4 Great Stretches to Relieve Your Tight Low Back
A tight lower back can be brought on by many things. Whether you're uncomfortable from long car rides to heavy days of lifting weights, you'll want to take action for relief.
To help alleviate your stiffness, Dr. Aaron Horschig, DPT, the expert behind Squat University, has created a four-step approach to help you loosen it up.
Step 1: Cat-Camel
To do this, you will get down onto all fours. In this position, you will arch your back while you drop your head, and then pick your head up as you arch your back.
"The idea behind the cat-camel is that we're trying to improve slowly the motion that is available at the spine, basically take it through a range of motion and decrease some of the stiffness within the joints," says Horschig. "It even flosses the nerves that exit out the joints a little bit as well."
He notes that this is not intended to be a stretch through the end range (jamming the position at the end of each), but rather moving gently through each move. All you need to do is reps up and down, which should be enough to see some improvements.
Step 2: The Faber Test/Kettlebell Weight Shift Exercise
"Stiff hips can be a main factor in leading to stiffness and even pain for some people in their low back," says Horschig.
To see if you have tight hips, you should do the Faber Test. To do it, lay on your back and put your foot up and over your other knee. From here, you're going to drop your leg down as far as possible while keeping your pelvis level. Don't let your hips slide out to the side. See how far your leg can go to the ground, then do it on the other side.
"If you have one hip that just hangs in the air compared to your other side, it means that you have an issue in that hip extending and externally rotating. And what that does is impart an uneven force on the low back, which can be a contributing factor to feeling a lot of that stiffness and tightness," says Horschig.
To fix this, you should do a Kettlebell Weight Shift exercise. Grab a kettlebell and start in the kneeling position. Take your top foot and put it out to the side at a 30-degree angle. Grab the kettlebell to keep your chest upright. Open your hip and shift to the side, which should stretch your inner groin. If it creates a pinch, change the position of your foot to find the angle to feel that stretch in your groin. Hold it for 5 seconds, then come back. Do 5 reps total. Afterwards, re-test the Faber Test to see if it helped with the mobility in your hip. Your leg should be able to drop down further than before, showing that it's effectively improving your hip mobility.
Step 3: The Bridge
This will get your glutes engaged, which may not be contributing to hip extension, meaning that your back has to take over, explains Horschig. If your glutes aren't pulling their weight, the back will compensate and do more work than it needs to. To improve it, start doing bridges.
Lay on your back and put a hip circle band across your knees. Open your knees against the band resistance, which will turn the lateral hips on. Then pick your hips up and hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Your glutes should be burning in this position. If you feel your hamstrings cramping, pull your heels closer to your butt to shorten them, meaning they will have less ability to generate force from them. Or you can jam your toes down, forcing through your toes. This involves the theory of reciprocal inhibition, which will turn the quads on slightly, which turns the hamstrings off and leaves your glutes to do the work to extend the hips. Do 15 reps for a 10 second hold.
Step 4: Bird Dog
This helps with core stability. A weak core may be a contributing factor to a tight back. So do the Bird Dog.
To do it, get down on all fours. Stiffen your core, and extend your opposite arm and leg, creating as much tension from your fist all the way through your heel. Hold for 10 seconds. Tap your knee and then do it again. Maintain a neutral spine and keep your foot close to the floor. Do 5 to 6 reps for a 10 second hold on each leg.
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