FIVE EXERCISES AGAINST A STIFF BACK!
Just getting up and running around, getting your own coffee instead of letting that colleague do it or taking the stairs to that meeting on the top floor, do wonders for activating your (back) muscles. Do you want to go a step further does the chirp wheel work? Then try these five exercises for the lower back.
DISCLAIMER: The exercises below are intended for people with mild back problems due to prolonged sitting. We refer people with chronic back pain to a physiotherapist or Pilates teacher.
1: ACTIVATE YOUR DEEP HORIZONTAL ABDOMINAL MUSCLE
The spine is very mobile: the vertebrae allow movement in all directions. This, however, also makes the joint vulnerable. The first step to get that stiffness from your lower back is therefore to activate your abdominal muscles. Abdominal muscles help you to maintain control over the spine.
Most people think of the 'six pack' in abdominal muscles, but this is just one of four abdominal muscles, namely the rectus abdominis . This vertical muscle is the most superficial abdominal muscle and has the main function to flex your spine (bend forward). This muscle does not provide stability of the lower back.
Which muscle do you have to tighten? The abdominal muscle that almost exclusively aims to stabilize your pelvis and your lower back: transversus abdominis , the horizontal abdominal muscle. This abdominal muscle is located on the side of your body, roughly between your pelvis and your lower ribs. This is you so-called corset and it is the muscle that you activate when you - as they say in many sports lessons - pull your belly button towards your back. The transversus abdominis automatically activates just before you move an arm or leg, but unfortunately this activation is often delayed (or too late) in people with low back pain. That is why it makes sense to become aware of this muscle and 'wake it up' by following the exercise below.
Sit on the edge of your chair. Place your pelvis in a neutral position: the weight in the middle of your seat bones and with a neutral cavity in your lower back. Stay upright throughout the exercise.
Put your hands on your stomach, with your fingers together - without crossing them. Inhale through your nose, and controlled out through your mouth. That means: slowly and completely, as if you were blowing through a straw.
Move your attention to your hands. Do you notice that your belly is moving away from your hands and that tension is arising? This is the work of, among other things, the transversus abdominis.
Are you unsure whether you are doing well? Then exhale through a deep sigh, and compare it with the feeling you had in your stomach after the controlled exhalation. If you exhale with a sigh, relax your abdominal muscles, activating them as you exhale slowly and in a controlled manner.
2: ROLL DOWN
Time for the first exercise for the lower back: the rolling of the worksheet column. Do not forget to activate your transversus abdominis, you are in control . With this exercise you have to keep your pelvis stable in a neutral position and that you do not force anything. You do NOT have to roll so far that you can touch the ground - because then you tilt your pelvis forward.
Breathe in and reach your ceiling towards the ceiling, as if you are growing 2 centimeters longer.
Breathe out and lower your chin towards your sternum. Roll away vertebra until you feel comfortable for you.
Breathe in on your deepest point. Keep your deep abdominal muscle active. Let your arms hang relaxed. Also relax your head and your neck.
Breathe out and pull your navel even more towards your back. Then roll up to standing.
3: STANDING SIDE BEND
In this exercise we move to the left and to the right and we make a lateral bend. Again, you only bend as far sideways as it feels comfortable for you. Do not force anything. Look for the extension of your spine by continuing to reach towards the ceiling as you bend sideways.
Reach your right arm to the ceiling on an inhale.
Breathe out, tighten your stomach muscle and bend sideways from your back as you hold your arm along your ear and keep your fingers reach from you.
Breathe in to come back from the back to the center.
Breathe out and circle your arm back down.
4: STANDING BACKBEND
In this exercise we make a backward bend. With backward bends it is extra important to use your deep abdominal muscle to stabilize your lower back. With a backward bend we make the hollowing of the lower back slightly larger. If you normally already have an excessive hollowing of the lower back, it may be that this exercise does not feel comfortable. Then skip this.
Stand with your feet at hip width and put your arms in your side or supporting your lower back.
On your inhalation, extend your crown to the ceiling.
Breathe out, tighten your abs, and gently bend backwards, as if you are stretching your crown over a big ball.
Breathe in to hold the pose.
Breathe out and come back to a straight position by putting your abdominal muscles even more tight.
5. STANDING TWIST
Your spine can not only bend forward and sideways, but can also twist or rotate. This movement is very good for mobilizing your back because it uses the deeper and smaller back muscles and stretches. By arguing, you also train your oblique abdominal muscles at the same time.
Stand upright and place your forearms on top of each other, or your hands on your shoulders, just slightly lower than shoulder height. Breathe in and reach your ceiling to your crown.
Breathe out and twist to the right. Look in the direction in which you twist without moving your hips. Your pelvis therefore remains stable.
Breathe in and twist back to the middle.
Breathe out and twist to the left. Take a look in the direction in which you twist, again without moving your hips.
Breathe in and twist back to the middle.