Exercises for Back Pain
3: Shoulder Bridge
This is another great exercise to help with low back pain from Leeds chiropractor Alison Eaves at Revive Chiropractic.
This one is the shoulder bridge, great for relieving tension and loosening up the spine. You can either watch the video Exercises for Back Pain 3 : Shoulder Bridge by clicking on the link or read the instructions that follow. Some people like to read how to do something, others understand better with visual examples and either is fine.
1. On the floor lie onto your back making sure your weight is evenly distributed between both hips and shoulders
2. Engage your core and abdominal muscles by gently pulling your belly button towards the middle of the back but allow the spine to stay relaxed. You can think of it as a corset or belt tightening around your waistline.
3. There should be a slight gap of a couple of centimetres between the floor and the base of your spine.
4. Gently contract your gluteal muscles (your bottom!) by squeezing your buttocks together.
5. Then push your hips up from the floor until your make a straight line with your torso. Make sure your bottom leaves the floor first, and slowly lift off vertebra by vertebra moving up the spine.
6. The exercise is called a shoulder bridge as that’s the position your body should make. No sagging bridges or wonky bridges!
7. Hold for a count of 5 seconds
8. Gently return to the start position taking care to roll each vertebra back down to the floor from the middle of the back and finishing with the buttocks.
To see the video that accompanies this post either click on 3) Shoulder Bridge on the right or copy and past the following link:
