What’s going on, folks? Patrick LeRouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. I’m here to help you eliminate pain for the long term, folks. I’m here to help you enhance your performance and your life. Recently, I have been getting many comments from people who want to eliminate low back pain. They understand that I talk about a lot of the driving forces, but what they specifically ask me about is the sequence that they can use. I’m going to show you various stretches that can eliminate back pain or subside the back pain you’re experiencing.

You can also pair up this sequence of exercises with foam rolling and trigger point work for more effectiveness. If you can do these stretches along with foam rolling and trigger point work, your back pain will start to dramatically change within a week. You will notice that it is stronger and it can uphold itself, depending on how you deal with it.

The first exercise I want you to start focusing on is the stretching of your calf. Your calf is important to the big picture of your fascial system and your posterior layer. The calf will be a key target because it will always be tight. Since your low back and mid-back are not working very well, you’re going to start picking up slack in your calves. Propping yourself up on your feet a lot more is also going to contract the calf muscles. That calf system will then start to get tighter and tighter, eventually pulling more on the fascial sheath in the entire back part of your body. So if you get the calves to start working better, your lower back will also start to move more.

You want to get your calf muscles to move at first. Then you can start worrying about how to eliminate pain afterwards. Getting the muscles in the calf and back to move, will introduce blood flow, thereby promoting healing. Once you get that posterior chain to glide a little better, you’re going to move to your quad muscles.

The quad is a big driver that can tilt the hips forward and pull on your lower back, resulting in a massive rotation of the spine. You want to get your quads to give the back some leeway so you can fluctuate it back and forth.

Your glute is the next muscle you want to learn how to move. This is not a huge glute stretch; you are just trying to get it to move a little. Once the hip tightens up, the glutes naturally learn how to turn off. So you have to wake them up a little by getting them to move and then proceed to your lower back. At that point, your lower back should also start wanting to move a little. You want to start asking it to move a little more until the end, where you’re going to do rotations of the back. This will incorporate different facets of the spine itself. If you’re having lower back issues, target these muscle groups and perform foam rolling and trigger point work. It’s going to start learning how to move better with these areas of focus.

Now here is the key point. This will only work if you’re having a root problem in the lower body. If you have a lat issue, a shoulder issue, or a neck issue that’s driving this, these exercises will not work for very long. There’s a different driver in those situations and that is the tricky part. I’ll talk about that in a different week. So I’m going to explain to you how to stretch each one of these areas and you can continue on your own after that.

The easiest way to stretch the calf is when your body is at a 90-degree angle, with your legs laid flat. Once you’re at this angle, you lock in the hips, and pull your toes toward you, to feel the stretching in your calf. Everyone says to hold stretches for hours on end, but I just want you to hold this stretch for three seconds, release it, and then take a deep breath. Pay attention to how this whole area moves and then let it go. It’s very important that you add breathing into this. I’m a big fan of passive stretching so I use a rope. Do not use a band, because it actually has microfiber bounces, which we will discuss at a different time. You are going to take a rope, pull it forwards gently, take a deep breath, and then let the rope release itself. You can do this three or four times on each leg at your discretion.

Then the easiest way to stretch your quad is to back yourself into the chair, put your right foot on the chair with your shin against it, and your knee on the ground. You want to make sure your foot and leg create a 90-degree angle. Then all you have to do is move your left knee forward. Make sure you are keeping your core tight as you stretch. As you stretch more, you can take a deep breath, let it go, then slowly move your knee back. Do this exercise on both sides.

Sitting upright with your legs lying flat, bring your right bent knee over your left leg and pull it towards your left shoulder. Many people have a tendency to rotate the waist and indirectly the spine as well. Instead, just sit up straight and look forward. This is about glute movement so the more you can get one leg over the other, the more stretch you will feel in your glute.

Another exercise you can do, is slowly bring your neck down towards your chest, rolling each vertebrae forward. Then lean a little more forward while rolling, with your back away from the wall, so you can have more access to the lower part of your back.

For this last stretch, you can take your right hand and put it under your left bent leg. As your perform this, you will notice your back start to open up and your lat will stretch, getting you to twist. This gives you a controlled rotation and allows you to control how far you reach. You will realize how much you are moving and how much you are going through the motion.

So now, get up and walk around. This won’t eliminate pain like a magic pill, but it will get your back moving. Once it starts moving, it will create blood flow, causing it to heal. It’s going to try to lock up, especially if you are not focusing on your driver. You need to do this consistently, pairing it up with foam rolling and trigger point work. Look at my other videos if you need help with foam rolling and trigger point work. Doing these exercises together will yield great results.