Good Lower Back Stretches for Low back pain – A DIY guide without equipment
In a nutshell
If you have lower back pain we have good news and bad news.
The good news is that you can do something about it, and start right now.
The bad news is that going to the doctor will probably not help.
Unfortunately, if you go to the doctor the only thing they know how to do is prescribe pain killers. They don’t know how to fix the problem or even what causes the pain.
The best thing you can do is read this guide to both get reliable advice on lower back stretches that work, and other things you can do over time to relieve and prevent lower back pain.
A stiff back is common, but not normal. Your body is strong and adaptable, so when it’s stiff and in pain it means something is wrong.
Here is our 6 steps to end lower back pain
Step 1: Lower back stretches. Prioritize stretching the lower back every day.
Step 2: Lower back exercises. Change your posture habits to stop the pain from coming back.
Step 3: Do lower back exercises that strenghten your lower back muscles.
Step 4: Releasing tension in the lower back aka decompression
Step 5: Core stability (not core strength)
Step 6: Help your body recover by making better health choices, (anti inflammatory food, drinking more water)
Let’s go through these 4 steps, and look at follow-along videos that relieves 95% of the most common back pain issues.
Step 1
Lower back stretch video #1 Cat-Cow
Lower back stretch video #2 Rock & Roll
Lower back stretch video #3 Assisted Squat
Lower back stretch video #4 Straddle Forward Fold
Lower back stretch video #5 Sufi Circles
These five videos should make you feel better instantly, but of course they don’t fix the origin of your lower back pain.
Step 2
In order for you to understand what the most common problem with lower back pain is, we need to look at a video from posture expert jenn sherer:
In this video she explains how the ‘neutral pelvic tilt’ and ‘tucking the tailbode’ is actually bad advice.
Pushing the hips forward makes our glutes and lower back work less, and that puts stress on your spinal discs instead.
The secret is to stick your butt out behind you, which puts the stress of standing and walking on your muscles, which makes them stronger and puts the stress where it should be.
So in short: Stop tucking your tailbone, and stop shoving your hips forward. Instead sit and walk with your butt behind you.
Here is a video of Jiu-Jitsu athlete and yoga teacher Sebastian Brosche going through a follow-along session on how to practice these posture changes.
If you find posture really interesting, also watch this longer video.
Step 3
Ok, now you have a strategy both for stretching your lower back when its stiff and hurts, and you have started correcting your posture to take pressure off your lumbar spine.
Now it’s time to strenghten the lower back with exercises that both makes you stronger and more agile in that area.
Lower back exercise video #1 Superman
Lower back exercise video #1 Belly Down Clasp
Lower back exercise video #2 Kicking Warrior 3
Lower back exercise video #3 Rolling Knee
Lower back exercise video #4 Straddle Twist
Lower back exercise video #5 1-leg Bridge
This page is a guide to things you can do for your lower back at home, but in addition to these 5 lower back exercises, you can also consider the benefits of working out in a gym.
The body weight exercises above is great for building muscle tone and connection to your muscles, making your lower back stronger.
But doing Deadlifts and squats using weights, machines or resistance bands will build muscle mass, which is the #1 predictor of longevity in humans.
The muscle mass you build in the gym will make your back and glutes more capable of keeping your posture and spine in a happy place
This means that the combo of working out in a gym 1-2 times per week, plus doing these back exercises from home, will put you at the top 1% of all humans in terms of both back health and health in general.
Step 4
So stretching and strengthening plus posture is a good combination.
But there is another thing that feels amazing: decompressing and releasing the lower back.
This means that you take the pressure of standing and sitting off, and decrease load on your lumbar spine.
How do I decompress my lower back?
Here are three great ways to decompress your lower back:
Lower back release exercise #1 Hanging Hip Circles
#How to loosen tight lower back muscles
#How to unlock the lower back?
Lower back release exercise #2 Spinal Twist
Also known as: Trunk Rotation (Yoga Spine Twist)
#Physiotherapy exercises for lower back pain
Lower back release exercise #3 Legs Up The Wall
#How can I release my lower back myself?
#How do you decompress your lower back yoga?
#How to stretch the lower back in bed?
Lower back pain
Why isn’t this article adressing back pain specifically?
Because:
- pain can have many origins. for some it can be an old injury, or recent trauma, while others have a bulging disc or trapped ischias nerve, a strain from lifting a toddler, or just a minor but irritating muscle knot.
- nobody should make generic diagnosises. Especially online. Back pain can be difficult for even a trained doctor to unpack, so an online article like this one should definitely not diagnose pain.
- ‘Pain’ can mean different things for people. Some pain can be necessary and good, while other types of pain can be serious and avoided.
What we can say with certainty is that prevention is worth more than any cure.
Step 5
I’m sure everyone has heard the advice ‘strengthen the core’ by doing situps until you feel the burn. Let’s take the time to debunk this flawed idea right now by listening to PhD Peter O’sullivan in this video.
He explains that the core muscles has one main objective: stabilization.
This means that when you ‘tuck your tailbone’ and ‘engage your core’, you’re not stabilizing but restricting movement.
So instead of doing situps, let’s do exercises that teaches your trunk muscles to create stability between your hips and ribcage without creating tension.
Core Stability Exercise #1 Butt Balance
Core Stability Exercise #2 Dynamic Side Plank
Core Stability Exercise #3 Table Top Diagonals
Core Stability Exercise #4
The big takeaway is that you are not looking for the burn. Stop thinking about core stability like HIIT fat burning cardio, where you cry by the end if the session.
Instead, as soon as you start feeling fatigue in one position, you move to the next position nice and slow.
This way you challenge your stability without total fatigue.
This is both better for your lower back, and more enjoyable than traditional core tightening workouts.
Step 6
Well done! You have now taken 5 actionable steps to fix your lower back pain with stretching, strengthening, muscle building and posture correction.
Now, the last step is to zoom out.
Your lower back is a body part only in theory. The body does not actually have parts like a car. Your body is one piece, and everything connects to everything else.
This means that when you eat processed junk food instead of healthy natural anti-inflammatory food, and you drink 50% less water than your body needs to function optimally, you create hundreds of secondary problems.
Smoking, drinking alcohol, and not doing any cardio activity like daily walks or weekly runs, will directly affect your whole body, including your lower back.
So the lower back pain you have, is not really a deficiency of lower back stretches.
Low back pain is a symptom of a bigger problem we can call MLD: Moder Lifestyle Disease. This disease is a combination of lack of movement, poor posture and bad diet.
This is hard for anyone to hear and hard for the ego to accept.
But we are not afraid to be the bearer of harsh truths, because we know that you will be grateful when you have taken action and made positive change in your life.
Step 7
We know that lower back pain can lower life quality a lot.
So if the fix is as easy as we have learned today, why aren’t more people doing it?
Beacuse breaking old habits is hard, and so is creating new habits.
We don’t expect our teeth to be clean forever by brushing them once, and we can’t expect our back to be healthy with one session every now and then.
What we need is consistency.
If you know that consistency is your biggest problem, the good news is that we can help with that.
We put together a program inlcuding all the above videos as follow-along classes, and created a habit tracker to put on your fridge.
Following this for 12 weeks will both fix most or all of your lower back pain.
It will likely fix a lot of other issues too, but the main problem it solves is consistency.
Having a playlist of videos that adresses all aspects of your lower back problems, and tracks your habits over time, is in our opinion the only reliable way of fixing the problem once and for all.
Unpacking What people search for on Google (People also ask):
‘Lower back stretches for Men’
Lower backs function virtually the same for both genders. All stretches will work equally well for men and women in general.
‘Does walking help loosen a tight lower back?’
Often not directly, but if paying attention to how you walk, it can definitely help. Taking a break every 5 minutes to sit down in a squat is a classic way of
‘Is banana good for back pain?’
Nutritional deficiencies like potassium found in bananas is probably not on the list of likely sources of back pain. weakness, overload, poor posture, dehydration and a diet causing inflammation are more likely.
(same goes for “Is yogurt good for back pain? Is egg good for back pain?”)
‘How to get rid of inflammation in the lower back?’
Sauna, drinking water, eating super foods like turmeric, flax seeds, and a whole food fiber rich diet, and doing stretches and whole body cardio are all good choices, and combined even better.
‘What is the best tablet for muscle pain?’
Pain killers fix symptoms, but doesn’t reach the source of the problem. If you want the problem to go away for good, you need to follow the general advice in this article. Going down the pill route leads nowhere good.
What is the best cream for lower back pain?’
Liniment and heat oils can feel amazing for sore muscles. Rubbing on some cream and stretching is a great idea.
‘Is it better to stretch at night or in the morning?’
Stretching in the morning helps you feel better during the day.
Stretching in the evening helps you sleep better during the night.
What to do when you can barely walk from lower back pain?
See an osteopath. They are trained to look at the big picture, and understand pain much better than a GP (general doctor). They are not trained to medicate first, but to find the underlying problems and work on long term solutions and prevention.
Disclamer: The author is not an Osteopath, and has no affiliation with osteopaths.