How to Improve Your Mobility to Relieve Lower Back Pain
By Sherwin Nicholson | Updated May 1, 2020
Continued from, Stretching and Lower Back Pain.
When you have ‘Limited Mobility’ and it hurts all of the time
If you are always sore, then right now is the best opportunity to fix the limited mobility that is plaguing your chances for pain relief.
Why it’s not getting any better
Your lower back, hips and legs are very prone to becoming tighter, more resistant to stretch and weaker with time. This applies to everyone. A lot of this is because we spend too much time sitting. When it hurts, it deters us further from moving properly and our ability to move is even more limited.
How to Improve Your Muscle Mobility to Relieve Lower Back Pain
Because of this, a cycle of further weakening and increased pain happens. The weakening leads to muscle tension and tightening which then reduces the mobility of the lumbar spine, hip joint and knee joint.
You have to slowly strengthen your weaknesses to make any gains
Without adequate strengthening, a muscle does not have sufficient strength to overcome or re balance the increased tightness and shortening of the opposing, antagonistic muscles of the joint. IN OTHER WORDS, MOVEMENT IS VITAL.
Although stretching help your to move easier, strengthening the antagonistic muscles is what releases the tension and brings more balance to a severely imbalanced joint. Your lumbar vertebrae and hips are most prone to this type of imbalance and should be exercised this way to keep your body stable.
Your abs are very bad at mobilizing the rest of the body
A typical example of this imbalance would be in the case where the abdominal muscles are too weak, and the lower back muscles are too tight. This is common in people with weak abdominals and anterior pelvic tilt. The chronic back tension can lead to excessive relaxing and lengthening of the abdominal muscles.
You need to follow strict abdominal exercises to combat this to avoid lumbar disc wear and injury. There is almost no movement of the pelvis for the lumbar spine. These muscle groups are antagonistic to one another.
Follow this Exercise For Hip Mobility and Disc Balance
Click Image for full instructions
To reverse this condition, the opposite should be done so that the abdominal muscles must become proactively antagonistic to the lower back muscles.
By strengthening the abs, you can relax built up tension, so that more balance can be achieved. This restores pelvic range of motion and brings added or even distribution of pressure on the lumbar discs. Less strain is also applied to the facet joints thereby reducing facet joint pain.
Merely stretching the lower back will not fully correct this problem as strengthening the abdominals are needed to play an antagonistic role to relaxing the muscles.
If you keep mobile you are ahead of the game, always!
Most issues of mechanical lumbar pain are related to lack of mobility.
Conditioning and strengthening weaker muscles are a necessity. You can relieve tension from over tight and tense antagonistic muscles with some simple and very effective techniques .
Increased mobility is what actually reduces the chronic tension constantly wearing away on your lumbar discs and vertebrae. When you keep mobile, you can easily reduce the risk of injury and discomfort dramatically.
Start with you hip mobility first and you will be much better off
Moving your hips with the above ‘weak abdominal’ exercise is an excellent start. The next thing is to get your hips ‘shifting’. Pretty much all of us have this problem and it is a big problem for back sufferers.
Hip Shifting is one of the easiest ways to combat morning back pain which gets worse when your hips are too tight to 
shift. A great exercise to do is the Standing Hip Shift exercise.
Do this move everyday and as often as possible
Your back needs it as a way to release tension that otherwise will not happen. Remember, only your active and protective muscles can overcome the inactive ones.
There are many important exercises available that can be used to give you relief. Don’t settle for quick fixes. I can help you with your goal to establish a long term relief plan that can be achieved through a thorough and proven exercise program. It’s not easy but it is worth the commitment and time. I always provide email support for everyone so you are never on your own.
“the ideas here apply to several forms of chronic soreness, in my case hip pain. Simple, easy to understand steps that have made a huge difference in pain management and improving quality of life – thank you”
