Can anyone recommend a 10 minute daily stretch routine that works, for lower back and neck / shoulders?  Having had no end of issues culminating still today in much Lowe back pain after racing on Sunday, I need to get this sorted.   I’ve seen physios, osteopaths and sport masseurs, but I’m guessing I need something more regular I can do myself.

Thanks.

Fresh out of physio for pinging my lower back, I do the following daily:

for mobility I do:
lying on my back, bring my knees and together and then touch them on each side of the floor
again on my back, single knee to chest and hold
Cat/Cow

For Strength I do:
Pilates superman (on all fours with arm out infront and opposite leg out behind)
Glute Bridge

was sceptical at first, but did em for 3 weeks and my lower back is a lot better now.

+1 here, I’ve been trying to find videos for a simple stretch/yoga routine but a so called “beginners routine” on YouTube on Sunday nearly killed me so if anyone knows any actual beginners routines that would be much appreciated.

From personal experience, any stretches / routines need to be tailored to what your actual issue is (i.e which muscles) – a lot of my ‘back’ issues turned out to be down to tight glutes etc.

Check out the Abi Carver videos on Pinkbike. I did some of those and then just picked the individual exercises which seemed to work for me.

087seb, when I briefly got into the habit of doing yoga “Yoga with Adriene” on youtube worked for me. There’s all kinds of stuff for beginners or for specific things (upper back, lower back, pre-bedtime, etc) along with programmes you can follow. She’s more about stretching/strength than getting in touch with your inner peace, so it worked for me (there’s also a chance that both my wife and I also fancy her a bit)

I messed my lower back up really badly a couple of years ago and this seems to keep it functional, sorry, no idea what the correct names are for each exercise.

1. Five lunges per side, hands by side, step forward and drop the trailing knee to the floor.

2. Ten squats with hands behind neck.

3. Five twists as the hips each side with hands behind neck, alternating sides

4. Five twists each side with hands on stomach

5. One-legged squat and reach. Squat on one leg and reach out with the same arm as far as you can to the 10 o’clock position, then squat again and reach to the 11 o’clock position, then 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions. Repeat with the other leg, so you are doing four squats per side.

I do this three times every night or after a ride. The idea is to gently move the muscles through their full range of movement.

Lower back could even be tight hip flexors, as well as any other back or leg muscles.

It certainly was for me.

Lunges held for over a minute at a time on each side help me, but as part of a broader range of moves.

Can easily be done while watching telly. Just take 10-15 minutes if your first episode rolling around the living room floor looking odd rather than flopped on the sofa the whole time!

I’m betting it’s hamstrings and hip flexors, back could potentially be just a symptom.

Yep, my lower back issues are caused by tight hamstrings so concentrate of stretching them to the point they hurt quite bit. Chiropractor kindly demonstrated how much they need to be stretched by holding each leg up for 20 seconds of pain.

I don’t think there’s any one solution, you just need to find what works for you!

Hols2 advice is the closest to the money for me, my low back typically feels a lot better when I do mobility and range of movement stuff rather than holding static stretches for any length of time.

Learning to breathe out any stress or tension is also important, my physio spent more time actually teaching me to RELAX the tight muscles, which were often just tight because I was effectively in a permanent clench!

Squats and glute exercises are good but form is so important, I used to be so scared of rounding my lower back when squatting that I went to the opposite extreme, effectively hyper-extending it, cue spasms! Instead it’s all about trying to relax the lower back whilst letting the glutes/legs do the work, which is how it should be on the bike anyway.

I usually feel best after some mobility stuff and some squats, seems to loosen the back off and/or get the blood and endorphins pumping round a wee bit.

Thanks all.  I tried a few of these for 10 mins and they have loosened me up a bit.    I need to keep it regular, something I’ve been rubbish at doing in the past.

I’ll second Abi Carver. She has a couple of 15 minute routines, closer to ten if you take out the breathing warm up and lying about afterwards.

And a slightly longer one if you have time:

I’m wary now of too much lunge-y hip flexor stuff, I think it’s very easy to go too deep and hurt them.

Am now nursing a sore hip flexor, not sure if sore because too tight, or sore because I was holding deep stretches for too long…

Physio has me doing resistance band leg raises to strengthen it slowly again before I’m allowed to do any more stretches!

If you currently do no flexibility/mobility work (crazy!!) and you genuinely can only spare 10 mins then just some basic full-body stuff when you wake up i.e. repeating a yogic sun-salutation. As others have said, the pain could be a symptom not the problem so you need to think life-specific not bike-specific 😉.

(But your best bet would be to find some time to do it regularly & properly)

The Plank, making sure you engage your core muscles and keep a good line from ankles to shoulders.

Single leg glute bridges.

Not stretches, but have helped my lower back a lot in recent years, this thread has reminded me I’ve neglected these all summer… ~60secs of Plank just killed me!