Lower Back Pain (Flexion) Day 2: 16-Min Foam Roller Rehab

It's a good one to do after training. The idea with this is that by getting a bit more mobility in the upper back we're helping to take some stress off the lower back. So we're actually giving the lower back and putting it in a better position to cope with the forces we're putting on it. You can see I'm going right the way up to the top of the upper back as far as I can.

Just making sure my elbows go right the way back at the top there. Trying to get as much movement as I can. And then we're going to stop there and just roll the muscles of the back a little bit if I want to finish. Just a few times all the way up and down.

Come up, pop the roller to one side and then I'm going to grab that stick. So you remember this exercise that we did in day one? I'm going to go back to that. We're just going to start with a set of those.

So this is the hip hinge. Keeping my back straight and just bending for my hips. So this is a really useful exercise. This builds into all our lifting as well.

So if I'm going to get somebody doing a deadlift or a Romanian deadlift I'll very often start them off with this just to check the position of their spine. And when you've done that I want you to put the stick down. And what we're going to do is we're going to do a few more reps but without the stick. So put your hands on your hips, keep the back nice and straight again.

So head looking forwards and just dropping the hips back. So I'm going to try and get that back in exactly the same position. And again there's no need to try and force this as far as you can go. As soon as I get that tug on the back of my hamstrings I'm just going to stop there and come back up.

It's really not about trying to bend as far as you can. And rest there. Okay so the next exercise we're going to do is back onto our back again. So this is one of my favorite core exercises.

I like to start by getting people to just put their fingertips under their back. So if that's uncomfortable on your shoulders you can also just roll a towel up. Put that under the small of your back. That'll give you some feedback that you need.

But for most people this works quite well. Now I'm going to roll my hips backwards and forwards so I can put pressure down onto my hands. I can squash my hands into the mat or I can lift up. I can increase the arch in my back.

My butt is still touching the mat. I'm not lifting my hips up. I'm just rolling them backwards and forwards. So I'm going to do that a few times and then what I'm going to do is I'm just going to put that a little bit of pressure down on my hands.

So as though I'm trying to stop them from getting away. I'm going to keep that there and I'm going to slowly straighten one leg. Now as I do this if I don't make an effort to keep my back down it'll want to come up. So trying to keep that pressure down on my hands.

That is the name of the game. Now I can slide the leg along the mat. I don't necessarily need to lift it and hold it in the air. It's fine.

The key thing is what my pelvis and my back are doing at this point. And this is a bit of a coordination exercise. So it's a little bit like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. So a lot of the time people will improve very quickly on this.

I'm going to do this a little bit more slowly. A lot of the time people will improve very quickly on this and it's not necessarily that their muscles are getting stronger. It's that they're getting the coordination to keep their pelvis in place while moving the legs around. This works the abdominal muscles and again we can make this exercise much harder.

We can do it with both legs which we'll do later in the week. We can hold the legs off the ground. We can turn it into a leg raise. But the key thing is it's my muscles that are doing the work.

I'm not shoving my hands under my butt to support me. And rest there. Come back and plant my feet on the ground. Knees at roughly 90 degrees.

You don't need to measure it but something close to that and then you're just going to lift your hips up in the air. So again squeeze your glutes and lift up. So I'm aiming for a straight line between my shoulders, my knees and my hips when I get to the top there. If you don't quite get that far that's okay.

And as always if any of these exercises if you start to get any pain then do stop back off. A little bit of mild discomfort is okay but it's always okay to stop a set early if it's starting to become painful. So I'm going to put my hands under my back again. So once again pressure down on my hands and I'm just going to alternate straightening one leg.

Bring it back. Straighten the other leg. Keep that pressure down. Okay this is feeling quite easy.

You can have a go at straightening both legs at the same time. Most people find that significantly harder. So and then back to this hip bridge position again and you're going to lift up. So again try not to arch your back too much with this.

It's an exercise for the hips and the glute muscles so I'm trying not to arch my back at this point. Make sure you keep your knees pointed towards the ceiling. You don't let your legs flop out and pressure you should feel it going down through your heels. So and then one final time hands under the back pressure on my hands.

So it's the first time you do this. You may find that just two sets of these is enough so do feel free to to cut the third set if you feel like that's a bit too much. It's all very individual at this point so some people will be able to do three sets and not have a problem. Some people will find that two is plenty.

And again lifting up. So okay and then we're just going to roll onto our side. We're going to have a go to side plank. So for today we're going to go onto the elbow and the knees.

I'm going to lift my hips up and push my hips forward so I'm going to try and get that straight line. Okay again if this feels easy we can always go onto the feet instead of the knees but this is usually a good place to start for most people. I'm just going to hold that position. Again if it starts to become painful then do stop.

A little bit of mild discomfort is okay but I don't want it to be more than that. So and rest there. I'm going to switch sides. So again elbow knees just lift the hips up and then squeeze with my glutes push the hips forward.

And back to the other side again. And then back to the other side. So and then back to the other side. So we're going fairly short sets at the moment.

So and then if you can we're going to go one more. So I always keep saying I don't want this to be a heroic effort. If it starts to feel sore listen to your body. It's always okay to do a little bit less the first time you do something and then gradually build it up as you become more confident with it and your body gets used to the movement.

One of the difficult things with rehab for jiu-jitsu guys in particular is we're used to pushing ourselves in training so we always want to do a little bit more. I think with rehab you've got to learn to just take a step back sometimes and do a little bit less. And that's it for day two. So once again feel free to go back over today and day one as long as you need to until you start to feel confident with what you're doing and then we can move on to day three where we're going to get a little bit more advanced with some of the exercises.