Home help for tight low back and hips.
1. Place a block or thick book and place12-16 inches away from a wall. Stand on the block or book with the left foot, supporting & balancing yourself with your right hand on the wall. Let your right leg & foot hang limp. Gently swing this leg back & forth like a pendulum, while keeping your body upright. Try to soften and let go of tension in the standing leg & front of hip. Can you sense the release deep in your body? The psoas starts at base of rib cage in front of spine. After you swing leg for a few minutes. Step down from the block/book & see if you two legs feel different. If the release is good, this leg should feel longer, freer, more relaxed. Now reverse your position and do the other side. Take nice deep long breathes.
2. Sit sideways in a chair (kitchen chair with no arms or rollers). Chair back to your right. Bring knees together and your heels in line with your knees. Inhale deeply, exhale & twist toward the chair back. Hold to the chair back. Keep knees together, spine straight & up tall. Take 3-4 nice deep breathe & see if you can create a deeper rotation gently. Release & repeat other side.
3. While still in chair, face forward & come to the front edge of the seat. Open legs/knees wide & let your upper body forward bend through your knees. Hang like a rag doll. Take 3-4 deep breathe in this position. See if you can go forward a little more by letting your low back ease.
4. While sitting in the chair bring one leg up and cross at the knee (ankle resting on opposite knee), slowly bend forward for 3-4 breathes. Sit up & repeat on other side. (Loosen the outer hips.)
5. Stand close to the chair and place the right foot on the seat & forward bend your upper body. Hang like a rag doll for 3-4 deep breathes in this position. See if you can let go your low back & hip. Stand up. Repeat other side.
6. Lay face up on the floor. Have a 2 inch thick book or yoga block. Bend your knees, raise up your hips, place book under your sacrum (triangle at base of spine), below the dimples, crosswise (binding towards top). Extend the legs one at a time. Stay on the book/block for 2-5 minutes. If this creates pain, bend the knees. Relax and breathe. This releases the sacrum and passively stretches the small back muscles and the front of the body (psoas). To end this, lift the buttock off the book/block and remove, then let buttock rest back on floor for 2- 4 breathes before getting up. Notice the difference in how your low back and buttock makes contact with the floor.
7. Kneeling on all fours. Swing right knee (bent) forward on floor between hands. Sink your right butt towards the floor. At the same time, extend the left leg straight back. Keep hips level and squared to the front. If necessary place folded blanket/s under the right sitting bone to keep hips level & supported. Hold for 3-4 breathes. Repeat other side.
8. Get 2 tennis balls tied in the toe end of a sock. Lay on your back with both knees bent. Bring one leg into chest with opposite hand and take the tennis balls in your other hand and place under your gluts in the meat of the muscle. Slowly with your hand rotate your hip/leg out so it creates pressure onto the tennis balls. Hold this position for few breathes if not too painful. Rotate leg/hip up again and then with your hand move the tennis balls to a new area of your glut and repeat rotating your leg out over the tennis balls again. Repeat this movement using your breathe till the whole surface of the glut has been on the tennis balls. (Note: don=t use your leg to make the movement over the tennis balls use the opposite hand to make the movement and as the hip presses onto the tennis balls try to relax it.) Now repeat on other side.
This resource was created by Liz Blasingame Suvai, LMT, Craniosacral therapist, Myofascial therapist for the use of the Center for True Harmony Wellness & Medicine™ and it’s patients. Please contact us if you have questions at 480-539-6646, info@trueharmonywellness.com.
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