Ten minutes for a stiff lower back

A chair holds your hips bent for hours, and the tissue at the front of them adapts by getting shorter. Your lower back pays for it.

When you sit, your hip bends to about 90 degrees, a position called flexion. Spend most of the day there, and the muscle and connective tissue from your quads to your hip flexors adapt to that length.¹ The opposite position, with your leg behind your body, is extension, and a desk day asks for almost none of it.

The psoas and the iliacus do most of the pulling. They run from your pelvis to your thigh bone, and when they're short and stiff, they tug on your spine. Your back then works to hold an arched shape the authors call banana back, which can leave it tired and sore.¹

You can feel this in about 10 seconds. Bend forward at the waist to about 45 degrees and grab the skin at the top of each thigh through your pockets. Now try to stand up straight, and you'll end up either bent over or arched.¹ A short hip flexor does a milder version of that to your back all day.

That's why the moves below work on your hips and thighs, not your back. When something hurts, the authors look above and below the sore spot, because an aching back often starts with stiff quads, hamstrings or glutes.¹

The Starretts built their method by coaching tens of thousands of people through it over the last decade.¹

Bottom line

Your back aches because your hips are stuck in the chair's shape, so work on the hips first.

Built to Move asks for about 10 minutes of this work every day, which comes to 70 minutes a week.¹ The four moves below come from its hip and breathing chapters, at the doses it gives. They take 6, 1, 1 and 2 minutes, for 10 in total.

1. 01

   Couch stretch, 3 minutes a side. Kneel with your back knee where the floor meets a wall and your shin up the wall. On a couch, put that knee on the seat and your shin against the back. Squeeze your butt as you breathe in for a slow count of five, and relax it as you breathe out for five. If 3 minutes is too much, do a minute at a time.

2. 02

   Standing hip squeeze, 30 seconds a side. Step one foot forward into a moderate lunge, then squeeze the butt on your back-leg side and hold it for five slow breaths.

3. 03

   Couch-arm lunge, 30 seconds a side. Stand with your back to the arm of a couch and rest one shin on it. Bend your front knee into a moderate lunge, squeeze your butt and hold for five slow breaths.

4. 04

   Seated breathing, 2 minutes. Sit tall and breathe in through your nose until your chest, ribs and belly fill. Breathe out fully with a soft "huh", and start the next breath straight away.

Don't skip the squeeze. Your glutes stop your pelvis from tipping forward, so squeezing them keeps your back from arching to fake the range.¹ The breathing earns its place because a pelvis pulled forward makes a full breath harder. If you can't take one in a position, ease off until you can.¹

Any time of day works, and Kelly Starrett does his in the evening while he watches TV. The couch stretch is the rare exercise the authors are happy to see done on a sofa.¹ That makes the evening a good default for you, too.

Keep the couch stretch out of your warm-up. The NSCA, a major strength and conditioning group, calls the evidence on stretching before training mixed.² One review it cites found no drop in performance unless a hold ran past 60 seconds. It prefers active movement in a warm-up and puts long holds after training.² Your couch stretch holds run 3 minutes, so they belong in the evening.

On desk days, the authors also ask you to get up at least every 30 minutes for a minute or more.¹ The standing hip squeeze works anywhere, so it fits into the break between two meetings.

Bottom line

Do the 10 minutes in the evening or after training, never right before you lift.

Most desk-day stiffness isn't an injury. The authors see most aching backs as the product of too little movement, limited range of motion and poor sleep.¹

Some signs mean you should stop and see your healthcare provider instead. The first is obvious damage, such as a badly swollen ankle, or pain that doesn't let up.¹ The second is pain that stops you from doing your job or caring for your family.¹

The third is a red flag: night sweats, fever, dizziness, nausea, or weight you've gained or lost without a reason.¹ As the authors put it, a book can't diagnose you, and neither can this article.¹

Bottom line

Stiffness is a reason to move, while swelling, pain that won't let up or a red flag is a reason to call someone.

1. 01

   A chair shortens the front of your hips, and your lower back pays for it.

2. 02

   Save the long holds for the evening or after training.

3. 03

   Swelling, pain that won't let up and red flags go to a clinician.