Do you ever roll out of bed in the morning and immediately your lower back is in pain.? Or you are at work, you have been locked in for 3-4 hours and your lower back in pain? As humans we are meant to be active, we were never meant to sit behind a desk all day.
For many people our lower back pain is usually starts else-where. For many people who currently work in a field that involves sitting down for long periods of time - Accountants, Real Estate Agents, Truck Drivers etc. The main problem starts from the hip flexors.
Before we get into the relief work, I want to give you a quick rundown of what is happening when you are sitting: When we sit down for a prolonged period of time our hips (along with our knees) are fixed into a certain position. This seated position puts our hips flexors into a super tight position and over stretches our glutes (bum muscles). This can also cause your glute muscles (Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Minimus) to not activate properly during intensive training and every day movements. (Quick side note if you are heading to the gym and you have been sitting all day, stay away from any seated exercise)
How to get relief from your lower back pain:
To start off you are going to need some sort of hard ball. This can be a cricket ball, jug ball, hockey ball, etc. The smaller the ball the more precise and acute the pain will be. I myself like to use a hockey practice ball (as seen in video). If you are new to what is called 'myofascial release', i would recommend using a foam roller. This will ease you into the release work and help you get accustomed to the sensation.
(disclaimer: This is going to be uncomfortable)
Step 1:
You are going to need to find a surface where you can lay down and move around a little. This can be on carpet, yoga mat, concrete, etc.
Step 2:
Take the ball/foam roller to the front of your Hip Flexor - Keep your movements slow and focus on finding parts of the hip flexor that creates the most discomfort (it is normal to get 'trigger points' where you will be rolling your hips and the pain will be felt elsewhere). Roll the front of the hip flexor for roughly 1minute.
Step 3: Take the ball from the front of your hip flexor and take it to the outside of the hip flexor (See Video). Once again keep your movements slow and focus on finding those areas of discomfort and the 'trigger points'.
Step 4: Take the ball/foam roller to the opposite side and repeat step 2
Step 5: Repeat step 3 of the final side of our Hip Flexor.
The aim here is to release the tightness of our Hip Flexors, which will hopefully balance up our posture (anterior pelvic tilt), whilst decreasing the stress on the lower back. The great thing about this it can be done in a quick and in a safe way.
Thanks for reading and I hope this has given you some relief for your lower back.
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