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Pain in the lower back and sacrum troubles almost every tenth person. According to experts, their main cause is the increasingly widespread sedentary lifestyle.
Statistics show that up to 80% of people will experience a problem with their lower back at least once in their life, characterized by stiffness or reduced flexibility.
As Kelly Collinsová, a certified fitness trainer, states:
“All our all-day sitting causes stiffness not only in the lower back, but also in the hips, thighs, and shoulders. It also leads to weakening of the entire spine and weakening of the muscles in the abdomen, back, and buttocks.”
To get rid of the pain caused by this weakening of bones and muscles, you need to make changes in your life. Stretching exercises will help you best with this; they can literally transform your health from the ground up.
We define stretching exercises as follows:
They are actions of extending muscles to their full length that our body is capable of reaching. The result is straightening or correcting the entire posture by strengthening muscles, joints, and limbs.
Main benefits of stretching exercises
The main benefits of stretching exercises include:
1. Relief of back pain, elimination of stiffness, and reduction of fatigue in the muscles surrounding the spine.
2. Prevention of injuries by strengthening muscles.
3. Improved posture, because stiff muscles are essentially weak muscles.
4. Improved digestion – twisting yoga poses increase blood flow to the intestines, reduce inflammation there, treat gastritis, and strengthen the gut.
5. Improved health and flexibility of joints, tendons, and ligaments. Prevention of conditions such as runner’s knee or tennis elbow.
6. Improved mood by increasing blood flow to the brain.
7. Reducing headaches and migraines by releasing stiff muscles.
8. Reducing stress, tension, and anxiety.
9. Improved flexibility and suppleness of the whole body.
Nine easy stretching poses for lower back and hip pain
We have prepared a list of eight simple stretching exercises for you that will help you get rid of lower back and lumbar problems.
Perform each of the following exercises for about half a minute (30 seconds), unless stated otherwise.
1. Seated figure-four pose
Lie on your back on the floor. Bend your knees with your feet on the ground. Lift one leg and cross it at the ankle over the other leg.
Hold the other leg under the knees with your hands. Now pull both legs toward your chest.
Hold the position for 30 seconds, then return to the starting position, switch legs, and repeat the exercise.
3. Butterfly pose
Sit on the floor and place your legs as if in a cross-legged position, but with the soles of your feet touching each other, which you hold with your hands.
Press your elbows against your knees and lean forward. Hold this position for about half a minute.
4. Happy baby pose
Lie on your back on the floor, bend your knees, and lift them toward your chest. Keep your hands between your legs (elbows approximately by the knees).
Grab your big toes with your fingers. Keep your back pressed to the floor. Now gently rock from side to side.
5. Child’s pose
This stretch focuses on the thighs and the entire back. Sit back on your heels with your feet together and knees slightly apart.
Now stretch your arms out in front of you and begin to slowly lean forward until your forehead touches the ground.
Hold this position for 30 seconds.
6. Cow face pose
Start seated on the floor, then move into the tabletop position with knees and palms on the ground. Next, place one leg behind the other and move back into a seated position with crossed legs.
Stay in this position for at least 30 seconds. You can hold it longer if you wish, up to 30 minutes for advanced practitioners.
Return to the starting position the same way you began, first into a forward bend with palms on the floor in front of you. Then switch legs and repeat the exercise.
7. Cat pose
Begin on all fours with knees and palms on the ground. Hands should be level with the shoulders and knees apart at hip level.
Now inhale and arch your back upward like an angry cat. Hold briefly, then exhale as your chest drops down into the opposite back bend.
Repeat the exercise several times.
8. Runner’s lunge pose
Squat down on the ground with your knees and palms on the floor.
Now gradually move one leg forward to the level of your hands and lift the other up into the position runners take before the start.
Hold this position for at least 30 seconds, then switch sides and repeat the exercise.
9. Knee-to-chest pose
This exercise targets the buttocks, hip joints, and lower back.
Lie on the floor, bend one leg at the knee, hold it under the knee with your hands, and pull it toward your chest.
Hold for 30 seconds, switch legs, and repeat the exercise. The best part is that you can do it almost anywhere and relief comes very quickly.
