5 Essential stretches for lower back tightness.

By Sophia McDermott, Lifestyle Coach & Fitness Expert.  

Many of us experience lower back tightness or pain occasionally. Some of us experience it often. This can be due to many reasons, but one common theme that comes my way as a trainer is due to tightness in the hips.

The majority of us spend a vast amount of time sitting, whether it be, sitting at a computer, sitting while driving a car, sitting while out for dinner, or at the movies. Over time, being in this position tightens up the hip muscles.

If you are feeling tightness or pain in the lower back and hips and you spend a lot of time sitting, these stretches will be great for you!. They will loosen up the hips, lower back, and core muscles and help to ease a lot of tightness that can contribute to pain.

During these stretches, try to focus your thoughts on your body and send away any other distracting thoughts. Breath through your stretches and allow your body to relax completely while you hold each stretch at a comfortable level for around one minute.

This will help you to connect with your body and get the blood flowing. After doing this stretching routine, you’ll feel relaxed, zen, energized, and limber, and hopefully, any pain or discomfort you might be feeling will be mitigated.

Stretch 1. Cobra stretch:

Push up with your hands while leaving your hips/pelvis on the mat. Allow your abs to relax. This is a very good stretch for losing up the spine and for lengthening the hip flexors.

Stretch 2. Lunge stretch:

Bring one leg forward and make sure to drop your hips and keep your chest up to target your psoas muscles also. Make sure to keep your foot slightly in front of your front knee to avoid too much stress on your knee joint. You should feel the stretch in the front of the hip of the back leg. 

Stretch 3. Pretzel stretch:

Keep both shoulders on the mat while bringing your far leg over to the side to get a big twist through the spine. This stretch loosens up so many small muscles that run along your lower back, hips, and ribs.

Stretch 4. Glute stretch.

Bend your front leg and put your foot in line with your knee while turning your knee out. You’ll have to adjust your position with this to find your ‘sweet spot.’ Once you get there it’s quite an interesting stretch. This one is very important for stretching out one of the stabilizing muscles in the booty that often gets overworked due to muscle imbalances.

Active stretch 5. Bridges.

As an active stretch, bridging is an excellent exercise. This is because you are strengthening your gluts all the while lengthening your hips. The two movements work in tandem.  Often excessively tight hips cause the glutes to waken over time which can lead to even lower back pain. Aim to do 3-5 bridges and hold each bridge for 30 seconds.