The 8 best chiropractic exercises and stretches to help you get rid of neck and back pain from your chiropractor in downtown Toronto

The 8 best chiropractic exercises and stretches to help you get rid of neck and back pain

Have you been working from home for the past few months?

Have you started to experience back and neck pain along with stiffness?

You’re not alone. A majority of people in Toronto that are working from home have begun experiencing neck and back pain as a result of working from home. What I have put together are the 8 best chiropractic exercises and stretches you can do at home to help alleviate your neck and back pain caused by months of working from home.

Before we go into the exercises, it’s important to understand why you have been having neck and back pain.

During the lockdown, people have been working from home in poor ergonomic conditions, which leads to increased stress and strain on their spines. This can start to form misalignments in your spine that cause the nerves that exit your spine to become irritated or pinched leading to what’s know as a vertebral subluxation. These subluxations can not only cause pain and discomfort, but could lead to other symptoms like stiffness or muscle weakness. Only chiropractors are properly trained to adjust vertebral subluxations. If you suspect you might have a subluxation, contact a chiropractor soon. If you live or work in Toronto and are in need of a chiropractor, please give us a call so that we can help you.

Performing the exercises that we have outlined will help to stretch out many of the muscles that have become tight, and perhaps lessening the effect of those vertebral subluxations.
Here are the 8 best chiropractic exercises and stretches to do while working from home:

1. Hamstring Stretch
Working from home and self isolating has caused us to sit even more than we normally do. As a result, hamstrings become chronically tight and begin to pull on the pelvis and low back leading to increased tension in the low back and possibly low back and pelvis pain.

Sitting with both feet straight out in front of you with your toes pointed to the ceiling, bend forward from the hips keeping your back straight. Bend until you feel a stretch in the back of the legs, hold for 45 seconds. You can perform this stretch 1-2 times per day.

2. Quadratus Lumborum Stretch

The quadratus lumborum (QL) is the deepest of the abdominal muscles. The QL is a postural muscle and helps to stabilize your spine when you bend to the side or extend you lumbar spine. The QL is under constant contraction due to prolonged sitting (which we have been doing more during isolation).

From a standing or sitting position, slowly bend to one side without rotating your body while bringing one are overhead. Bend until you feel a stretch in your side and low back. Hold the stretch for 45 seconds. Repeat for both sides and perform 1-2 times per day.

3. Lumbar Extension (Cobra)

One of the fundamental poses in Yoga, the cobra stretch offers a fantastic stretch in the low back, shoulders, chest and abdominal muscles. It basically puts you into the opposite position of being hunched over a laptop all day.

Lying on your stomach with your palms on the floor, slowly push your upper body off the floor while keeping your pelvis on the floor. Raise until you feel a stretch in your low back, abdominals and hip flexors. Hold for 30-40 seconds, repeat 1-2 times per day.

4. Broken Table

This is an excellent exercise to help build stability in your shoulders and your core muscles. Muscles that have likely become weaker due to months of staying indoors due to isolation.

Go down onto the floor onto hands and knees keeping your back flat. Slowly extend one leg backwards while extending the opposite hand and arm out in front of you. Don’t worry if you start to shake, it’s a good sign, it means you’re activating muscles that have become weak. Hold for 10 seconds, repeat with the opposite side. Repeat one more time. Do this daily.

5. Lat Stretch

The latisimus dorsi muscle is a large broad muscle in your back and can become strained and stressed during prolonged sitting.

Stand at a 45 degree angle to a closed door with one foot in front of the other. Bend forward, grab the door handle and lean backwards until you feel a stretch in the back and the side of your shoulder. Hold this stretch for 45 seconds. Repeat for both sides, 1-2 times per day.

6. Mid Back Arch / Cat Stretch
This is a wonderful stretch to open up the mid back, stretch out the rhomboids, the spinal erectors and the low back. This is one of my personal favourites that I do daily all year round!

Go onto your hands and knees, drop your head between your shoulders while you arch your mid back up until you feel a stretch. Gently rock your pelvis backwards at the same time to get a good stretch in the low back. Hold this stretch for 30-45 seconds, repeat 1-2 times per day.

7. Trapezius and Levator Scapulae Stretch.

These two muscles are a common spot where people carry and hold all their stress. These muscles become overworked and tight from prolonged hours of sitting at a desk in front of a computer.

Sitting in a chair, grasp the side of the chair with your hand. Turn your head to opposite side and flex your head forward while leaning your body away from your hand so you a feel a stretch across the top of your shoulders and trapezius. Hold this stretch for 45 seconds and repeat 1-2 times per day.

8. Scalenes Stretch

This is one of the tightest muscles in almost every patient that starts at our chiropractic clinic in downtown Toronto. This muscles becomes chronically tight and short from extended periods of bending your head forward to look at a smartphone or a laptop.

Sitting upright, place one hand just underneath the opposite collar bone. Turn your head away, look up and tilt your head away from hand. Use gentle pressure with your hand to increase the intensity of your stretch. Hold for 30-45 seconds, repeat both sides, perform 1-2 times per day.

There you have it, those are the 8 best chiropractic stretches you can do at home to help your recover from months of isolation.
If you are looking for a chiropractor and live or work in downtown Toronto, give us a call at 416-504-8880. I would be happy to help you recover through effective chiropractic