EliteRX: Lower Trunk Rotation

Home Exercises for Elite Health Services patients; as prescribed by our team of Manual Physical Therapists.

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Sitting at a desk 40 hours a week then playing a casual 36 holes on the weekend?

Does your Sunday usually end with a bag of ice or an afternoon stuck on the couch? Give your back a little more rotational love during the week to even out the scales.

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How To Do It

1. Lie down on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat.
2. Place your feet and knees together.
3. Exhale through pursed lips to help engage your core. Inhale while maintaining this gentle contraction.
4. Exhale and slowly lower your knees down to the side.
5. As you are lowering your knees, try to control the motion segment by segment, starting at the pelvis, then sacrum, then low back, and mid-back.
   • Tip: We have 33 spinal segments starting at the coccyx (tailbone). Once you feel your pelvis start to lift off the ground, try and do 12 small movements to reach your mid-back. This will get you to your 7th thoracic vertebrae (T7) which is just about at the bottom of your shoulder blades.
6. Inhale, maintaining that gentle core engagement, and exhale to return to the starting position. Repeat to the other side.
   • Tip: Imagine you are replacing those 12 segments back on the ground starting from the top (T7) down to the pelvis. This is very challenging! You can press your lower leg into your top leg to help your legs not feel so heavy.

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How Many?

As many as feels good!

• 2-3 per side makes for a nice break during the workday while 10 per side may be better as a warm-up before any rotational sport (running counts!).
• Don’t rush through them though! Take your time and listen to your body.

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How Often?

As much as you want!

• As long as you are not in acute back pain, this is a great exercise to do on your hourly work breaks (which we hope you’re taking!) or when you’re just feeling a bit stiff.
• The age-old recommendation of 2-3x, once per day is always a safe bet.
• The key to improvement is consistency and repetition, so choose what fits best into your schedule and stick with it!

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Common Mistakes

• Excessive extension (arching of the back) at end range
• Returning with legs first (bottom-up) instead of reversing the motion (top-down). See Tip in Step 5.

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Having trouble or want to learn more? Contact us or schedule a session with a therapist!

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Elite Health Services

FMT is the key to faster healing. It is why many clients tell us they received the same benefit after one FMT session as five traditional physical therapy sessions they had tried before. FMT is not traditional physical therapy. Learn more...

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