A sore lower back is a pretty common complaint for a lot of people. The reasons for the soreness are as varied as the folks who are experiencing it, but the bottom line with any soreness at all, is that the whole surrounding area likely needs some TLC.
Sometimes a sore back happens because a person’s hamstrings (the backs of their legs) are tight. A sore back may even be happening because of tightness or injury in their shoulders, believe it or not. It’s all connected. A sore back can be indicative of a weak core, or an unstable pelvis, among a thousand other things.
Here I’m focusing on just 5 moves to help fix your low back, a little bit of everything, so you can get back to feeling great. Spend as long as you like with each move, but shoot for about a minute with each one.
#1 Knee circles
Lay on your back, draw your knees toward your chest and cup the knees with your hands. Gently move them apart and into nice big circles. Nice and slow, and both directions with the circles.
#2 Three way leg stretch
Lie on your back with your legs in an “L” shape, right leg up.
Put a strap or a belt across the ball of your right foot. Stretch the heel toward the ceiling, toes down toward your face. Keep both legs active; left toes point toward the ceiling. Let the stretch get as deep as you can, and hold for 10 long breaths.
Take the strap in your right hand and send the leg to the right. Now you are pushing the big toe side of the foot into the strap. This stretch is for the inner thigh, and can be intense. Just as with the first one, let it get as deep as you can, and hold for 10 big breaths.
Now take the strap in the left hand and send leg to the left, stacking the right hip on top of the left. Now the stretch will come into the outside of the leg. Push the pinky toe side of the foot into the strap, let the stretch get as big as you can, and hold 10 breaths.
Take a moment to send that right leg down on the floor next to the left. Feel how much longer the right leg feels. That, is exactly why we’re here my friend.
Repeat on the left leg.
#3 Around the world
On hands and knees, take the weight forward into the hands and then over to the right. Then hips back toward heels. Then take the weight over toward the left as you bring it back forward. Both directions with the circles.
#4 Pelvis stability bridge
Lay on your back with knees bent. Press your feet into the mat and lift the hips. Lift the right leg and left arm. Repeat with left leg and right arm. If you are working on building pelvic stability, you can omit the arms and just focus on the lift of the legs.
The intention is to not move the body at all. The body is supported by the core, the standing leg, and the shoulders.
#5 30/60/90 legs
Lay on your back and send the legs straight up to 90 degrees. Your hands can be down by your hips, or even under your hips, if it helps your back feel supported. The more challenging version is to send the arms up overhead so they cannot help your core in the movement.
Squeeze the legs together and lower them to 60 degrees, then almost to the floor, then back to 90 degrees. Slow and steady. Imagine your lower abdominals acting like a seatbelt, holding your low back against the floor.
This will help strengthen the deep core muscles that can help support the low back. If it is too challenging to take the legs so close to the floor, go only so far as you still feel empowered and strong, only as far as you can still feel that “seatbelt”.
Good luck! Need any help? Reach out! emily@thechangingroom.blog.
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