“Exercises for Lower Back Pain” Transcript

Welcome to today’s Quick Fit class. Many times, the problem isn’t our “bad back,” or our “bad knees.” Often the pain we are experiencing is caused elsewhere by muscles that are too tight or too weak. Together, we will work the entire body gently to become more balanced and help relieve pain. Let’s get moving!

[upbeat music]

We’ll be starting today’s class seated, then we’ll get up, and then we will come back to the chair. But don’t let the chair distract you from taking this class. This class is very effective, and the chair is just a really great tool for getting some of those moves that wouldn’t be as easy to do standing. So we’ll start with the tail tuck and arch. Let’s tuck that tailbone under, using the pelvis to get mobility in the lower spine. Tucking, head down, sit up tall, and arch. We wanna make sure we never lose any mobility in any of our joints. You see, tightness equals weakness, and weakness leads to pain. So you need to make sure that you’re doing this daily maintenance every day.

All right, tuck, sit up tall. [breathes deeply] Especially if you want to live better longer, and keep doing all the things you love. Now, we’ll turn to the right. And let’s just extend one leg, all right. And sit up nice and tall, we’re going to do a hamstring stretch. So a nice big inhale. And as you do this, don’t let your upper back round. It’s very common for the shoulders to come down, the chest to come in, and then, you don’t end up stretching your hamstrings. So, if they’re super tight, you won’t get very far, and that’s okay, just add your breathing, nice deep inhale. [inhales] And then exhale, and right from the hips, press forward. Think about as if you could press the bottom of your ribs against your thigh. You wouldn’t do that by rounding your back.

And remember, it’s not a competition. Just do what’s good for you. All right, now let’s round it, take some of that pressure off. And we’ll do that one more time. Inhale, exhale, press. [exhales] I know that’s super tight, and you’re feeling that all the way down the back of your leg. And then one more rounded, and just slide that hand down. Real good, now come up, and then we’ll cross your knees, and then in a real relaxed way, just fold over. [exhales] Inhale. [inhales] When it’s tight, you stop and you inhale. And then you exhale. [exhales] Do that as many times as you need to to loosen up. Inhale, exhale. [exhales] Bring that leg up, and then we’ll cross. And it’s okay to cross above the knee or below the knee, doesn’t matter. You simply can stretch. And lower the leg if you need to. We always have a modification.

Now for this one, we’re only going to round the spine as if you could touch your forehead to your leg. I’m gonna bring this up for myself, and just round my spine. All right, let’s go over to the other side. Once again, we’re extending the leg. Now, if you’re very, very tight, a little soft bend in the knee is acceptable. But once again, we need that flat back. Have your other leg firmly right out in front of you for this nice base so you don’t feel like you’re going to fall out of the chair. A nice inhale, [inhales] exhale, and press it forward. Maybe it’s only an inch, all right, but just be honest with yourself, and strict, so that we stretch the muscles we wanna stretch. And up, and then we’ll round forward, exhale. [exhales] Dropping the head, feeling that stretch all the way down our spine. One more time, flat back, exhale. [exhales] I know that’s tight, and then [inhales] inhale, let it go over. And then bring that leg up and cross. And we’ll be relaxed now as you imagine you can touch your forehead down towards your knee. And then we’ll go all the way, let your weight rest against your thigh.

Everybody’s going to feel this in a different spot. I often get asked, “Am I supposed to feel that in my elbow?” You’ll feel it really wherever you’re tight, or wherever you’re weak. Now let’s press that knee open. Inhale, and just let that head [exhales] aim towards the leg in a nice, relaxed spine. Don’t forget those nice, deep belly breaths. Deep inhale to the count of four, [inhales] and a really long exhale to the count of, say, five or six.

Now, let’s go ahead and stand up, and we’ll stretch our IT bands, which are these outside of our legs. I’ll have you use the chair for this. And as you stand here, let’s just cross your right leg in front of your left. ‘Kay, a big inhale. And just let your weight sink forward. You can let your hands go all the way down to the floor if you’re comfortable with that. But the chair’s nice if this is a very hard stretch for you to kinda take some of the pressure off. Another inhale, [inhales] exhale. [exhales] When you can walk your hands to one side.

[gentle music]

And now, the leg that you crossed in front, let’s just bring that towards you. And you got the chair here to help you balance, and let’s give that leg a hug. [gentle music] All right, now we’ll put the foot up on top, all right. Big inhale, and just sink your torso towards the chair. Big inhale. [inhales] And it’s not often that you can do a stretch the very first time, so really take your time, take a lot of deep inhales and exhales, and repeat the moves as often as you need to. Let’s do that other leg. So now we’ll cross the left in front of the right. Big inhale, [inhales] exhale. [exhales] And especially depending on what time of day you do these, you will be tighter probably in the morning than in the later afternoon. Inhale, exhale. [breathes deeply] And you can even add the twist and reach down towards the floor. All right, now that leg that’s in the front, let’s just hug it to your body. [breathes deeply] Exhale. And then, we’ll put it up on top of the seat. And let your torso sink down. Let’s do that a couple more times. Deep inhale, [inhales] exhale. [exhales]

And I do like having my standing leg under me for this one. Last one, inhale. [breathes deeply] And blow. Don’t be afraid to deep breathe, and make noise as you breathe. Your muscles need a lot of oxygen.

Now we’ll go back down to the seated position to stretch our psoas. Your psoas is a really large pair of muscles that attach on either side of your lower spine, and go across the front of your pelvis, and attach to the top of either thigh bone. They’re very strong, but they can get very tight, and they can even cause you to have anxiety. So let’s stretch them, because they’re a real source of back pain if they’re tight. You might even find that one is tighter than the other, and it’d be like an ‘aha’ moment. I’ve had people say, “I always get this pain on one side.” Well, lo and behold, one side of their psoas is much tighter than the other. So, let’s start by opening the knees and the feet as really wide as you can, and we are seated on the very front edge of your chair. And then I like to pivot on my toes. And as you do this, of course, deep breathing, in and out. But make sure your hind end stays seated. If your psoas, rather, is very tight, what’ll happen is your hip’ll just turn right with it. So you gotta fight that so that we stretch the muscle gently. And even if you only go an inch, that’s okay, that’s just your truth. You gotta start there and improve from there.

All right, and let’s do the other side. Deep inhale, [inhales] exhale. [exhales] I also like doing this exercise laying on the floor. You can do it laying in bed, but the same rule applies. Just make sure your hind end stays on the seat or on the floor.

All right. Our time is up for today, but this is a good class to take again and again to help keep your body in balance. Find more of my Quick Fit classes filled with easy and effective exercises online at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit. Keep moving your body so you can keep doing what you love. I’ll see you next time.