Spinal Stenosis can cause pain, numbness, muscle weakness, and other issues. Here are some seated stretches and exercises that can help.
What is Spinal Stenosis? It’s basically when the space where the nerves come out of the spine start to narrow. This can put pressure on the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves that go out to the body. The pressure on the nerves can cause the pain and numbness mentioned earlier. These stretches and exercises might help for the low back area.
A seated pelvic tilt is a great exercise and a stretch. It does a great job of loosening up the area and warming up the muscles.
A seated rolldown and a seated trunk rotation help stretch the spine in different directions to help open up the spaces in the spine.
Finally, a seated hip flexor stretch and seated figure 4 stretch help relax the muscles in the hip and pelvic area that might be putting pressure on the spine. Getting these areas more flexible should help relieve the pain.
Therapeutic Yoga can help relieve back pain by incorporating physical therapy & yoga. Trudy, a fellow PT & registered yoga teacher, stops by to show me stretches & exercises for back pain relief.
Upper back pain or thoracic area pain is sometimes caused by trigger points or muscle knots. Trigger points are basically when a specific area on a muscle gets irritated and tightens up into a ball or knot.
When trying to find the perfect mattress to help relieve and prevent back pain, the main thing to look for is a mattress that has the right amount of support to help keep your spine in proper alignment, or a neutral position. The mattresses designed by Back Science are designed specifically to help improve overall sleep posture, keep the spine optimally aligned, and reduce muscle and joint pressure throughout the back and neck.
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.
A herniated disc can be very debilitating. Sometimes a nerve can get compressed, and there will also be numbness and tingling going down one leg. These stretches and exercises should help relieve the pain.
These back pain stretches and exercises are for general back pain like soreness from overworking your back or if you've pulled a muscle. Check out the back pain section of my website for more specific back pain related exercises and stretches.
In 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.
Low back pain can make it difficult to perform everyday activities. Here are three of my favorite lower back pain relief stretches that can be done lying down.