hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and unicorn
Kali, and today I'm going to show you my five-minute stretching routine for
back pain. so let's get started. So before I get started, if
you haven't already, make sure you click on the subscribe button down there so I
can see your comments. you can always find me as askdoctorjo.com.
so this five-minute stretching routine for the back is gonna be a real time
routine. so if you want to follow along with me you can. so we're gonna do just a
45 second warmup, and then we're gonna do 30 seconds twice for each movement. so
with the back, you really want to do each side so we'll just do if it's an each
side thing one on each side. in general if you've watched some of my videos you
really the gold standard is 30 seconds, three times for each thing, but I
realized that a lot of times people don't have 30 to 45 minutes every day to
do their stretches. so really doing a quality stretch versus the quantity of
time it's going to be just as important. so a five-minute stretching routine is
really going to help you along the way. so that's how we're gonna do it. I've got
an app on my phone that will just kind of keep us kind of going, and so I'm just
gonna start the warmup. all we're gonna do is just while you're sitting you're
just gonna kind of arch your back one way and then roll it forward. so it's
almost like a seated pelvic tilt. this is just to kind of get the back moving a
little bit. if you want to do the pelvic tilt lying down you can, but you can also
just kind of do it sitting. I'm just going to go ahead and lie down so you
can see it as well that's warm-up. so a pelvic tilt is just bringing your back
down and coming up, so again this is just warming up the muscles a little bit.
you're not really holding it for an exercise or stretch, but you're just
getting it moving. you can also just kind of do a side to side like you're pulling
your hip up towards your shoulder just again to get that mid back loosened up a
little bit. so now we're going to go into stretches, and we're just gonna start off
with a knee to chest stretch. and it's just like it sounds. you're gonna bring
your knee up towards your chest. I like to keep the other leg bent up. you don't
have to, but I feel like that helps protect your back a little bit. if you
happen to have knee issues, you can grab underneath here, but if you don't you can
really just hold on top to give yourself a nice little push. breathe in real
deeply and as you're breathing out you can push in a little bit more to get
that stretch. then you're just going to switch sides and do the 30 seconds on
the other side. so again you can probably see maybe I have a little bit of
tightness the left hip is one that I had surgery on awhile ago, so it's still not
quite to a hundred percent yet, but again just pushing in as you breathe out just
get that extra little push. and you can see how it goes a little bit further. but
it should always be comfortable. it shouldn't be painful. knee to chest is a
nice way just to really open up that back and get that good stretch in there.
so now we're just going to take a little 10-second break to move on to the next
instruction. so the next stretch is going to be a trunk rotation. so you want to
keep your knees and your feet together. and then again, it's just like it sounds,
you're just gonna rotate your knees over to the side and hold that stretch for
that thirty Seconds. now my bottom area my hip is coming up a little bit, but my
shoulders are staying on the floor, or the bed, or the couch. you don't have to
do it on the floor. if you have a hard time getting up off the floor, you can do
these on your bed, but you don't want your shoulder coming up too. you want to
keep that shoulder down, but your hips can come up. and again just breathe in
deep as you're letting out everything just let your muscles relax and a lot of
times you can go a little bit further down. then coming up and then just
rotating to the other side. so you can see my feet are coming up, but they're
still staying together just like my knees are. and so my my hip comes up off
of the floor, or the bed, a little bit, but my shoulder's staying down. it's not
coming up into that rotation. so that's important to get that stretch in the
back and really have it feel nice a nice good stretch. but again really breathing
in deeply and then letting everything out helps those muscles relax as well, so
that's a nice way just to kind of get everything loosened up. so the last one sorry, not the last one, the next one is going to be just sitting up
and so it's going to be a QL stretch. And the QL is in the lower back.
so the side that I want to stretch, I'm going to bring this arm up and over,
and I'm going to just kind of push the other one down. that QL stretches
in the back there, and it's one of the muscles the quadratus lumborum that
really can sometimes cause back pain, but people don't think about stretching it a
little bit. so I'm pushing towards the opposite corner, and then I'm trying to
almost sit down on that side leaning this way while I'm pushing up that way
to get that extra stretch. and you should really feel it in that QL area right
there. and then you're just going to switch to the other side. so pushing down
bringing up and across and then pushing over to that hip. so my left arm is up
and over, and I'm pushing that left hip or pelvis down into the floor, or bed,
some more to get that stretch. almost like I'm pushing the bottom part this
way and the top part that way. and then pushing my hand down to get that nice
stretch through that QL, or that lower back area. and this one's a nice stretch
and it'll really loosen everything up. so the next one is gonna go into a child's
pose. Child's pose is probably one of my
favorite stretches because I feel like it stretches a little bit of everything.
so just kind of you can start on all fours and stretch your hands up a little
bit and come back down onto your knees. or you can start on your knees and then
stretch your arms out, whatever is more comfortable for you.
but the goal is to really be relaxed and let it stretch. so you see my shoulders
are getting stretched, my back's getting stretched, my hips, and even my knees and
my feet. you really want to try and bring your feet, so if I'm looking through my
knees I can't really see my feet. so they're not rolling in, mine trying to do
that, but try and keep them straight. come back up and then go back into that
stretch. so then you're getting the the feet stretching as well.
eventually you want to get your head all the way to the floor like this, but if
that's too tight, but you can put maybe like a little block or roll up a towel
so you can still relax while you're there if this isn't quite comfortable
enough for you. you can also bend your elbows a little bit more if you have
some shoulder pain just to get that strength in there, and then the last one
is just going to be a simple cat cow or I like to call them cat dogs. but you
want to get your hands right over your shoulders,
your knees about maybe two fists width apart, and all you're gonna do is come up
into the cat, you're gonna arch your back and tuck in your chin, tuck in your
tailbone, get that stretch and then come down into the cow or the dog. so you're
dropping almost like a saddle on your back and bringing your head up almost
like you're looking towards the ceiling. so with this one you don't want to hold
each one for thirty Seconds, maybe just a five to ten seconds stretch and just
alternating back and forth. but the key to this is you're really trying to get that
big stretch in there. see how I'm really dropping my hips, bringing up my hips,
arching up, tucking my tailbone in, tucking my chin in and then dropping
everything down like a saddle. and really bringing that chin up. so I'm talking
through but really doing some deep breathing is a really nice way to get
this stretch as well. this feels really really good on the back. oh yeah. so there
you have it, makes you sleepy, that five minutes stretching routine for back
pain. if you'd like to help support my channel, make sure and click on the link
up there, and don't forget to subscribe we're Kali? you already asleep? down there.
and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.
