In certain circumstances spines stretches can be helpful. However, when it comes to your spinal health, there are certain stretches you should avoid – they are just not worth the risk. Certain stretches for your spine can cause injury and/or exacerbate an underlying disc problem in your low back or neck.

The spine has natural curves to help it move and provide shock absorption capabilities. Our whole body is designed to move in a coordinated manner – where our upper body, core, and lower body should work together. Our movement deficient lifestyle, lack of posture awareness, and faulty movement patterns (e.g. lifting things lazily) is causing our spine to wear out prematurely. These factors can cause our muscles to tighten around our spines, in a desperate attempt to stabilize and protect sensitive tissues like nerves, ligaments, and discs. This is a protective mechanism that causes us to feel stiff and tight.

So, what do we do?

1. We try and stretch our tight, WEAK muscles. While this may give us momentary relief, the stretch reflex will be initiated causing our muscles to tighten right back up, often resulting in the muscles ending up even tighter than before the stretch!
2. We often choose stretches that are bad for our spinal biomechanics. We often stretch our spines (lower back and neck) into flexion over and over. This causes microtrauma to our discs, weakening them over time until they fail.

The result?

Potential disc issues. Not good. Disc issues can take a long time to heal.

In the video below, I’m going to show you my top 4 stretches to eliminate from your routine. As well, if you shouldn’t do these 4 stretches, what should you do? I will discuss this at the end of the video and provide you with 2 routines you can implement immediately.

#lowbackstretches #neckstretches #avoidthesestretches

Stay Strong,