Recipes to Release the Back

Imagine the gravity of the earth constantly pushing you to the ground.  Take note of how much of the day you spend sitting.  How is your posture when you’re not thinking about it? Now think about your low back.  Is it “tight?”  Is it sore?  Should it be stretched?  Should it be strengthened?  Does it have a curve?  Is it flat? Is it sore in the morning? The afternoon?  Can you pick up heavy things without pain?  How does it feel when you sit?  What about when you walk up stairs?  What about after a strenuous workout, how does it feel then?  Is that enough questions for one blog post?  Have I illustrated how overwhelming deciphering back pain and what to do about it can be???  The following recipes are a very good first step.  Often when back pain arises simply taking a step back and allowing your body to do some recuperative exercises is a way to calm the nervous system. It’s also a great way for you to listen to your back, a way to see if maybe your back can answer some of the questions I posed for you.

First, let’s talk diaphragm!  The diaphragm exists at the top of the low back and is one of the big reasons that the first step in any release recipe is finding the breath and using the breath.  In “Breath the Olive Oil in any Pilates Exercise” I talk about how sometimes the breath is all you need, but most often it is the place you start.  For these releasing exercises you might want to play with the Diaphragmatic Breath, the Bucket Handle Breath, or the Pitcher Breath.  All of these breath patterns not only focus the breath, but the breath can begin expanding tight tissues in the spine. 

Before we actually stretch the muscles in the spine, it’s important to see what might be making the musculature of the spine tight in the first place.  Often rigidity in the hips sockets can lead to tightness in the piriformis and glutes, which will then translate into tightness and immobility in the spine.  To see if this is the case first start with a marker exercise in this case the Pelvic Rocks.

Then try these three exercise dedication to hip socket mobilization:

Knee stirs

Butterfly Knee Stirs

Figure Eight Knee Stirs

With all of these exercises be sure to keep the pelvis still while moving the thighbones in the socket.  In these exercises your hands are doing the work for the muscles in your hip and legs, which allows the muscles of the hip and legs to release.  Subsequently this often allows the muscles of the back to release too.

Now try your marker exercise again.  Rock your pelvis being sure to use the pelvic floor and belly muscles without the glutes and the hamstrings.  Is the range of motion different?  Is there less tension?  Listen to your back what is it telling you.

In the next recipe we want to address the Psoas.  Read the post “The Psoas and World Domination” to learn more about this very important and sometimes tyrannical muscle.  Releasing the psoas can lengthen the spine and open the front of the hips.   

In this recipe, the Bucket Handle Breath is the most efficient because you can focus this breath into the entire circumference of your ribcage allowing the top of the Psoas to release.  Did you know the Psoas and the Diaphragm are fascially connected?  When a person exhales the diaphragm lifts into the body and thus the lengthening of the Psoas begins before you are ever stretching.

After you have mastered the breath then begin with the following sequence of Psoas Stretches

Easy Psoas Stretch

Easy Psoas Stretch with Ankle Circles

Psoas Stretch with Pelvis on Ball

Psoas Stretch with Pelvis on Foam Roller

The previous exercises are a progression from gentle stretch to a more intense stretch.  They can be substituted or done in sequence whatever time allows in your life. 

Finally, it’s time to stretch the muscles of the back.  If you have done the previous release work these stretches will be more effective and allow for more length in the muscle tissues of the low spine.  The following exercises are also a progression from gentler to more intense.

Lumbar Spine Stretch

Lumbar Spine Stretch with Pelvis on Ball

Lumbar Spine Stretch with Pelvis on Foam Roller.

The exercises above create a wonderful space and time to find the breath in the back of the body.  Use the breath to lengthen the tissues as you stretch.

Now is the time to ask all of the questions from the first paragraph of this post.  You have taken the time to listen to your back, and allowed the muscles in your body the space to recuperate.  Maybe the answers will come a little easier.

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, R.S.M.E

Co-Director of The Pilates Studio

PS After all of this, your back may just be asking for an inner thigh squeeze.  It might even say please!