Hey everybody it’s Michael Ricchiuto, MPT, EMT-P with Physical Therapy Now located in Pittsburgh, Cranberry Township, Fox Chapel PA. We’re looking to provide you with five exercises to increase the mobility of your spine. Of course if you have spinal problems you should be evaluated at our office to find out if this is right for you or not.
All exercises are not created equal. And of course you would never be just prescribing exercise to help every type of spinal condition.
So do this at your own risk. But there are a lot of people asking for mobility exercises.
So that’s what we’re going to do.
👉The first exercise that we’re going to do is a lumbar trunk rotation. We’re going to keep our shoulders square our knees together and arms out and what we’re going do is keep our shoulders flat we’re going to rotate to one side.
Shoulders maintain position on the floor. You’re going to hold for 15 to 30 seconds when when this is over you’re going to rotate your knees as a unit to the other side and do the same thing. My left shoulder is going to hit the ground, upper body is not going to move and it’s a great way to stretch out the major groups of the lumbar spine.
I would do anywhere from 5 to 10 of these twice a day. It’s very easy to do once again this should not be done if you have an undiagnosed lumbar problem.
👉 Second exercise that we’re going to do is called double knees to chest. I’m going to grab both of my knees. If you can’t grab your knees, you can also go underneath your lights.
I’m just going to grab my knees. I’m going to pull these to my chest and hold, we’re going to go 15-30 seconds again. This you should feel this underneath the buttock and also into the low back. You can certainly hold this longer that won’t hurt you.
Once again, it all depends on if you’re just trying to increase the mobility, which is what this video is for. It’s not to diagnose any type of conditions. Okay, I’m going release that and I’m going go do it again. I’ll probably do 5-10 of these. Very good.
👉Next exercise that I’m going do is a piriformis stretch.
The Piriformis is a big muscle that’s in the buttock. I’m going to cross one leg over the other one. I’m going to grab onto this knee and it’s going to go over directly to my left shoulder. I’ll feel this onto my right piriformis. I’m going to hold this for 15-30 seconds. Then I’m going to relax and I’m going do this on the other side here.
Once again, I’m going to cross my leg over as if I’m just crossing my legs in the chair. This is going to go to the opposite side and once again, I should feel this at the top of my hip into the lower buttock where the performance lives and there we go. Next exercise that we’re going to perform as a cat-cow.
BONUS #1
⭐️ We get full spinal mobility whenever we perform a cat-cow within the flexion extension portions of the spine of spinal movement. What we’re going to do first is we’re going to arch our back up toward the ceiling by pushing our hands into the ground. This will give us a full collection of our cervical spine for a cervical spine. And our lumbar spine.
We’re going to hold for 15 seconds. And then what we’re going to do is we’re going to reverse this. So now with your jaw closed we’re going tip and we’re going to stick out your rear end, bring your head up. This is the cow portion of the stretch. Jaw is closed. We’re getting cervical extension.
We’re getting thoracic and lumbar extension which is really good to gain for mobility in your spine. Holding for 15-30 seconds. Again we’ll repeat this five times and twice a day. The last exercise that we’re going to perform is a child’s pose. This is commonly seen in yoga. We’re going to do is extend our arms out, our feet are going to approximate with our rear end.
You’re going to drop your head. We’re going to hold this and are going hold this for 15-30 seconds. You get increased mobility of the shoulders stretching out your lats, lats store side and also full flexion of lumbar spine with some hip mobility, I’m just going to come back to neutral again and then go back into that position again.
BONUS #2
⭐️⭐️ If you’d like to advance this you can go into full extension of the spine which as I’m coming up I can then add the extention portions of mobility. So now I have cervical thoracic and lumbar extension and I hold this again for 15-30 seconds. So you can alternate between those two once again.
This is assuming that no one has injury to the spine because this could be the wrong prescribed exercise for your condition. Your condition should always be evaluated by a physical therapist. This is our position before you do any of these exercises. Well there you have it there’s five mobility exercises for your lumbar spine.
If you are having trouble with your lumbar spine we certainly can take a look at you and see what’s going on. Our number is (412) 794-8352 for any of our 3 offices located in Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel, and Cranberry Township PA.
Thank you again!
-Michael
