Gamechanger Stretches
There are a handful of stretches and mobility exercises that you can use that are gamechangers when it comes to improving pain and dysfunction. Here we list 4 of our favorites that can help you see improvement quickly!
Prone Press Up
What it does: Stretches the lumbar (low back) spine in an extension (backwards) motion
How it helps: 9 times out of 10, stretching your lumbar spine into extension helps to alleviate back pain. If you are dealing with sciatica, bulging discs, or stiffness from working a desk job, lumbar extension stretching can help alleviate pain in the low back, and pain that radiates into the legs.
Prescription: 10 repetitions every 2 hours throughout the day until pain goes away.
Cervical Retraction
What it does: stretches the lower cervical (neck) spine into extension, and stretches the upper cervical spine into flexion (forward)
How it helps: Similar to how the prone press up works, this stretch helps to reverse the effects of our prolonged sitting posuture throughout the day. Many of us spend hours each day on the computer, phone, or other screen, which places us in a forward head posture. This is bad! and it hurts our neck. Cervical retraction will help to reverse the effects of this poor posture throughout the day
Prescription: 10 repetitions every 2 hours throughout the day until pain goes away.
Couch Stretch
What it does: Stretches the hip flexors and quadriceps, stretches the knee joint
How it helps: lengthens the hip flexor and quad musculature to decrease pressure on the knee cap. Own the deeper athletic positions.
Prescription: 3x30 seconds on each side, 3x/day
Full Squat Stretch
What it does: Stretches the knee joint into flexion (bending), and the ankles into dorsiflexion
How it helps: Gets you more comfortable in deeper squatting positions. Alleviates overall knee pain in all positions.
Prescription: Accumulate 5 minutes throughout the day. You can stretch all 5 minutes at once or break it up in to several sessions throughout the day of 1, 2, or 3 minutes at a time.
For more detail, check out the videos here: