Lower Back Stretching: Exercises for Everyday Life and After Your Workout
Lower Back Stretching: Exercises for Everyday Life and After Your Workout
You can’t say it often enough: stretching is essential!
It is very important when we are about to exercise, it helps to do it once we have finished a workout, and it is always a good idea to add stretching sessions during the week to keep our muscles toned and elastic.
Let’s look in detail at why stretching is so important.
- It improves muscle flexibility and joint mobility
- It reduces stress, anxiety, fatigue and muscle tension
- It improves blood circulation
- It reduces the risk of muscle injuries
- It helps prevent bone and joint conditions
- It brings body and mind into harmony
- It increases the feeling of overall well-being
For perfect stretching:
- Breathe slowly and in a controlled way
- Perform the exercise without rushing
- Move into the position with grace and gentleness, listening to your body and its messages
- Focus on the muscles you want to stretch, extending the joints fully
- Notice the difference between a muscle that has been stretched and one that has not yet been stretched
Stretching should be moderate and gradual, always within the limits of your own tension and never to the point of pain.
Today we will talk about stretching for the lower back through a few exercises that will help us both after a workout and in everyday life, with the aim of improving our physical and mental well-being.
For the first exercise we need to take an exercise mat and lay it out on the floor.
We lie on our back, bend our legs and rest the soles of our feet on the floor.
Bringing one leg to the chest, we press with both hands, drawing the thigh as close to the torso as possible.
We hold the position for about five seconds and repeat the same exercise with the other leg, alternating them several times for the same duration as before, up to ten repetitions in total.
This is a dynamic stretch that lengthens our lower back and brings relaxation to the lowest region of the back.
The second exercise, on the other hand, is a static stretch.
We grab both knees, lift them off the floor together with our feet and bring them toward the chest.
We try to press hard with our hands, drawing the thighs toward the torso.
We stay in this position for about thirty seconds and then release the legs, placing our feet on the floor.
We wait a few seconds and then start again with another thirty-second hold.
We repeat this four or five times.
Today’s nutrition tip focuses on potassium.
Potassium is a mineral, and it is extremely important to get it into our body in the right amounts.
A potassium deficiency could be a temporary shortfall, but it could also be a sign of some more serious condition and put us on alert.
Its deficiency in our body is due to several factors:
- very hot weather
- very intense physical exertion
- excessive sweating
- a drastic, completely unbalanced diet
Potassium can be found in fresh fruit such as bananas, kiwi, apricots and grapes, but also in potatoes, tomatoes and dried legumes.
It is also present in nuts: walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts.
We also find it in good amounts in dark chocolate, which, as we know, fights fatigue and is even an excellent mood-boosting food.
The next exercise for stretching the lower back muscles is technically less simple but still absolutely doable.
From a seated position with the legs stretched out on the floor, completely straight, and the back upright, we lift and bend the right leg, crossing it over the left leg.
From here, we rotate the torso toward the side of the bent leg. The left arm goes on the outside of the knee and we gently force the twist, thus giving the lower back an intense stretch.
We hold the position for about thirty seconds and repeat the exercise with the opposite leg.
To conclude, as always, let’s remember that to lead a healthy lifestyle it is important to combine sport with a balanced diet.
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