Help relieve lower back pain during pregnancy with these simple exercises. For this video, I teamed up with Dr. Jen, a pelvic floor physical therapist who also happens to be pregnant! She’ll show you her top 5 exercises to help relieve low back pain when you are pregnant by mobilizing and stabilizing the pelvis.
The first exercise to help relieve low back pain during pregnancy is an anterior and posterior pelvic tilt. This is when you are emphasizing moving your hips forwards and backwards.
The next lower back exercise is a lateral pelvic tilt, or moving your pelvis in a side to side direction.
Now you will focus on stability with your core muscles including the diaphragm, pelvic floor, transversus abdominis, and multifidus muscles (deep spinal muscles). This should be done while you are breathing normally, so try not to hold your breath. After you achieve this, you can add in a bridge to activate the gluteus muscles.
Then you will get onto all fours, or in quadruped. Then you will do pelvic tilts again, or some call it the cat/dog exercise or stretch. You can also do lateral tilts as well.
Finally, you will do the child’s pose or prayer stretch. If you are later in your pregnancy, you can use a pillow for support.
Exercise Snacks are short bursts of activity that can provide great health benefits. It can be as little as 30 seconds, and up to five or 10 minutes. It can be any type of movement like climbing stairs, walking, doing squats, wall pushups, or modified jumping jacks.
TENS units & EMS units can be very helpful when recovering from an injury or surgery. The two are very different, but often come together in one unit like the iStim EV-805 unit I use in this video.
These back pain relief stretches don’t necessarily need to be done in bed, but they are a great way to help relieve back pain in the morning before getting up, and/or when going to bed at night.
A rhomboid stretch is great for the rhomboid muscles because they tend to get overworked and tight easily. Many rhomboid stretches require someone to get in an uncomfortable position or down on the floor. This simple modified rhomboid stretch can be done sitting in a chair or on the couch.
Stretches & exercises are a great way to help relieve back pain. But with nearly 1,000 videos on the Ask Doctor Jo YouTube Channel, it can be hard to find the best one for you. So for 2025, here are some of my favorite Back Pain Relief Videos that actually work!
Osteoporosis develops when the structure and strength of bone changes. This can cause decrease in bone strength which can increase the risk of breaking bones. These gentle exercises for osteoporosis, when done at one’s own pace, can help prevent further decline and help protect the bones.
Chest stretches or Pec stretches are a great way to help relieve chest pain and improve posture. Today I'll show you a simple chest stretch in real time.
Lower back pain can make it difficult to perform everyday activities. Here are some of my favorite back stretches & exercises that can help provide low back pain relief and strengthen back muscles.
When glutes are weak or not working properly, other muscles overcompensate, which can lead to discomfort, dysfunction and even injury. Here are some more reasons strong glutes are important.