Stretches for Lower Back Pain Relief
How Posture Affects Back Pain
Are you a person who has begun to suffer from low back aches? Does it seem that these aches and pains have come from nowhere and no particular activity seems to have caused any injury? Perhaps you've been to a doctor, but they can find no back injury or any other reason that you would be in pain. If you can relate to any of the above scenarios, this blog post may be very helpful for you. The good news is that I'm going to share with you how to relieve lower back pain with stretches and simple improvements to ergonomics. Those who might benefit from this post may also benefit from reading my post on How To Alleviate Tech Neck.
If you have checked out my post on relieving tech neck, and you agree that it seems like that information would be very helpful for you, then odds are that you have a sedentary job or other activities that involve a lot of time sitting down: driving, computer work, reading.
How Sitting Causes Low Back Pain
A very common issue we have in the modern era is health problems caused by sedentary jobs. More people are working full-time jobs sitting in a chair, working at a computer. Even for entertainment people are sitting down behind a laptop and playing games. Some build careers by spending long hours recording and editing videos for platforms like YouTube or making podcasts. And, if the ergonomics of a person's workstation are not optimal, this will probably result in the user of the computer sitting in a posture that tilts the hips forward, shortens the hip flexors, and bows the lower spine (lumbar).
If someone is in this anterior pelvic tilt position often, then even when they stand, they may not even realize that they aren't truly standing straight up; this anterior pelvic tilt remains due to the shortening of the hip flexors. This causes hyperlordosis in the lumbar spine, which tends to also result in hyperkyphosis in the upper back. Hyperlordosis is when the low back bows forward excessively. Hyperkyphosis is a condition in which the upper back is very curved, typically resulting in a hunched back.
When the hip flexors are short, this causes resistance in the form of muscular tension that opposing muscles have to constantly fight. When the shortened hip flexors cause the above-named postural conditions, this makes the muscles of the back have to fight against exponentially more resistance due to the leverage that gravity would have when the spine is excessively curved. And, if this is a constant postural condition, the muscles will always be working harder than they need to in order to keep a person upright, but those muscles will never seem to get enough rest. The back tension becomes a backache. The backache becomes a back pain, And, if left unchecked for too long, this back pain can become a back injury.
The video below does a good job explaining how these curves in the spine can cause your muscles to work too hard for such a simple job.
Video by Brad Ivanchuk
Hip and Low Back Stretches
Ever notice how when you stand up, after being in a sitting position for a long period of time, you have this natural tendency to want to push your hips forward, straighten your legs and do a long backward bend? There are many reasons why this movement would make sense. Firstly, being in a seated position that does not employ good ergonomics would slow down the blood supply where our joints are bent at tight angles. That means that when sitting in your average computer chair your lower legs aren't getting adequate blood circulation due to the bend in the knees and the pressure on the back of your legs. Your hip flexors would also be kinked and blood circulation would not be ideal there. So, part of stretching when we stand up is your body trying to open up pathways for reperfusion, the return of blood circulation. Secondly, the backward bend is a small effort for your body to try to lengthen the tissues that are beginning to become excessively shortened due to an undesirable posture in a seated position.
Standing Quadricep Stretch
To alleviate or prevent the anterior pelvic tilt posture that tends to result from sedentary work, let's begin with an easy stretch for low back pain relief. This stretch is the one we're all familiar with if we've played any sports as a kid: the standing quadriceps stretch. To perform this stretch, take the following steps:
- If you don't have good balance, stand near a stable and sturdy object.
- Hold onto the object to help you to keep your balance
- Bend a knee so that your foot comes up to your hip (if you're flexible enough to do this movement).
- Grab your ankle with the hand that is on the same side of your body as the knee that you've bent.
- If you cannot bend your knee far enough to grab your ankle comfortably, then you may want to improvise by laying on your stomach, putting a towel around the front of your foot (the part you'd kick a ball with), and pulling the towel with your arm.
Studies have suggested that an efficient and safe way to improve range of motion is to gently and comfortably stretch the desired muscles for up to one minute, twice per day. According to some studies, doing stretches twice daily and 5 days per week for a maximum of a one-minute duration provided the fastest improvements in range of motion. Some information states that this weekly schedule of stretching should be done for 5 consecutive weeks and then a week-long break should be taken on the 6th week. For more information on how to safely and effectively increase muscle length, watch the video below.
Video by Yiannis Christoulas
Stretches For the Hips and Low Back
The Low Lunge Pose
The quad stretch is more of a leg stretch than a hip stretch. However, one head of the quadriceps muscles, the rectus femoris, attaches at the top and front of the pelvis. So, when the quads are tight or short, they can contribute to anterior pelvic tilt. If we want to directly address muscles on the front of the hips, the low lunge is a pretty good stretch for that. My favorite way of doing low lunges is as follows:
- Find a comfortable, clean surface to stretch on, such as a yoga mat.
- Use a folded-up yoga blanket or any other firm cushion to kneel on.
- Place one knee on the cushion
- Place the foot of your other leg in front of you so that the non-kneeling leg's knee is in front of you and your knees are not bent to an angle of fewer than 90 degrees.
- Shift your hips forward until you feel a comfortable stretch in the hip of the leg that is kneeling on the cushion.
- Practice this technique and hone in on a position that is comfortable and safe for you.
- Switch knees and repeat.
The way I described this stretch is not a strict science. The most important thing is that it is safe for you and that you are doing the stretches in a comfortable way. Here is a video that I found which describes this stretch in a far better way than I have described it in this post:
Sacral Block Stretch
The next stretch is kind of like a modified version of Shavasana, or Corpse Pose -- also called Mrtasana. I call it the "Sacral Block," but I'm sure there are different names for this stretch. Many people don't even have a name for it, they just describe what it does: "Yoga block stretch for the hip flexors." Whatever you want to call it, it's probably my favorite stretch of all time for alleviating low back tension and improving one's posture.
Here is the protocol for how this stretch could be done:
- Again, you probably want to use a yoga mat or other comfortable surface to lie on.
- Place a yoga block or folded-up yoga blanket where your hips will be.
- Lie down and slide the bolster of your choice under your hips so that it supports your hips off the ground. Whether you chose a yoga block or yoga blanket as your bolster, your sacrum (center bone of the back of your hips) should be centered in the middle of the bolster.
- From that point, lower your knees so that your legs are almost completely straight and parallel with each other.
- This pose is often held for 90 seconds to 3 minutes.
If you have disc injuries this pose may not be safe for you. If you have lumbar fusions, I don't think this stretch is a good idea for you. But, regardless of what I think, no matter what I write in any post, never act on the information written in this blog unless your doctor confirms that it's safe and good for you to do so.
In this video, the "sacral block stretch" that I've described is demonstrated as well as 2 more beneficial stretches.
Video by Kru Movement
Stretches to Improve Posture
Notice that I don't have a section in this post called low back stretches for low back pain. This is because, as a massage therapist, Rossiter coach, and Qigong instructor, I've learned that to alleviate back pain holistically you need to stretch the muscles that are causing the pain -- not the muscles that are feeling the pain. This is because, in a structural sense, if you want to get to the cause of the common muscle aches with which we are all very familiar, you need to address the posture. As I've written near the beginning of this post, the muscles opposing the muscle that is distressed are what tend to be causing the achiness in the victim muscle.
In regard to stretching to relieve back pain, when muscles are achy, it's usually because muscles that are fighting those sore muscles are starting to get short and therefore causing an elastic resistance to the muscle that is in discomfort. If this opposing tension gets too intense, it will result in muscles and fascia that are so short that the skeleton cannot stand perfectly straight. As written at the beginning of this article, if the posture cannot straighten out and the skeleton cannot stand perfectly tall, there will be additional stress on the muscles that make the work of the back muscles exponentially more intense. However, stretches are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting back pain relief.
Ergonomics to Relieve Low Back Pain
If you want to relieve low back pain, you have to address what's causing your back aches. This article is about the stretches that can be done to lengthen the muscles that are "causing" the issue. However, I'd feel like I'm doing a disservice to my readers if I didn't mention what I consider to be the most important aspect of achieving pain relief holistically: ergonomics.
I tell my clients all the time, "all the stretches and massages in the world won't matter if you don't change the ergonomics and body mechanics of what you're doing when you're away from the massage table." Since sitting in a bad position can cause excessive stress on muscles and undesirable shortnesses in postural muscles, the best thing anyone can do is change the ergonomics of the activity that is causing the issues.
Since I use the computer worker example often for this concept, let's think of how a person's computer setup may affect their posture and put excessive stress on muscles. In many cases, the monitor is not high enough, which causes computer workers to hunch forward when they look at the screen. If they're using a laptop, the keyboard is attached to the monitor. Therefore, you can't win with a laptop as-is. If you put the laptop up high where you can sit tall, then you're straining your shoulders and neck to keep your arms up for typing. If you keep the laptop on the desk, you're going to be stooping down low. Ergo, as I like to suggest, a Bluetooth keyboard is a nice workaround for laptops. These keyboards allow you to keep the keyboard where you can comfortably reach it while you can also place the laptop, itself, up high enough for you to recline back into a tall, straight posture with the shoulders back.
The chair is definitely important. There are many nuances to achieving good ergonomics with a computer chair. You may think, "I already have an ergonomic chair." Are you sure? You won't believe the designs out there that call themselves "ergonomic." Some chairs are simply terrible and overpriced for what little value they have to offer. Other chairs are great for the upper body, but they provide no support for your lower legs. And, an awful lot of so-called ergonomic computer chairs fail to allow you to recline back in a good, straight posture.
You've probably heard that it's "good posture" to sit up tall. Yes, it is. But, when you're working for hours on end at a computer, even a perfectly straight posture is still going to overwork and irritate most of the muscles in your neck and back. This is why it's actually better to have a chair that will allow you to maintain a good open-shouldered posture with your head in line with your spine while reclining. It does not have to be much of an incline, just enough to support your back and neck, thereby, taking the workload off all those muscles while still maintaining an excellent posture.
Next, It's good to consider the bend of the knees. Ideally, the legs would be slightly bent, almost straight. An ottoman or leg rest could be useful. Ideally, the ergonomic computer chair you purchase would actually have an extendable leg rest of its own. In this way less pressure is on the backs of your thighs, your hips aren't tilted anteriorly, and your knees aren't bent too far. All of this supports your posture, protects your muscles from irritation, and facilitates good blood circulation throughout your entire body.
When I tried to find the ideal chair for home office work, the one pictured below is the best one I could find, based on my criteria.
Just because a computer chair can be so ergonomically satisfying that it will keep you very comfortable for hours doesn't mean that you should spend hours at a time sitting down. In fact, it's recommended that you stand up and even walk around a bit at least once per hour. But, if you must stay on task for hours on end, it's definitely a good idea to get a standing desk.
A standing desk will allow you to work from standing whenever it's a good time for you to be on your feet. Then, when it comes time for you to take a seat again, a standing desk can go back down and work as a regular desk that you would sit at. If you don't want to purchase a standing desk, you can use a standing desk converter, which can be placed on top of your existing desk. This will allow you to still have the advantage of being able to stand up while working at the computer, without having to get rid of your old desk.
Stretching and Ergonomics for Low Back Pain
In conclusion, 3 stretches to alleviate low back tension caused by computer work are the standing quad stretch, the low lunge, and the "sacral block" stretch. Stretches are very helpful for giving you the muscle length where you need it in order to have a good posture. But, including the right ergonomics and body mechanics are probably much more impactful than stretches alone.
If you've found this article helpful, then you'd probably also benefit from my post on Stretches to Alleviate Tech Neck.
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