In this instructional video, physical therapist Brianna Dawson of Reset Youth Fitness explains how chronic low back pain can be driven by an overactive autonomic nervous system, leading to heightened muscle tension. She introduces two breathing‑focused exercises designed to calm the nervous system and release back tension. The first exercise is a low‑back release performed in a bridge position using a foam roller, pillows, or a towel under the tailbone; the practitioner draws a knee to the chest while following a 4‑4‑4‑4 breathing cadence (inhale, hold, exhale, hold). The second exercise is performed prone with a pillow placed under the hips to open the low‑back joints; the user lets the head relax, feels the glutes soften, and repeats the same breathing pattern. Brianna emphasizes using the glutes—not the lumbar spine—to bridge, offers cues for comfort, and suggests switching sides. She concludes by noting that mastering these breath‑based techniques can pave the way for more advanced mobility and strengthening work, and she encourages viewers to like, comment, share, and follow Reset U Fitness on social media.
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Hi, are you a person dealing with chronic low back pain? Is it all the stretches and exercises you're doing just seem to keep aggravating it? Well, that might mean your nervous system or your autonomic nervous system might be revving a little bit too high, which is causing increased pain and tension through those muscles in the back. So I'm going to show you some breathing techniques and holds that we can do to help relieve your nervous system, get it to calm down and give you some relief for low back pain. Hi, I'm Brianna Dawson with Reset Youth Fitness. I'm a physical therapist, and I'm going to show you 2 moves you can do now to help relieve your back pain. The first exercise we're going to do is a low back release. So if you can grab a couch of some sort, something that you can elevate your legs onto, and then you're going to try and scooch towards it and then come into this bridge position like this. From here, I'm I want you to make sure you're using your butt to bridge up, not your low back, okay? So you don't irritate your low back. And then you're gonna slide a foam roller. Now, if you don't have a foam roller, again, you can prop it up with some pillows, okay? Or a towel. Now I'm right on my tailbone. And all I'm going to do right now is I'm gonna just try and bring my knee to my chest. And then I'm just gonna use my breath So I'm going to breathe in for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and then hold again. And then I'm just trying to get this to release in the back. Okay, so inhale, just like that. You can— if this feels more comfortable, you can let this one kind of hang like this. If it feels better, you can just let the opposite knee be bent like that. Okay, go again. Good. And then you can switch your sides. Same thing. The next exercise we're going to be doing is we're going to actually go on our stomach and we're going to put a pillow right underneath our hips. That's just going to help open up your low back joints a little bit. And then again, you're going to be using your breath to breathe into it to help release some of the tension in the back. Okay, so my setup, right on my hips. If you can, just let your, your head fall right down, and already you should kind of feel some of your gluteal muscles relaxing in this position. And then again, I'm just going to breathe in, hold, exhale, and then hold. It feels really nice and it's really relaxing. So do a couple cycles of breath here just to help get some of that tension off. I hope those two exercises brought you value. Just using your breath to start getting your system to relax is the first step. Then when you feel better, you can do more advanced things like mobility and then strengthening. If this video brought you value, please like, comment, or share. Follow us on Reset U Fitness, um, on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube. We're all over the place. Again, I'm Brianna Dawson.
