Tips to ease stiff back!

Is your back stiff? While bending forward, your fingers touch your knees, not the floor? After a while of standing, your back starts to hurt?

Many of my clients have similar symptoms, since nowadays different types of back pain and -stiffness are so common. At the clinic, I usually ask a lot of questions about the amount of pain, how long has it last and if they have other symptoms, but clients with back symptoms tend to answer “My back has been stiff for so long”, “it’s not really pain, it’s just stiff”, “I feel like my back just don’t move enough”. Do those answers sound familiar to you?

If you don’t have back pain, your back is just stiff, movement and different types of mobility exercises will help. Even if you went to see a doctor, they probably couldn’t find anything from MRI or RTG. So physiologically you’d be healthy and just fine. Despite that your back can still be stiff and make your life much harder, so you really should get some help. If your back is stiff at your thirties or forties, imagine how it’s going to be when you are 80 years old? So if you want to start doing something for you back right now, you can start with the mobility exercises below!

FLEXION AND EXTENSION OF THE BACK

Do this: Position yourself on a four-pointed position on the floor. Flex your back and look down to your knees, then extend you back and look up to the ceiling. Repeat for 10 times.

SPINE ROTATION

Do this: Position yourself on a four-pointed position on the floor. Bring you right hand under you left armpit to the floor, your right cheek will almost touch the floor. Then bring your right hand all the way up, look at your right hand all the time. Repeat for 8 times for each side.

STANDING BACK FLEXION

Do this: Start from a basic standing positon. Bend forward trying to round your back as much as you can, your knees can be a bit flexed. Then come back up. It’s important to do it dynamically, so that you don’t stop at the top or bottom. Repeat for 10 times.

BACK EXTENSION AT PRONE

Do this: Position yourself at prone position. Place your hands on the sides of your head and push yourself up on your hand support, this way your back extends. Come back down. It’s important to do it dynamically, so that you don’t stop at the top or bottom. Repeat for 10 times.

Did those exercises feel hard? No worries, they will get easier, if you repeat them regularly! I recommend you to do al these exercises daily, so that you can actually get your back flexible and  mobile.