Lower Cross Syndrome
Tight hips are to a tight low back like peanut butter is to jelly.
They come from a common condition called Lower Cross Syndrome.
Let us tell you what it is & how to prevent it.
Do you ever wonder if you’re the only one with hips and a low back that are extremely tight or stiff? I’m here to tell you that you are not alone! Though it is very common, it is not normal!! It happens because a lot of us sit most of the day, and those hip flexors in the front get short and tight while the glutes in the back get stretched and weak. Another name for this common pattern is called Lower Cross Syndrome (LCS).
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In LCS, our hips and glutes are not the only muscles affected. The abdominal muscles also get weak, and the low back muscles (aka erector spinae) get short and tight. If you look at the picture below, you can see how LCS has a criss cross effect on the body. This all can lead to pain in the hips and/or low back - go figure!
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In today’s video I wanted to show you a few things to start improving your pain and muscle imbalances if you are one of the many suffering from LCS. First, to get our hip flexors to turn off, I show you an exercise called a banded psoas march. To perform this, first put the circular band around your feet. Laying on your back, your feet should be shoulder width apart. Then lift the hips into the air like a glute bridge. From here, march your legs into the air, one at a time. Slow and steady is the name of the game here. You can perform 5-10 reps on each leg, then lower yourself back down to the ground.
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To some this may seem funny to strengthen a tight muscle. Well, if you suffer from tight hips and are constantly rolling them out and stretching them and have gotten nowhere over quite some time - I challenge you to try strengthening them. A tight muscle is a weak muscle, therefore we must strengthen it.
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Now, to strengthen the weak glutes, there is a whole slew of things we do here in the office, but an easy one to start with at home is with a banded clam shell. Using the same circular band, this time put it around your knees. Keep both feet together, and lift the top knee into the air. Hold anywhere from 3-10 seconds. Really squeeze your butt muscles during this one.
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Now, we move up to work on the weak abdominal muscles and tight low back. If we work on proper breathing mechanics and learn to create pressure in our bellies called “intra-abdominal pressure” (IAP), we build a strong and stable core. This should directly turn off our tight low back muscles. For this reason, I only go over one exercise to strengthen the core/loosen up the low back. I go into way more depth about all of this in two previous blog posts: “2 Best Friends: The Low Back & Belly Breathing” and “Belly Breathing” - so do yourself a favor and re-visit those ones to get even more info!
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So now for the exercise. As you can see in the video, I am on my back, but if you tilt your head to the right I am in the same seated position as you are at work all day! For the exercise, we’re just taking gravity out of it. From here we can work on the breathing deep into the pelvic floor. Our chest shouldn’t move while breathing, and our belly should get bigger with each breath in. Additionally, it is important to note that we must focus on keeping the low back flat against the table or floor - we should not arch our back off the ground.
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Now to create that IAP. Creating IAP is when we learn to push our breath against the abdominal wall while continuing to breathe in and out - creating somewhat of a piston effect. This isn’t mastered overnight, and it is something that we do a lot of cuing on in office to help you. But if you can start with first learning to belly breathe, then do it with your legs in the air, then work on creating IAP, then starting to move your legs and arms off of this stable foundation. This will be HUGE for kicking Lower Cross Syndrome’s butt!
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Remember, perfect practice makes perfect. So start TODAY - especially if you’re finding yourself feeling a lot of aches and pains in the low back and or hips. If your aches and pains don’t go away, we’d love to get you in the office to assess you and put you through a more comprehensive treatment!
