My massage therapist taught me a wonderfully easy exercise to prevent and/or heal low back pain, and my chiropractor taught me a great stretch exercise to stretch out screaming, low back muscles. Both are so easy and work well.
Exercise to prevent or heal low back pain
Lie on your stomach on the floor. Raise your torso on your elbows so your back is arched. Raise and lower your feet, bending at the knees. As you raise your feet, gently clench your low back muscles from the waist to the tailbone. You can feel it. Do this for 2 or 3 minutes each day. Took me about 4 weeks to build up low back strength so I wasn’t hurting anymore.
Stretch for Low back
Find a table or some surface which is about the same height or just a bit lower than your hip joints where you bend. Place fingertips flat on the surface, bending at the hip joints, so you look like an L shape. Put your head between arms and try to touch your chin to your chest. Hold that pose as you feel the muscles stretch in your low back and hamstrings down the back of your legs. Don’t bounce. Just hold the pose at least 20 seconds, and bend lower if you can. You can move your feet ahead, closer to the surface you are touching, for maximum stretch. Stretching the muscles often stops the pain.
You can use the same exercise to stretch upper back muscles. In the L shape pose again, arch your back upwards in sort of a rolling motion, and hold it when you find the point where it is aching most. Hold for at least 20 seconds.
Cramping aching muscles are knotted up, much like your fist in a tight grip. Stretching them forces the muscles to lengthen out to normal position again, so it pulls and hurts a bit to get them stretched, but it does work.
Same will work for your neck muscles. If it hurts to turn your head, try leaning your head to the side and stretching your neck muscles to one side and then the other.
Love and blessings,
Jan
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