Back pain is the most common symptom we see at Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine. It can make things like walking, doing laundry, exercising, and tying your shoes difficult and painful. When we see patients with back pain, they often fall into one of a few categories:
- Pain that gets worse while sitting
- Pain that occurs when getting up out of a chair, when walking, or bending and lifting
- Pain that occurs only when walking or running
The exercises that are most helpful often vary depending on which category you fall into. Sometimes patients fall into more than one category. An experienced physical therapist can do a full evaluation and let you know what exercises are best for you. For today’s article, we’re going to address the first category: pain that gets worse while sitting. Here are 2 easy exercises you can do to resolve back pain that gets worse while sitting.
Pelvic tilt microbreaks
Microbreaks are a key concept for success when your back hurts while you sit. When you sit for awhile, your back muscles are often shutting down and increasing pressure on the spine and nerves. The pelvic tilts give your back muscles a bit of a wake up and gives the nerves and spine and chance to “re-set” a bit. You can pick the time interval that works for you, doing this every 20 to 30 minutes initially. Then gradually try to increase the length of time between microbreaks.
Bridges
Bridges are a great way to improve your ability to control how your back moves as well as regain some strength and endurance in your low back muscles and glutes. Initially try to hold at the top for 10 seconds and do 2 sets of 10 reps. As they get easier, you can increase the hold times, trying to work up to 30 sec holds for 3 sets. This exercise can be done less frequently than the pelvic tilts. 1 to 2 times a day usually works.
Neither of the exercises above should increase your pain. If they do, or if you’ve tried these and you’re still hurting, we’d love to help you! At Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, we’re experts at evaluating back pain and will develop a plan to help you overcome it.
Call our office at 703-299-3111, or click here and a member of our team will schedule you an evaluation with one of our highly skilled physical therapists.
Working to keep you living your best life,
The Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Team
