90/90 Hip Mobility To Fix Lower Back Pain
Stop wasting your time doing 10 different mobility exercises; start with this!
If you consider yourself an active person, but you also spend a lot of time sitting for work, odds are a bit of mobility work will do wonders for you.
What you don’t want to do is create this laundry list of stretches, thinking the more you do, the better you will feel.
When it comes to chronic back pain, less is actually more.
Today I’ll show you one of my go-to hip mobility exercises I use to melt away low back stiffness.
Today you’ll discover:
- The perfect mobility exercises to start with.
- How to safely do this mobility exercise with a bad back or post-surgery history.
- Critical red flags to look for and how to modify the exercises to fit you perfectly.
How Do You Do The 90/90 Hip Stretch?
Starting Position:
Sit on the ground with one leg bent in front of you at a 90-degree angle so that your knee is directly above your ankle. Your other leg should be extended behind you, with the knee and shin resting on the ground, also at a 90-degree angle.
Engage Your Core:
Sit tall and engage your abdominal muscles to stabilize your spine. This will help maintain good posture throughout the stretch.
Hip Rotation:
Slowly rotate your torso towards the front leg, aiming to align your belly button with your knee. You should feel a stretch in the hip of your extended leg.
Gentle Forward Lean:
Keeping your back straight, hinge forward at the hips, maintaining the alignment between your belly button and knee. As you lean forward, you should feel a stretch in the hip of your front leg and possibly in the back of your front thigh (hamstring).
Hold & Breathe:
Hold the stretch for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, taking slow, deep breaths. Allow your body to relax into the stretch, but avoid pushing yourself to the point of pain.
How Does Then 90/90 Hip Stretch Help With Back Pain?
There are several different reasons why the 90/90 hip stretch can help with lower back pain relief.
Improved Hip Mobility:
Tight hips can contribute to increased stress and tension in the lower back.
The 90/90 stretch can enhance hip mobility and reduce strain on the lower back by stretching the hip muscles, such as the hip flexors and glutes.
Lengthening Hip Flexors
Sitting often and activities involving hip flexion (such as running or cycling) can cause the hip flexor muscles to become tight and shortened.
This tightness can pull on the pelvis, leading to an increased arch in the lower back and potentially contributing to back pain.
The 90/90 stretch targets the hip flexors, helping to lengthen and relax.
Decompression Of The Spine:
The forward lean in the 90/90 stretch allows for gentle spine decompression. This stretch can alleviate pressure on the intervertebral discs and relieve back pain by elongating the spine and creating more space between the vertebrae.
Remember, mobility exercises are not a back pain cure and should be used to get lasting relief. If you do these daily to get through the day, but the pain always comes back, you need a deeper look at what could be causing it.
Let’s chat if that’s you and you want a more on one approach.
