Knee to chest stretch · Low back pain · St. Louis · Regen.MD physiotherapy
Knee to chest stretch:
loosen a tight low back
The knee to chest stretch loosens a cranky low back and the buttock beside it. Face up with knees bent, wrap both hands around one knee and hug it closer, stopping once a mild stretch registers. Twenty seconds per hold, three holds per leg.
Only the exercises your physician has ticked on your home plan are yours to do. Twice daily is the rhythm unless the written plan says something different.
Step by step: knee to chest stretch
- Starting position. Face up on a mat, both knees bent.
- The motion. Lace both hands around one knee and hug it closer until the low back and seat register a light stretch. Let it go and change legs.
- How much. Twenty seconds per hold, three holds per leg.
What the knee to chest does for tissue repair
The muscles of the low back and hip lock down around a painful spine. A slow, held stretch lowers that guarding so blood moves through the area and your next round of strength work starts from a looser place.
Fresh from an injection? Read this first
After a PRP or other orthobiologic injection in your low back, the treated tissue needs a protected stretch of days before it is asked to work. Your physician tells you when this exercise comes back. When it does, start with fewer repetitions and build to the full dose over the following visits. Loading in steps like this is how the repair signal from the injection turns into stronger tissue.
More on that: why load is the treatment an injection cannot supply.
Form errors we correct most often
- Jerking the knee inward fast.
- Lifting your head off the mat to get closer.
- Staying in the stretch while pain shoots or stabs.
Signs that mean stop and phone us
Feeling the muscle work, a gentle pull, or some next-day stiffness is normal. Call us at (314) 295-3000 if you notice:
- Pain that turns sharp or stabbing
- A pain score that climbs 2 or more points and stays up longer than an hour
- New numbness, tingling or loss of strength
- Feeling dizzy, or your eyesight changing
Call 911, not the clinic, for chest pain, a hard time breathing or passing out.
Tracking what changes
Keep a short log: a check mark for each session and one pain score per day. Hand it over at each appointment; your technician tallies the sessions and has you perform one repetition so your form can be corrected. At each re-check you also repeat the same function questionnaire, and if your physician orders it, a Kinetisense 3D motion scan, so the change is measured instead of guessed.
What to remember
- Draw it in slowly.
- Head rests on the mat.
- Shooting pain ends the stretch.
Show us you have it: Before you go, hug each knee in once and name the spot where the stretch sits. If a point is fuzzy, say so and we walk through it again with you.
The rest of the low back series
- Pelvic tilt: core brace
- Cat and cow: spine motion
- Bridge: hip strength
Related reading: PRP for degenerative disc and facet pain, hip-spine syndrome.
Where this fits: the Regen.MD physiotherapy program, physician-directed rehab paired with our regenerative care. A physician must be in the building and reachable within moments before any treatment begins.