Reduce Back Tightness
Does your back feel really tight, especially when you go to try to stand up after sitting for a while?
Back stiffness can be incredibly frustrating and can make the activities that you’re getting up to go do much more difficult.
I’m going to show you the top three movements you can do right before you stand up to relieve that stiffness.
I want you to stick around till the end because I’m going to tell you one simple hack you can do to prevent the stiffness from happening in the first place.
Gentle Spine Mobility to Reduce Back Stiffness
This first movement is going to help lubricate those disks and help to contract and relax those big back muscles to help reduce stiffness.
It’s a spin on the traditional cat-cow, where you’re essentially arching your back and rounding your back, arching your back and rounding your back.
This helps because it’s taking your spine through a full range of motion.
Similarly, if you were to kick out your leg and bring it back in, that helps the knee because you’re taking it through the range of motion.
One simple trick I like to add is using the arms to exaggerate your mobility to get just a little bit more out of this motion.
As I round my back, I’m going to reach forward. As I arch my back, I’m going to drive my elbows back behind me.
Simply doing 5 to 10 of these can be really helpful. If you don’t have the space to use your arms, you simply can do this arch and this rounding in very limited space.
I like to use this one on an airplane, or maybe if you’re trying to be more discrete about it, say at a restaurant or something like that.
Loosen Up Your Upper and Middle Back
This second movement, it helps to loosen up the upper and middle back.
When you have tightness in those areas, your lower back can take more of the stress and the muscles can become It’s stiffer.
So what we want to do is open up that range of motion so now your back is able to absorb stress how it needs to.
You can do this one of two ways. If you have limited space, I’m going to take my right-hand and reach across my body to try to reach it to the outside of my knee.
Then I’m going to do the same thing with my left. You’re just doing this very small, subtle rotation.
Notice I’m not twisting I’m simply keeping my chest forward, but I’m bringing a little bit of rotation in.
Now, if you want more motion, and if you have more space, what you can do is actually turn it into a diagonal reach.
Same thing still applies My chest is still facing forward. I’m not twisting. I’m essentially just reaching over my opposite knee to get some motion in those two areas, your upper and middle back.
Anywhere from 10 to 12 of these alternating reaches can be helpful to really help to loosen up those muscles.
Activate Your Inner Thighs for Better Back Support
For this third movement, the goal is to activate the inner thighs.
You might be thinking, what the heck do What the heck do the inner thighs have to do with my back stiffness? Well, your inner thighs play a huge role in supporting your core, which then supports your spine.
If we can activate the muscles in the right way, you can pull stress away from your back muscles, thus reducing stiffness.
You can take both fist, especially if you don’t have hand arthritis or don’t have any pain, and put them right in between your knees.
Now you’re going to squeeze your fist together at about 50% effort. This is not as hard as you can.
The goal is simply to activate your inner thighs, and you should feel those muscles work.
If you do have hand pain, aren’t able to into a fist or want another alternative, you can take a pillow and accomplish the same thing.
What I would do with this one is I would fold it in half. You don’t necessarily want a really skinny pillow like this that brings your legs really close together. You do want some space in between.
And I’m essentially going to do the same thing. I’m going to squeeze the pillow at about 50% effort, holding for just a couple of seconds, and then relaxing and repeating.
The goal is to feel a tightness or a contraction in those inner thighs.
Doing about 5 to 10 of these can help to, again, take some stress off the lower back muscles, prevent them from overworking so that when you go to stand up, those back muscles don’t feel as tight.
Now you have three ideas of movements that can help reduce back stiffness when you go to stand up after sitting for a while.
Simple Habit to Prevent Back Stiffness Before It Starts
But there is one simple trick that can be very helpful in preventing back stiffness from occurring altogether.
And that is not waiting till you stand up to do these movements. Doing these every 30 to 60 minutes can be very helpful at staving off stiffness.
Go ahead and give it a try.
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