Here is another favourite of mine. Through extended sitting or standing or bad posture or lifting too many sacks of concrete (!) the lower back can so easily get compressed. This wonderful little stretch helps to release muscles on each side of the lower back and helps to take pressure off the intervertebral discs allowing them to become bathed in fresh nutrients and able to support the vertebrae as they should.
Seated Side Stretch
Sit comfortably upright with your hands beside your hips, if your hands don’t reach the floor put blocks (or some thick books) underneath them. Throughout this exercise gently engage your abdominal muscles to support your lower back.
Inhale and raise your left arm. Lengthen your spine by lowering your sacrum away from your lower back (another way of saying this is - lengthen your tailbone downwards), lifting your ribcage away from your hips and extending up into the crown of your head.
Exhale and while keeping that length in the spine reach over to the right side, extending out of your left hip.
Inhale to come up and exhale to lower your arm.
Repeat to the right side and repeat the whole sequence 4 or 5 times.
You can do this exercise at any time you need to stretch out the lower back, even if you are sitting in a chair. At my classes at the Gold Coast Australian School of Meditation and Yoga we often do this stretch as a warm up before Extended Triangle and other side stretching poses.
