October 9th, 2023 // Dr. Arnan Sisson

We often see folks that will complain of severe, crippling, and debilitating back pain. Along with
pain in the back, often it travels all the way to the floor. With the pain comes endless 

pills, missed sleep, vacations, and just plain old depression.

But what often comes before this stage is stiffness. The stressors that lead up to back pain can warn us
of tight muscles around the lower back and hips. It could be from that 8+ hour desk job of yours, that
long commute every day, or just lifting things awkwardly around the house.

Either way, the stiffness is annoying by itself, and it tends to hit folks most when they first wake up in the
morning or after a short nap.

So, this article today is going to cover a simple but effective movement anyone can use to not only
prevent back pain and lessen stiffness. But it can also be used for the normal low-level stiffness
everyone faces first thing in the morning or after a nap. The movement is a surefire way to give us our
best start to the morning!

So this can either be done right away on the bed or you can move to the floor to perform it. First, you
grasp your hands around the back of the neck. Next, you bend the knees and place the bottom of the
feet on the surface below.

After this initial position is set up, you let both knees fall to one side. It's very important though to just go
low enough to the side to feel a gentle stretch along the side of your back to the hips. This low-level
stretch is ideal at this time of the day when coming out of a cold stiff position (full night rest or
short nap).

This is held for a few seconds and then repeated on the opposite side. There is no set amount of
repetitions that work best for this. It's all based on the client’s response. So, continue to move back and
forth until the back feels a good bit looser. This commonly falls around 5 minutes or so.

That’s it for today. Remember everyone, movement is medicine!

P.S. Do you feel like the stiffness in the mornings or after your nap isn’t normal? If not, it could be a
precursor to full-blow back and hip pain. And the best way to test it is to have a trained eye look at it.
So, if this is your case, feel free to shoot us a call at (804) 493-3256 to set up your FREE 20-minute
discovery session. During this free session, our doctors can ask a few questions and perform a few tests
to determine if you’re on your way to having some serious back issues. Make sure to call soon, we only
offer 1-2 of these a week due to current demand!