Daily Tip #14 - Low Back Relief

0:01 - Intro 

Hey everybody, it's Shane again, from MATRIX. So, today is finally the day. We're going to get to go through the movements -- that are engaging the core muscles -- that I have been having you practice for the last two days. What we're going to do today is actually for your lumbar spine, or your low back. As somebody who's had low back pain -- sciatic pain -- early on in my life, I know how debilitating it can be. How stressful it can be. And how when I get stressed out, pain starts to go there first. So, I feel like this can be very beneficial if you've experienced that. It's also very beneficial if that's something you'd like to prevent. We went through this movement a little bit -- way back in the warm-up Tip on day three -- very, very briefly. Today we're going to go into more detail so you can get really good at it and be really specific about it.

0:55 – You’re Going to Love It! 

Now, when I've taught this to the different clients that I've had, a lot of them tend to grumbling the beginning. "Why do I need to do this?" "I don't know if I like doing this." As soon as they put in the practice and figure it out, they love it! It's everybody's go-to movement. It just feels so good. Take it slow as we go through this today. Play with it. Practice it. Once you get the hang of it, I promise you'll love it and you'll end up doing it every single day.

1:21 – Why A Seat? 

You'll notice that I brought in a seat. When we did the warm-up Tip, we did this drill standing and I mentioned you could do it seated. Today we're going to start seated and work in the opposite direction because this is really the safest way to go if you're new to it. And it will give you the most opportunity to really progress and feel the squeeze that you can create.

1:42 – Importance of the Pelvis

The other piece that's important is the pelvis. So, the pelvis -- your hips -- sit right below your low back. And a lot of times when we try to do these drills, the pelvis itself gets overly engaged. The goal here is to isolate movement into the low back. So, we want to make sure that our pelvis is under control and stable. And the seat is going to help you with that as well. I recommend we get started. If you're someplace where you can take a seat, go ahead and grab one. Alright!

2:21 – Front Lumbar Circle

The purpose here is to create mobility -- or movement -- in the low back. You can always start small and build bigger over time. But remember, there is too big also. Your low back only moves so much if you're keeping your pelvis still. When you're getting a lot bigger ranges of motion, oftentimes that comes from moving the pelvis. So, we're really going to work on holding that constant today. Give yourself a little bit of a wiggle in your seat so you can feel your sit bones. You want to make sure that the pressure on the sit bone stays constant. If you're feeling it always in the same place, you know the pelvis is staying still. The next step I want to do is get really, really nice and tall. We're elongating the spine as much as we possibly can. From here we'll start to lean into a little bit of a side bend. And as your side bend and you're trying to lengthen and lean over. You should start to feel a stretch through your side. From here, begin to tuck your chin. Let the top shoulder roll down. And because we're seated with the legs out in front of us, we're going to let the arm come across the thigh. We're taking the crown of the head down, pretty much pointing just off of your heel. In this place, let's use the exercises that we've been practicing for the last two days. Try to draw your navel in. And now use your abdominal muscles to squeeze a little bit more tightly. And hopefully, you'll feel a little bit more opening through the low back. From there, maintain that gentle squeeze so you have the opening and start to move your body across to the other side. Taking your time. You'll notice if the pelvis stays still, there's only so far you can go. That's your stopping point. From there, draw the front shoulder back up. Getting nice and long through the spine as you do. You'll find the side bend again. And then come back up and reset into the center. Ah! If it's your first time doing it, you probably did not breathe once throughout the whole thing.

4:24 – The Other Way (Front Circle)

So, we're going to go in the other direction as well, using that as an opportunity to work on the breathing while we do it. Lengthen up through the spine. As you're lengthening start to side bend. As your side bending, continue to lengthen. You'll hit a place where you can't go any further. At that point, the top shoulder starts to roll down. Pull your navel in. Round your spine. Feel the belly start to squeeze. But more importantly, feel the space and the opening you're creating through the low back. Slowly start to circle around the other way. Feeling that rotation happen through the lumbar spine -- through the low back. When you can't rotate any further, the front shoulder will start to lift back up. Lengthening the spine. Up and into the side bend. And then slowly come back into neutral. Now a lot of times -- particularly in that last piece when we're stacking before coming up -- people will feel a pinching sensation. Particularly on that same side. That means you're not lengthening enough. Make sure that as you're rolling back up, the spine is creating space so there's room for things to move. If you're not lengthening, everything stays compressed and then it can't stack the way it can if there's space there. So, that is your Front Lumbar Circle. And hopefully, if you tried a couple of those, it feels really, really good.

5:53 – Back Lumbar Circle

That's only half of the circle though. We can do the back half as well. It's the exact same thing, but it's a lot more challenging for people to go backward. So again, take your time. Make it small if you need to. But the steps are basically the same. We're going to lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. Come into the side bend. That's the exact same starting point. From there, the top shoulder this time -- instead of going forward -- starts to roll back. In the beginning, maybe only roll this far so that your circle is kind of shallow. If you have the skill, you can roll back a little bit further so your heart is pointing up towards the sky. Again, we're trying to open up through things. We use the spinal squeeze that we did the other day. Squeeze a little bit to find length and more arc. Once you have that, stable pelvis, stable positioning, to start to rotate your body so your chest now faces the other side of the room. You'll again hit that endpoint. Remember to maintain length as you start to come back up into the side bend. And stand tall again. The nice thing about the back circle -- even though it might be a little bit scarier -- is you don't have to worry about your arms being in the way. Let's try it one more time to the other side.

7:11 – The Other Way (Back Circle)

Really lengthen. Start your side bend up and over. Keeping your length. Start to roll the top shoulder back. Squeezing through the spinal muscles to help keep everything strong, stable, and lengthened. Then use the squeeze. Begin to rotate. You'll feel the squeeze in the muscle shift. You'll feel the movement in the low back. Once you can't rotate any further, re-stack up into your side bend. And come back into neutral. And again, if you weren't breathing -- ah -- take a moment to take a breath.

7:47 – Full Lumbar Circle

That's the Front Circle and the Back Circle. We can put those together to create a Full Circle. I'm going to show you this one in the standing variation just so you can remember what the standing variation looks like. Feel free to stay seated while we're doing it if you're new. Or, if you felt like those were pretty good and you want to try something a little bit more advanced, come on and stand up with me. We'll go a little bit quicker, but it's all the same. Long spine, Bend your knees. Make sure the pelvis is in a position that you can maintain. As you lengthen, start to side bend. And then we'll start to roll the top shoulder down. If you're looking at the video right now, this is about as far as you go. If you're getting deeper, it's because the pelvis moved. So again, neutral pelvis. Rounded down. Navel in. Squeeze the belly muscles. Start to rotate all the way across to the other side. From there, lengthen up and out of it as you re-stack, but take the shoulder all the way directly back. Feel the spinal muscles work to help create space, and length, and strength. Rotate your heart around so it's pointing toward the other side of the ceiling. Then roll-up. And reset. Ah!

9:05 – The Other Way

Just so we stay balanced, we'll go the other way. But remember, the other nice thing about these mobility drills is that different speeds can matter too. So, I'm going to go a little quicker. Lengthening up and over into the side bend. Stable pelvis as I roll the crown of the head down toward the pinky toe. Pull the navel in. Squeeze the belly as I circle. Re-stack with lengthening through the spine. Roll the top shoulder back. Feel the back muscles engage to help support and lengthen. Rotate the other way. Re-stack. And rise up. Oh, I'm feeling pretty good. The last piece of this -- if you get really, really advanced in the future -- is that you can do these drills with your lower body in different lunge-style positions.

9:54 – It’s for People with and without Low Back Pain 

I hope you enjoyed that Tip. If you experience low back pain, definitely start seated. Be very careful, very limited in your range of motion. Give yourself time to get used to doing this. The tightness and the pain that you often feel in your low back is a protection mechanism. And so, if you go too fast with these your body's just going to lock up more. You have to slowly break down the barrier. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about with the low back pain, you're very, very lucky. If you don't want to ever have to experience it. This is the type of thing you should be doing also. When we lose our ability to know how to move well, that's when the body and brain start to lock things down. So, if you're constantly practicing good mobility -- good movement work -- you won't have to worry about things tightening up in the future.

10:47 – Special Event

I hope you enjoyed this Tip. Please jump on the Q&A later today. If you have questions, I'll be happy to go through it again with you. And also check your email, check your Facebook. Tomorrow I am holding that special event. Where I'm going to be taking these Daily Tips and showing you how to actually utilize them into an exercise/fitness routine. So be sure to check that out as well.

11:10 - Farewell 

I hope to see you tomorrow twice. Once at 11 for this, the Daily Tips. And once at 5pm for that summary session. See you there!