If You Hold Your Back Pain Stretches Less Than 90 Seconds…You’re Making a Serious Mistake!
Back pain stretches are one of the most effective, yet often overlooked keys to eliminating lower back pain. In my experience, lack of flexibility is something I see in almost every patient I work with. Even individuals that go to the gym regularly often fail to add it into their routine. Let’s face it; most people would rather spend their time doing “real” exercises, like the bike or treadmill, to lose weight. Most men would rather lift weights to get “buff!”
In actuality, performing regular back pain stretches is an activity that not only improves your overall conditioning, but it is also vital for the prevention of injuries. Let’s discuss a few of the reasons stretching is so important.
It Decreases Muscle Imbalances - Due to the sedentary lifestyles most of us lead, most of us do not give our bodies the movement it was created to perform. Over time, many of our muscle groups in the body tighten and become imbalanced. Some muscle groups get tight, while others stretch out. This imbalance can directly increase stress on your spine.
It Improves Motion in the Body – When you lack flexibility in your muscles, the body has to create that motion somewhere else. This causes unnecessary stress on other areas of the body. As an example, let’s say you have very tight hip muscles. Because bending down with proper body mechanics requires normal hip motion, your body has to create the motion that would have come from your hips somewhere else. Normally, the body improvises and creates the motion by causing your low back to bend as you squat down. This is crucial because lifting even a light object with your back bent (lifting with your back instead of your legs) puts a lot of unnecessary stress on your spine.
The Body Was Created to Move – Improving your flexibility not only allows your whole body to move easier with less restriction, it also decreases muscle imbalances and helps prevent injuries.
Keys to Stretching
One of the best things about stretching is you don’t need any special equipment or membership to a fancy gym. Also, you can do it almost anywhere! All you need is some basic instruction on how to perform your stretches properly and you can be “up and running” with a good flexibility program in no time. Let’s review a few of the keys to stretching properly.
- Maintain your neutral spine as you stretch.
- Do 3-4 sets of each stretch and hold each set for 30 seconds.
- Do your stretches slowly – don’t bounce!
- Stretch on a regular basis. Ideally, you want to stretch 3-4 times a week to increase your flexibility.
Common Errors in Stretching
Since most of us have never learned how to stretch, here are several common errors I see people make while stretching.
- Not holding stretches long enough.
- Not stretching frequently enough. Stretching once or twice a week is better than nothing, but it is not going to make a drastic difference in your flexibility.
- Not maintaining neutral spine.
Key Back Pain Stretches
Before we go over a few key back pain stretches, I want to discuss the reason I chose the stretches I did. Most of you will notice we are not reviewing any stretches for the back itself. The reason for this is that some of the popular stretches for the back can irritate, or even worsen, your back pain depending on what is causing your lower back pain.
I know many of you reading this have a variety of different problems causing your back pain. Without seeing you face to face, I do not want to give general back stretches that may worsen your back pain. The stretches we will cover in this section are safe, no matter what is causing your back pain. They also target muscle groups that can exert unnecessary stress on the spine if they are tight.
Watch the following videos to learn a few key stretches you can start today to get back pain relief.
Hamstring Stretch Lying on Your Back
Hip Flexor Stretch on Your Knees
Hip Flexor Stretch on Your Stomach
Hip Flexor Stretch Standing Up
Back Pain Stretches…Just 1 Secret
Back pain stretches are great, but they’re only one of The Back University’s 7 Secrets to Eliminating Low Back Pain; check out our web-site to discover the other 6 secrets you must implement immediately to take control of your lower back pain!