In this instructional video, Glenn Dawson of Reset U Fitness demonstrates a quick, four‑exercise stretch sequence to perform right before bed in order to prevent waking up with lower back pain. He explains that most morning pain stems from pelvic misalignment caused by muscular imbalances that persist throughout the night. The routine includes: (1) a Figure‑4/glute stretch to realign the hips, (2) a hip‑flexor stretch with core activation, (3) a diagonal “Spider‑Man” stretch that emphasizes spinal neutrality, and (4) a “frog” stretch, Dawson’s personal favorite, which he describes as a neurological program for the spine. For each stretch he recommends a minimum hold of 30 seconds, ideally 90 seconds for tissue release, and provides cueing on posture, breathing, and movement tempo. He notes that these stretches are a temporary band‑aid; lasting relief requires a dedicated strength‑training program and, when necessary, an in‑person professional assessment.
Chapters
If you're waking up in the morning with lower back pain and you're hunched over like this, I'm going to show you how to get rid of that right now in the step-by-step process. I'm Glenn Dawson with Reset U Fitness. Follow along. All right, so these stretches I want you to do right before bed. There's only 4 of them, so it should take you less than 5 minutes. Now, if you're in lower back pain right now, I posted a video below. Click that link and get out of pain. It's for a lower back emergency. This is preventative. It's if you have had nights where you're in lower back pain when you wake up. This is so that it doesn't happen, so you can wake up and jump out of bed. Now, at the end of this video, I actually have my favorite stretch that I'm going to show you, so make sure you stick around. This is like my favorite one out of all of them. First thing we want to do is we want to get your hips in alignment. Most of the reason for lower back pain is because the hips are out of alignment. So if you're experiencing lower back pain when you wake up, it's because you're sleeping for hours on a compromised pelvis. Your pelvis is out of alignment and you're literally shifting all night for 8 hours— hopefully 8 hours, right? Hopefully hopefully you're sleeping for 8 hours. If not, watch our sleep video. Um, but hopefully you're sleeping, getting good rest. But if your pelvis is out of alignment, it's constantly being torn out of alignment with those muscular imbalances. The first thing we're going to do is a figure 4 stretch or a cross-legged glute stretch. So lay down, cross one leg over the other. We're going to do both sides, and then you may feel a glute stretch already from this. Now the side I'm stretching is the opposite side, the leg that's up. From here, I'm going to reach my hands through inside and grab the backside of the knee that's bent and hold. Each one of these stretches I want you to do for at least 30 seconds. But to be honest, tissue work, you need 90 seconds. So I would hold it for 90 seconds. If you have the time, do it for 90 seconds. If you really want to not have lower back pain, if you're tired of waking up with lower back pain, do this for 90 seconds. And then after 90 seconds, switch. If you're keeping track at home, No, that's not 90 seconds. But I'm gonna make sure that you watch this whole entire video and don't miss a beat. So I'm not gonna bore you with me stretching my glutes for 90 seconds, which there's no reason to. They're perfectly in alignment. I have great glutes. This video is for you, it's not for me. All right, once you've done that, the next thing you wanna focus on is the hip flexors, the front of the hips. So we're gonna stretch that. With the knee down, that's going to be the hip flexor that you're stretching. This is all these muscles right here in front of the hip. From here, I want you to turn your abs on, activate, hold your arms above your head, and then press your pelvis down and forward, keeping those abs turned on. Once you've held this for like 15 to 30 seconds, go ahead and rotate over the front leg. This is going to provide a ton of relief through the hips themselves. Now obviously that wasn't 90 seconds either, but I do want to show you guys both sides and just make sure that you're getting that release. If you get the release in 30 seconds, awesome. It'll probably take you 60 to 90 seconds. All right, now the third stretch you want to do before you can go jump into bed is a simple, simple, simple, simple Spider-Man stretch. Stretch. So for this one, it's kind of like your hip flexor stretch except you're going to go diagonal. Place one hand down and put your body in that hole. While you're doing this, it's very important not to round your spine like this. Keep your chest up. Then I want you to take your elbow and place it next to your heel. Now if you can't get all the way down, just go until you feel the stretch back here in the back of this thigh here. Again, you want to do this for at least minimum 30 seconds. Best results, 90 seconds. That's really when your nervous system releases. And obviously do both sides. Now, as we're doing this, these are generic stretches that will help for most pelvic alignment issues. If this isn't getting rid of your pain, you have to go see a professional in person and have an assessment. Honestly, if you're having pain, this is a stretch. It's kind of like a Band-Aid. It's going to get rid of your pain, but those muscular imbalances that cause the pain, pull everything out of alignment, You have to have a strength training program to make sure that the pain doesn't come back. All right, last but not least, we're going to go into a frog stretch. This is my favorite stretch. It feels amazing and it helps to actually like neurologically program your spine. So with the frog stretch, you're going to start with a nice generous base. You're going to keep your knees apart, kind of create a triangle here, and then you're going to go down to your elbows. From here, the first movement I want you to do is to open up your hips, press your knees into the ground. This is going to activate your point. You want to do this for 5 seconds. You'll go 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then release. And then keeping your back straight and neutral, you're going to push your hips back and forth just like so. Now you're probably going to feel one side of your pelvis more tight than the other. Just work with it and work through it for at least 10 reps. And make sure you're not going as far back to round your spine. So if your spine is doing this. You don't want that. You want to make sure that you're nice and smooth with a neutral spine. And now that you've done your stretches and you feel better, it's time to sleep soundly. Thanks, guys.
