretch yourself all the way as far as you can and then again hold for a count of 10. Do the other side. We’re trying to stretch part of the hip muscles in here, part of the glute, this juncture in here that is known to cause back pain.
So when people are sitting at desks for 8, 10 hours a day, this area will tighten up and as you do this stretch, it’s going to give you a lot of relief. Let’s do the other side. Some people may find it very difficult. That’s okay, graduate yourself up little by little, until you’re able to reach as far as you possibly can, and that will give you a lot of relief in your low back.
So use these 3 stretches to help yourself out, this is a morning routine. It takes you less than 5 minutes, and hopefully that will help you relieve your back pain. If you have any questions, contact us.
