Lower Back Pain? Try Stretching Your Hips...?

It was recently brought to my attention I am old.  Not just older, but old.  I thought that was a little unfair until I realized I was hobbling around like an old man this morning.  My back was sore!  And it's not like I was squatting 405lbs yesterday and had a good excuse,  I just woke up this morning with a sore back!  Coming on the heels of being accused of being old, I was kind of pissed.

So I stretched out my back.  Nothing.  I waited a little bit.  Stretched again.  Nothing.  That did not improve my mood.  It made no sense.  I have been doing more or less the same fitness program for the last 3 weeks: Run 3.5 miles one day, lift the next, 6 days a week.  Then it occurred to me, in addition to my workouts I spent 3 hours driving Wednesday which I almost never do.  I then spent 5 hours doing research, in a library, in a chair.  I was inactive for 8 hours.  Something I NEVER do.

My hip flexor muscles were in a contracted position for 8 hours Wednesday and as a result were tight.  This likely caused, unbeknownst to me, a greater than normal anterior pelvic tilt.  The front of my pelvis was being pulled down by the tight hip flexors, which caused the back of my pelvis to rise up.  The anterior pelvic tilt likely caused a greater than normal curve in my lower spine which put my spine is a compromising position.  So what did I do?  I ran on it Wednesday afternoon, lifted yesterday and, Tada!  Sore back today!

Once I realized the potential problem I was able to treat the problem instead of the symptom.  Problem: Tight hip flexor muscles.  Symptom: Sore back.  I started stretching my hip flexors and what I can tell you is that even if they were not causing the low back pain, they were damn tight!  Stretching them was so uncomfortable I almost forgot about my back.  And, as it turns out, it work!  After only 2 minutes of hip flexor stretching the back pain was reduced by, I would say, at least 50%.  Below are the basic and, lets say, slightly more advanced versions of what I did to stretch my hip flexors:

So the next time you are feeling low back pain, and assuming you have no history of major back injury, give this a shot!  For more common sense solutions to common problems, visit www.canyonptandf.com and see how you can FEEL SUPER today!