UNIQUE ANDERSON: Hello. My name is Unique Anderson and I'm a certified personal trainer. In this, clip we're going to talk about a pulled back muscle. Again, before any exercises, any flexibility, you definitely want to seek the medical attention of your doctor, your physical therapist and tell them what you want to do. When it comes down to your lower back, it's kind of tricky because sometimes you think you could do a little bit more than you can do and sometimes you think you can't do anything. It's all about really just taking an educated thought and think: Okay, well, if I want to walk across the street, I have to get to work. So the main thing we're going to focus on for your lower back is rest and relaxation. When you pull a muscle, that means it's strained. So again, if you pull your lower back, you're not going to stretch your lower back because it's already excessively strained. You want to think about the muscles around it to keep those flexible because what happens is that you tend to compensate. When you have a lower back pain, most people kind of like protect their body here and can't really lift their body upright when they have a pulled lower back, so the first thing that you want to think about doing is seeking medical attention from your doctor, one; two, rest and relaxation. You can't elevate your lower back but what you can do if you have tightness, what you could focus on is actually putting a heating pad there for about 15 to 20 minutes to create circulation in the back so that you'll be able to move, right? The next thing you want to do is focus on TVA, your transverse abdominis. We're going to talk about this. Your transverse abdominis are the deep muscles that stabilize your spine. A lot of times in your stomach, these muscles are underdeveloped and that's why you tend to compensate with your lower back. So what I'm going to show you is a basic ab raise. Now, again, this ab raise should come when your lower back is feeling a little bit better meaning that after you rest, after you see a doctor, then you want to incorporate this in. I'm going to show you a modified version and then a more of a basic to intermediate version. The modified version is basically the easiest one possible. You're going to drop to your knees. You want to focus on keeping your stomach contracted, not holding your stomach in, but think as if someone is going to punch you in your stomach. That's how you want your stomach to be. You're going to focus on dropping right onto your forearms and you want to draw your bellybutton in to your spine but not sucking it in but keeping it contracted. This is to help stabilize the deep muscles that stabilize your spine. Again, your core consists of your lumbo-pelvic-hip complex, so that's your lower back: your transverse abdominis, which is the deep muscle that stabilize your spine; your rectus abdominis, which is your six-pack; your multifidus. You got all these muscles that stabilize your spine. Again, another version from that is a regular ab raise, so ab plank. You're going to have yourself with your forearms here. Your chin is in. Making sure your body is in alignment and you're holding it. Now right away, what you want to feel is your back feel like--your whole body feel like contracting. That's a good thing. If you're feeling any pinching, any sharp pain, discontinue it. Again, this is not to help you do something different for your lower back that a doctor can't do for you but this is to help you for maintenance, meaning that injury won't come back again.
Member Comments