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Dr. Ben Boudreau: Hello and welcome to another episode of Double Doc Talk. I’m Dr. Ben Boudreau.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And I’m Dr. Clayton Roach. Today we’re talking about the top five lower back stretches, and we call them top five because a lot of them are linked with the muscles that are more intricately related to people with low back pain.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Absolutely. Today we will be mentioning muscles such as psoas, glute med, piriformis, quadratus lumborum, and the most efficient ways to stretch these muscles that are comfortable for you to do at home. So I’ll just get down. For this first stretch, we are face down.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Here we’re talking about the QLs and the QLs live on the side here. So one of the ways that we’re going to be able to stretch this is if we’re going laterally. So Ben is going to lean to one side by bringing one hand over to the other one. And here you’re getting a beautiful stretch on this left side as he laterally flexes away from that side onto the right side. Let’s just show him how it looks on the other side. And here we’re stretching this side of the lower back, specifically, the muscle called the QL.

So with any of these stretches, you’re going to want to keep a stretch for about 25 to 30 seconds. All right. So we’re going to do that ideally 2 to 3 times per side. Multiply that by, if you can, 2 to 3 times a day. So we kind of keep the 2 to 3 rule as you’re doing it 2 to 3 times per side during the day, 2 to 3 times. Great stretch. So this is for the QL. So next one.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Next, we’ll be working on the glute.

Dr. Clayton Roach: For this one, we’re going to lay on our back. And the glute is very important because obviously, it provides a lot of stability in the pelvis. So go ahead and show the first part of the stretch. You’re going to bring your knee to your chest. Now, I will say on this one, you don’t necessarily want to do this one early in the morning because early in the morning the disk is full of water. Flexion in the morning is not great because it leaves you more susceptible to disk herniation.

I would let the morning pass on this one. You bring the knee to your chest and then as a progression you can tilt the knee to the side where you’re going to feel that glute being stretched again, 25 to 30 seconds hold 2 to 3 times per side, 2 to 3 times per day. Great stretch.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Fantastic stretch.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And a great muscle to stretch because this one is usually chronically short. Go ahead with the next one.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: So the next stretch will be targeting our piriformis muscle. Our pure piriformis muscle, I’ll just bring my knee up. And very intricately linked with people with sciatic pain and low back pain again. I’m just demonstrating on the side that you can see just how many abductions and how much I’m pressing down here on my knee, not too much. And right now, I can already feel that.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Many of you might be tight where the knee doesn’t want to go down. So just bring it down as far as you can. And then the next step is progression. This might feel good enough for you and you might just want to bring your leg in and that might be enough. Some of you might be able to do this next phase where you’re going to grab the flexed knee. And bring this foot towards you.

Now you’re going to get a little bit more of a stretch there. And I think even Ben can feel this one. And again, you’re going to hold this for 25, 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times per side, 2 to 3 times per day. I love this one. Right. He’s staying there a little longer. He’s enjoying the stretch. All right. So we’ve got the next one coming up.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: We do. And the next one is actually a different position that you can target the piriformis in. I’ll just turn and face the camera our way. You just line up your knees in front of you, feet nice and flat. And you let your feet fall to the side and let your knees fall over. The same can be done. Left and right sides.

Dr. Clayton Roach: So what this is going to do is going to increase your hip internal rotation. Lack of hip internal rotation is very much linked with people with low back pain. So when you increase your hip internal rotation, you’re basically mitigating the risk of you having low back pain because typically we’re always externally rotated even when we’re sitting, and this promotes the exact opposite. Now, the more you sit up, the harder this is going to be. So some of you might have to lean back, put your hands on the floor and do it this way. All right. And then we have the mighty psoas.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Last muscle.

Dr. Clayton Roach: So the psoas is a very important muscle, as we said in some of our earlier videos, by the way, if you’re on this YouTube channel, you can subscribe for some of the videos that we talked about the psoas being linked between the hip and the lower back and when it’s chronically short, because a lot of times we know we’re sitting in the so as a short is again linked to low back pain. So Ben is going to demonstrate how to stretch the psoas here.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Great. So the best way to stretch the psoas.

Dr. Clayton Roach: First step.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Is to flatten your lower back. And so imagine your pelvis is tilting backwards. So we’re rotating the pelvis this way. Then what you’re going to do is squeeze your buttock. I found a great way to activate the muscles just to give it a little bit of a tap squeeze.

Dr. Clayton Roach: It’s a great tip

Dr. Ben Boudreau: And then lean in just a bit and you should feel a nice deep stretch through the front. Now, if we didn’t do those steps prior without everything being tight, you would lean in and lean in and lean in without feeling a stretch on it. So always tilting the pelvis backwards, giving your glute a little activation and then a slow lean in.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Yeah, that’s a great point that Ben made, is that if you’re not doing these previous steps of setting it up, you’re going to lean forward forever and not feel that stretch. So a great stretch for a great muscle again, 2 to 3 times a day. Right, that’s. And 2 to 3 times per side.

If you guys are interested in seeing more great videos and more great content, please subscribe to us on YouTube or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for future content. I hope you enjoyed this video. I’m Dr. Clayton Roach.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: And I’m Dr. Ben Boudreau. Have a wonderful day.