Stretches for Back Pain Relief: Rotator Stretch

Video Transcript

"So as we know increasing flexibility definitely decreases risk of injury. So this next exercise is a stretch for the lower back. It's a rotator stretch, and what we're going to do is lie down on the mat and with our knees bent we?re going to bring our knees to the left and while keeping our torso straight and this is going to really stretch and the lower back. And we'll do the same thing on the other side. Ideally you want to hold this stretch for about 45 seconds to a minute. So I will demonstrate how the stretch looks. Lying on my back, I make sure my body is aligned, keeping my shoulders on the mat, my lower back on the mat, and so what I do now from here is bring my knees to the left. So I'm going to bring both my knees to the left, and in doing so I'm keeping my shoulders on the mat and this insures that I am not rotating my torso so much as my legs and it really gives you a stretch on the lower back. And so I want to hold this ideally for 45 seconds and then do it on the other side. So I?ll demonstrate the other side for you. Make sure everything is aligned, shoulders are on the ground, then I'm going to bring the legs over to this side keeping my shoulders on the ground. Keeping my shoulders planted on the mat really stretches the lower back. So you want to avoid any of this. You want to keep it all on the mat. Which really ensures that you are stretching the lower back. So we're holding this for 45 seconds. And then you bring it back and you can repeat one or two times just depending on how good it feels and how much time you have, and that's a rotator stretch. It's a stretch that really gets into the lower back to help reduce back pain."