Sukie Baxter

You’re hurting and looking for lower back pain relief. Who are you going to call?

Probably a spine doctor.

And once you get those x-rays that say everything is fine, you might find yourself sent off with a vague diagnosis of “non-specific lower back pain.”

Look…

Consulting a doc when you’re in pain is just plain smart. You want to rule out more serious health conditions. Arthritis, bulging or herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and other disorders require skilled medical attention.

A lot of my clients are scared to go in because they’re afraid the doctor will them them they need surgery.

I get it. But…

Doctors have at their fingertips the magical powers of x-ray vision. They can look inside your body and see just exactly what’s going on.

Which is something that I quite honestly tell clients I can’t do. I can infer a lot from posture and movement, but I can’t see precisely where a disc is bulging or a nerve is impinged by the spine.

What to Do When Your Doctor Tells You There’s “Nothing Really Wrong”

A lot of times, the doctor doesn’t see anything “wrong.”

As in:

There’s nothing she can point to on the imaging to say, “This is the source of your lower back pain.”

And in these cases, the treatment options could best be categorized as playing roulette. You try stuff and hope it works.

Your doc might refer you to massage, physical therapy, or just give you a prescription for pain pills and hope for the best.

Of course, treatments usually focus on, you guessed it…

Your spine!

Massage therapists rub tight muscles in your back. Physical therapists work on core strength to support your spine. Everyone is looking at the spine and trying to fix the problem there.

Because where it hurts is where you should diagnose the issue, right?

Err, no. Not exactly.

Why Your Spine Might Not Be the Source of Your Lower Back Pain

You see, the body — your body, to be more specific — functions as a synergistic whole. What that means in plain English is that everything is connected.

Dysfunction travels up the chain and down the chain. An ankle restriction may cause knee problems. Knee issues can cause hip issues, and that brings us to…

Hip issues cause lower back pain.

While I have the utmost respect for doctors and surgeons (the work they do verges on miraculous), there seems to be very little focus or education around soft tissue.

Which just happens to be my specialty! So, this is where I jump in.

I have had clients hand me sheafs of paper outlining medical evaluations that drill down to one tiny problematic joint on one side of a single vertebra in their spine.

But they’re not getting relief from treatments focused on that area.

And this is why…

For lower back pain relief, you need to look at hip function.

How Stretching Your Hips Results in Lower Back Pain Relief

Most people who spend a lot of time in front of a computer (all of us, even me) have tight hips.

Tight hips restrict the movement of the head of your femur (the big knob at the top of your thigh bone) in the joint.

That means your leg can’t swing freely at the hip joint. Instead, your body resorts to using lower back and spinal muscles to hike up the hip in order to swing the leg for walking and running.

While you probably won’t notice pain right away from this movement pattern, over time and thousands of steps, the tension will build up. Your spine isn’t meant to take over the function of the hip joint, and this can cause unnecessary wear and tear on joints and discs.

I have found that restoring proper hip function can immediately resolve symptoms of lower back pain in many of my clients.

Some people who come into my office unable to stand up straight due to lower back pain walk out at the end of a session completely upright and pain free.

In all of these cases, I focus on improving hip mobility.

For help with stretching and mobilizing your own hips for lower back pain relief, check out the Posture Rehab video course.

I cover the hip and lower back anatomy in detail, plus provide you with guided practices to release tight hips and restore proper spinal function.

Click here to enroll >>

Recently I was working with a client who complained of back tightness and pain. This is a pretty common problem among people who spend a lot of time in front of a computer.

Even if you have a standing desk, holding your body in one position for hours on end takes a toll.

(Side note: standing desks are not a substitute for movement. They might be an improvement over sitting all day, but that doesn’t make it healthy to work in front of a computer.)

The lumbar area is especially prone to back tightness and pain for a number of reasons. It’s the segment of your spine that has the least bony support while also bearing the most weight.

In the image above, you can see that your middle back has ribs to help support it, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

But your lumbar spine floats in a sea of soft tissue. Its function is to support your torso and head.

Which makes it prone to compression from weight bearing.

How Lumbar Compression Hurts Your Back

In approximately, well, 100% of my clients (give or take one or two people out of hundreds), I’ve found compression through the lower back area.

Some people have so little space between the bottom of their rib cage and the top of their pelvis that I can’t even fit a finger between the last rib and the hip bone!

This not only creates a lot of back tightness and pain. Over time, prolonged compression in this area can result in scary spinal conditions like degenerative disc disease, bulging or herniated discs, and sciatic nerve pain.

(Just a note to acknowledge that yes, many bulging discs are asymptomatic and are not necessarily an indication of pain. But I’ve also seen some pretty startling MRIs where discs are clearly impinging on the spinal cord and ain’t nobody going to be comfortable with that crap going on in their body.)

And from a purely aesthetic point of view, reduced space between your ribs and pelvis kind of makes your waistline disappear.

It’s not uncommon for my clients to notice that they look taller and leaner after we work in this area of their body. I’ve also had people tell me that the jeans they just walked in wearing an hour prior now fit more loosely and comfortably around their waist.

Magic!

(Not really. But sometimes it does seem that way.)

I show you how to get lasting relief from lumbar compression in my Posture Rehab program. But if you’re not ready to make the commitment to a full-body posture overhaul quite yet, here are four stretches that work when your back is tight and sore:

Stretch Your Psoas for Back Pain Relief

Your psoas might just be the most important muscle you’ve never heard of when it comes to addressing your back tightness and pain.

You have two of them, one on either side of your spine. They live deep in your abdomen, traveling behind all your internal organs to cross over the front of your pelvis and attach inside your upper thigh.

There seems to be some debate as to whether people need to stretch or strengthen their psoas. So, let’s just say that you need to restore proper function.

I have put my hands on a lot of bodies at this point in my career, and I can say with certainty that the majority of people have abdominal tissue that feels like a rock.

(Which is why I take some issue with the whole “core strength will fix everything” approach, but that’s a conversation for another day.)

The thing about really tight muscles is that they’re also really weak. Just like you can’t pick up a coffee mug with a closed fist, your muscles first have to relax before they can contract, i.e. get strong.

My approach to stretching the psoas:

I find that it’s most useful to employ movement to help your psoas relax. The psoas muscle is implicated in trauma responses in the body.

What that means is:

If you’ve ever had a major (or even a minor) car accident, invasive surgery, or even a bad fall as a kid, your psoas might be kind of stuck and tight. It has a hard time letting go of those experiences.

Static stretching doesn’t usually make a dent in this kind of muscle armoring. Movement does because it engages your nervous system.

Remember:

Muscles don’t get tight because they’re physically too short. They get tight because your nervous system (i.e. your brain) tells them to contract.

It’s a software problem, not a hardware one.

Which is why my Posture Rehab system focuses on restoring mobility and not on rigid alignment, like most posture programs do.

For best results, use your brain to get your body to let go. Here’s a good psoas stretch that uses elongation paired with gentle movement to ease your psoas into a relaxed state:

Release Your Tight Hips to Help with Back Tightness and Pain

Nearly everyone that I work with who complains of lower back tightness and pain also has tight hips. The two go hand in hand.

Why?

Well, your hip joint is where your femur — thigh bone — joins your pelvis. It’s a huge ball and socket joint, allowing for a wide range of motion (in theory).

Most people, though, only ever move their legs front to back, which means that muscles along the sides of the joint are often tight and/or weak, while muscles in the front (including the psoas, above) get really tight.

Over time, I find that the tight muscles around your hip joint effectively “fuse” the femur to the pelvis. I don’t mean that the bones actually grow together, but they might as well have done so.

The hip joint doesn’t move. To compensate for hip tension, I watch people use their lower back muscles to hike the pelvis up and swing the leg forward.

That means your back is doing the work that hip muscles should be doing — not good.

Over time and thousands upon thousands of steps, this takes a huge toll on the health of your lower back. So, my first order of business for anyone with lower back pain and tightness is to restore hip mobility.

There are lots of great hip stretches out there (and I’ve got a ton more in my Posture Rehab program if these don’t do it for you), but here are two that will work wonders if your hips are tight.

Don’t Forget to Stretch Your Mid Back

Just because your lower back is more susceptible to tightness and pain doesn’t mean your middle back gets let off easily. Your mid back is prone to that dreadful computer hunch from hours and hours spent pouring over spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations.

This is especially true if you work at a laptop because, frankly, that screen is too low for your eyes.

And that causes your head to tip forward, which pulls your neck down too, until you’re hunched over like a caveman.

Anyway, the good news is that restoring good, upright alignment through your middle back is pretty easy.

Of course…

A lot of people get this one wrong.

They try to stretch the part of their back that hurts (understandably). Middle back pain is a little bit tricky.

While there might be tight muscles along your spine, it’s more likely that tension in your chest and across the front of your shoulders is pulling you into the rounded hunch.

So you want to make sure and stretch these muscles first. Then, if you still have middle back pain and tightness, you can work on that area directly. (More on that inside Posture Rehab.)

Here’s a great stretch to open up the front of your body and help you stand taller again:

Do The (Spinal) Twist for A Healthy Back

There’s nothing like a good spinal twist to release tight muscles.

One thing that I look for when assessing my clients for healthy movement is:

Does their spine twist when they walk?

We call this contralateral movement (you don’t have to memorize that, or even know how to pronounce it).

Basically, when you walk, your body twists in the middle, like wringing out a rag. As your left leg extends out behind you, your right shoulder swings forward and vice versa.

It’s so common to see people who are struggling with all kinds of back pain lacking this twisting movement through the spine.

Yet another issue with a lot of core strength exercises is that they often lock down your back and abs and don’t allow the movement of your hips and legs to travel upward through your spine.

No bueno.

So, after getting people’s hips freed up, I like to work on restoring contralateral movement. Stretches that twist your torso are great for this.

So much of what we do in our daily lives is uniplanar.

Meaning:

We don’t spend a lot of time twisting our bodies or moving sideways. Sitting, standing, working at a computer and driving are all forward-focused activities. Adding intentional twists is great for maintaining healthy spinal mobility throughout your life.

Twists are so powerful that I’ve included several to open up your back, hips, ribs, neck, and shoulders inside my Posture Rehab program. It’s absolutely the best practice to restore lost mobility to any part of your body.

This video offers a great and easy twisting stretch (and a few other healthy back practices to boot):

For more great videos to keep your body moving well, check out the Posture Rehab video course.

Life is too short to live it in pain.

 

It’s the worst…

It seems like you just laid down to go to sleep but already your alarm is going off.

Groggy, you reach over, smack the snooze button and wrench yourself up to sitting — only to cringe as your back cramps.

Maybe it’ll be better when I get moving, you think, standing up only to find that you can’t quite straighten your spine and you’re walking like you’re 90 years old.

This getting older thing isn’t for the faint of heart, you might think.

But wait…

You know you don’t have to suffer with early morning aches and pains, right?

Waking up with a stiff back doesn’t have to be your ordinary.

Here are four things you can do to improve the health of your back, both when you wake up with pain and stiffness as well as preventative measures to keep them from coming back:

Start with Reducing Inflammation

Have you ever heard of systemic inflammation? It’s where your body’s inflammatory response gets out of control and basically bakes your muscles like an oven.

It’s at the root of a lot of disorders like diabetes and heart disease, but it also makes your muscles ache.

So, reducing systemic inflammation is the first thing I’d recommend for someone who wakes up with a stiff back — especially if it happens frequently.

There are lots of ways to treat systemic inflammation. Some require dietary changes like eliminating pro-inflammatory foods. Others look at healing your damaged gut lining. And there are many more, all of which are worth exploring.

But my favorite first line of defense is:

Magnesium.

Magnesium is anti-inflammatory, and it’s also a natural muscle relaxer.

(Professional note: check with your doc before adding or changing any supplements to your routine.)

Magnesium not only relaxes tight muscles. It’s required for your muscles to release tension.

As in:

If you don’t have enough magnesium on board, your muscles physically cannot relax. Magnesium is the “fuel” that powers the release of tension.

It’s also very calming for the nervous system, which helps you handle stress better. Less stress equals less tension, which means less waking up with a stiff back in the morning.

#winning

There are various ways to get magnesium into your body. For immediate relief of a localized area (like your back) I really like topical magnesium. This is a gel, lotion or spray that you put on your skin and allow to absorb into your muscles.

For ongoing, whole body supplementation, my two favorite forms are magnesium glycinate and magnesium threonate.

You can find my current selection of preferred magnesium products on my resources page.

And for a deeper look at how magnesium can benefit virtually every aspect of your health from muscle pain to depression, head over here to download my free digital guide to magnesium supplementation.

I created this after the fifty-gazillionth time I talked to a client about considering magnesium and realized how few people know about the benefits of this magical mineral!

Then, Move Your Joints

Stretching is nice, but you know where you’ll get better bang for your movement buck?

In your joints.

Joints are rich in cells that communicate information — including pain signals — to your brain. They also need a steady flow of synovial fluid (basically your body’s WD-40) to keep them lubricated.

Moving your joints stimulates all the little cells that sense motion and drowns out pain signals. It also warms up and spreads the synovial fluid across the joint surface.

Both effects are great for those times when you wake up with a stiff back.

But how do you do it?

I cover dynamic joint mobility in depth in my Posture Rehab program. The concept is fairly simple. A basic cat cow from yoga will do. You can also do hip circles (as though you were hula hooping) or do pelvic tilts (tipping your hips forward and backward) if you want to get the overachiever’s badge.

But in the case of a stiff back, a nice, gentle cat cow will be of great benefit.

Of course, never move into pain. If this makes your back worse, stop immediately and consult a professional who can assess your specific situation. You certainly don’t want to aggravate some underlying condition.

Then Stretch Your Hips and Lower Back

Now that your joints are all loosey-goosey, it’s time to stretch those muscles.

In the case of a stiff back, I find it very helpful to incorporate stretches that also target your hips. If your hip joint is tight, then the muscles of your lower back will work overtime to compensate.

Which is why my Posture Rehab program focuses on a holistic, whole-body approach to restructuring your posture — not just treating the symptoms of pain. Working related areas of the body in addition to painful areas is a much longer lasting solution than just spot treating painful symptoms.

The easiest lower back stretch that targets both of these areas is this:

(Click here for a video tutorial of this stretch as well as the cat cow mentioned above.)

Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you.

Cross your right leg over your left, placing your foot flat on the floor and hugging your right knee to your chest.

You will feel a stretch in the back of your hip.

To increase the stretch and target your lower back, place your left arm on the outside of your right knee and twist your torso to the right.

Hold for ten seconds or more (I like to stay in stretches for thirty seconds to a minute, but use your best judgement). Then, switch and stretch the other side.

And Finally Decompress Your Spine

Have you ever heard of your psoas?

It’s a deep core muscle that spans your abdomen from the solar plexus down to the top of your thigh bone.

It runs behind all your internal organs and is very difficult to contact for that reason. It’s also kind of hard to stretch.

A lot of people have very tight psoas muscles. (There is a lot of debate online about whether people need to stretch or strengthen their psoas muscles. Note that tense or tight muscles are also weak muscles because they first have to relax before they can contract, sooo…)

Stretching this muscle actually takes quite a lot of body awareness to feel whether you’re targeting the right tissue. What I’ve found more useful is to decompress the spine and relax the psoas using gravity.

I first learned this position from Liz Koch, a psoas expert, who calls it Constructive Rest. It’s pretty easy to do:

Simply lie on the floor next to a chair, bench, sofa, footstool or any other object that you can rest your lower legs on.

Your knees and hips should form approximately 90 degree angles.

Stay here until you feel your back relax and your breathing deepen. Some people are good with two minutes. Others need ten. Find what works best for you.

(This practice is also in this video, toward the end.)

One note:

This practice seems deceptively simple. How could lying on the floor ease your stiff back? But just take a look at this comment from one YouTube subscriber:

It’s amazing how just giving your body time and space to relax can change everything.

The video practices inside Posture Rehab have this kind of power, too.

Holistic, gentle, and effective. Posture Rehab gets you moving better so you can do the things you love without pain.

Check it out here >>