Standing Back Extension

This is one of my favorite exercises, and I commonly recommend it to patients with low back to help centralize symptoms (please see blog post about centralization- http://lakewass.blogspot.com/2013/07/centralization.html), or to help with low back stiffness while driving or flying on airplane (http://lakewass.blogspot.com/2013/07/tips-for-flying-with-low-back-pain.html).

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Stand with your back to a table, with the edge of the table just below your waistline
2. Make sure your feet are all the way back up against the table
3. Cross your arms in front of your chest
4. Take a deep breath in
5. As you are exhaling, arch your back backward
6. You may feel some stiffness- it is important to push through that stiffness.  Try to arch back a bit further with each repetition
7. Come back to neutral
8. Take a deep breath in
9. Repeat by arching backward as you exhale

Tips:
- Your goal is to CENTRALIZE your symptoms.  This means that you are trying to pull your symptoms away from your foot, leg, thigh, and buttock, and INTO your back.  Your back hurt more at first, but should loosen up after 10-20 repetitions