5 easy exercises for your lower back to alleviate desk job aches and pains
Prolonged desk work can lead to musculoskeletal problems ranging from annoying aches and pains to injuries. This month, we launched a six-part series showing you how to stretch and strengthen your body parts to prepare them for marathon sitting sessions at your desk. We’ll roll out a new exercise routine every week, each focusing on a different area of the body, that will help alleviate desk job-related woes.
Last week we published exercises for your hands, wrists, forearms and elbows. This week we're focusing on your lower back.
To learn more about how sitting affects the body, and why these exercises are important, read our first piece in the series. And you can find the entire series here.
A routine for your lower back (including glutes)
The lower back might be the most common area of complaint for desk workers. Its muscles hold you upright in the same position all day. But overusing them can cause fatigued muscles that can then become inflamed, tight and painful. Often it results in a dull ache. Short movement breaks, even just for 1-2 minutes, are especially important for the lower back, as they release tension and aid circulation.
Do these exercises to help stretch and strengthen your lower back, including your glutes. They're demonstrated by trainer Melissa Gunn, of Pure Strength LA, whose team trains desk workers on how to protect their bodies through exercise.
Sit against a wall, as if in a chair. Align your knees over your ankles and slide down as far as you can, though not below a right angle. The higher you are, the less intense the exercise. Hold that position for 30 seconds. Work up to 5 minutes. Increase by five or 10 seconds every few days, as it gets easier. Don’t continue if there’s pain in the knees.
Sit in a chair with your legs open and positioned in a V shape, with your ankles 1-2 feet apart. Wrap a buckled yoga strap or belt around your thighs about 6 inches above your knees. Press your legs open into the strap and push for 1 minute and 30 seconds to strengthen the glutes.
Open your feet apart and put a horizontal yoga block between your thighs right above your knees. Press your thighs together, squeezing the yoga block with your thighs. Hold for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Don’t let up. Do one set.
Stand with feet spread apart, laterally, as far as is comfortable. Bend your right knee and drop your right hip about 45 degrees, while the leg stays straight — so that you feel a stretch in the inner thigh of the straight leg. Hold 2-3 seconds. Do 10 on each side.
Sit up straight and stack your head over your shoulders and hips. Interlace hands behind your head and press your head straight back into your unmoving hands, using your hands like a wall. Hold for 30 seconds while taking very long breaths. Be sure your chin is parallel with the floor and your neck is lengthening up the entire time. This releases the lower back.
(Exercises came from Dr. Joshua T. Goldman, UCLA sports medicine; Melissa Gunn, Pure Strength LA; Tom Hendrickx, Pivot Physical Therapy; Vanessa Martinez Kercher, Indiana University-Bloomington, School of Public Health; Nico Pronk, Health Partners Institute; Niki Saccareccia, Light Inside Yoga.)
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
