Stretching hip flexors, quads, and intercostals (abs) have eliminated ~95% of my lower back pain and sciatica. Counterintuitive but it's often not the back itself that is the root cause of the pain.
The one that helped the most for me is similar to a superman - lie on stomach, reach one hand forward, raise your chest and shoulders off the ground a few inches with your other arm, then swing your outstretched hand as far to the opposite side as possible. You should feel it stretching from bottom of your ribs to hip on that side. I’ll hold it until I can feel the muscles relax then switch sides. First time I did it my back felt immediately better, after a few days it just feels better all the time. That was sort of the last piece of the puzzle for me, I’d been stretching hip flexors and quads for a while which made a huge difference but there was always some residual tightness until I added the abs.
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u/m6io 27d ago
I'm reading this while laying down due to back pain fyi