Chi Ingledew
Jul 30, 20213 min
Stretches to ease lower back pain
Lower back pain can be a lasting and debilitating feeling. Aches and pains can hinder even slight movements, while serious injuries can prevent motion altogether. Often, lower back pain stems from a muscle strain in the back, hips, gluteus, legs or abdominals. Sometimes it is postural, while other times it is prolonged repetitive movement patterns or has to do with too much load or merely an injury. Thankfully, we can retrain our muscles to have more balance which can help offload the pain by doing Pilates to strengthen and stretch the whole body.
Here are some exercises that can help combat tight and sore backaches by stretching the muscles. Remember that stretching is only one aspect that alleviates pain. Working your core and the rest of the body to strengthen the body is just as important in preventing backache. Please also remember that what is good for one person’s body is not necessarily good for another. If you are unsure of what is best for you, contact a health professional.
Pelvic Curl
Lying on your back with a neutral alignment through your spine and pelvis, tilt your pelvis and articulate it all the way up, and then slowly curl all the way back down.
Muscle activation: abdominals and hamstrings and gluteus muscles.
Seated Forward Fold
Sitting on your glutes with your legs out long in front of you, reach your arms forward and hinge from the hips. Then round into the upper back and reach for the toes. Keep your abdominals active.
Muscle activation: Hamstring and lower back stretch with abdominal activation.
Child Pose
Kneel with your pelvis on your heels and abdominals over your thighs, arms reaching forward and shoulders in the shoulder sockets, neck relaxed and forehead on the floor.
Muscle activation: Abdominals active and lumbar spine stretch.
Spine Stretch
Sitting on your gluteus muscles, legs straight, feet dorsiflexed and separated as wide as the shoulders, arms out in front and parallel to the mat. Roll down and forward through the spine and then re-stack the spine back up.
Muscle activation: Abdominals, back extensors, hamstring and spine stretch.
Rolling-Like-a-Ball
Balancing on your sitting bones, with your hands on your shins. Rollback, keeping the distance between the forehead and knees equal throughout the movement, and the distance between the ankles and the gluteus equal in the distance too. Rollback and forward using the abdominals and not momentum.
Muscle activation: Abdominals and stretching of the lower back.
Cat Stretch
Kneeling in a quadruped position with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Your spine (including your neck) is in a long neutral line. Lengthen up through the upper back into upper back extension, then return to neutral and then round just the lumbar spine into deep flexon and return to neutral. In extension, focus on the upper back, the lower back will naturally move. In lumbar flexion, focus on the lower back and the upper back will naturally move.
Muscle activation: Abdominals and upper back extensors.
Downward Dog
Standing on your feet with your legs as straight as possible, and back long, with your hands out in front of you. Stretch the backline of the body and keep your abdominals engaged.
Muscle activation: Hamstring and backstretch, abdominal activation.
Happy Baby
Lying on your back with your hands holding onto your feet. Push your feet into your hands and hands into your feet and hold your abdominals.
Muscle activation: Abdominals and lower backstretch.
Spine Twist
Sitting on your gluteus muscles, legs straight and together throughout the movement, feet dorsiflexed, arms out to the sides and palms facing up to the sky. Only rotate the trunk with a double pulse to the side and return back to the starting position and then repeat the movement over to the other side.
Muscle activation: Obliques, with a backstretch.
Roll Over
Lying supine, legs start together and on the diagonal, lift the legs up and take them over your torso, flex the feet, separate them and lower them down to the floor, slowly articulate the spine back to the mat. It is important to keep the eye line up to the ceiling throughout this exercise and not turn the head from side to side.
Muscle activation: Abdominals, back and hamstring stretch.
Hip Flexor Stretch
In a lunge position, with one knee on the floor and one leg back, gently push through the pelvis.
Muscle activation: Abdominals engaged and stretch through the hip flexor
Hamstring Stretch
In a lunge position, straighten the front leg and dorsiflex the foot.
Muscle activation: Abdominals and hamstring stretch.
Gluteal Stretch
Start in a lunge position, then walk the front foot in line with the shoulder and drop the same knee down towards the ground.
Muscle activation: Abdominals and gluteal stretch.