Stiff Lower Back & Spasms? How to Calm Muscle Guarding (Bed Practice)

Mandy: Today's episode is a really simple practice for those of you who are struggling with a painful, stiff lower back. So if you feel like you've tried everything, you've done the stretching and the chiro maybe you've also even done procedures like ablations or injections, but nothing touches that stiffness. This is a practice that you really need to pay attention to. I wanted to keep it super accessible. So I would prefer that you do this practice actually in your bed. Now, usually when we're doing a movement practice, we're trying to access something in the body. Or in somatics, we often say that we're trying to access or recode the nervous system in some way. But this practice, my friends, is for not just your nervous system, not just your physical body, but actually your thoughts and beliefs and feelings. Welcome to the Somatic Strength Collective. I'm your host, Mandy Ryle, certified strength and conditioning specialist, pain care coach, and nervous system educator. This is a dedicated, compassionate space for midlife women who can hold up the sky but feel like their bodies are falling apart. Together, we bridge clinical pain neuroscience, somatic movement education, and bone-building strength. Chronic pain is not your destiny. Let's build a robust, reliable body and replace pain with peace. Let's begin. Alright, so let's get started. As I said before, you are welcome to do this practice in your bed. If you're on the floor, that's okay too. I want your head cushioned but not elevated. So if you're in your bed, you probably don't need that big thick pillow. You might just want to have like a thin towel or something under the back of your head. And when you're ready, I'm gonna have you actually come down onto your back with your head resting on something just to cushion it. Not to elevate it at all. That's really important today. And let's have the feet standing flat. Standing flat. And notice right away, maybe it's hard not to notice, your lower back. Notice the the feeling of it. Does it feel neutral? Or is it achy or even painful? Regardless of what you find when you look at the low back, I'd like for you to remain neutral, remain objective, as if you're floating above your body and you're looking at these sensations without getting drawn into the story of them at this moment. And now I'd like for you to notice the position of your low back. Is it flat against the surface that you're laying on? Is it arched away from the surface? Or somewhere in between. In other words, what feels like a neutral lower back right now? And now start to notice any feelings that you have about your lower back right now. And some of these feelings may be so normal to you that you don't even necessarily recognize them as feelings. They just feel like a low-grade hum of truth to you. But I'd like for you to be really sophisticated right now. And start to pull those feelings out as if they're new and shiny and you wanna turn them around and and get a look. And some of the feelings that you may be discovering are something like fear. Maybe you're worried about the movement that's to come in this practice. Maybe you're feeling distrustful of your back or even of me, wondering if I'm going to present something that's gonna harm you. Or maybe you're just feeling frustrated by your low back because it feels stiff and tight, because it hurts. These are all the kinds of feelings that I would like for you to observe, but again with equanimity. Try to remain objective as if you're floating outside of your body, simply observing these things, not living them. And now start to deepen your breath and allow the front of your belly to expand as you breathe in. Allow it to rise up and expand. And allow it to collapse on the exhale. So the belly rises up on the inn. And collapses on the out. Now the next time you inhale, keep your belly a little stiffer so that you can breathe into the sides of you, into the sides of your belly. And in order to direct your breath in any direction, it's more about inhibiting it in the directions where we don't want it to go. So as I say, keep the belly a little stiff in front so that you can feel the expansion of the inhale in the sides of your belly. I'll give you one more opportunity to practice that. And then just rest, find a neutral breath, spontaneous tempo. And reflect on your feelings about breathing into the front of your belly, into the sides of your belly. Was there fear? Was there concern? Or was it neutral? No feelings. And reflect on the level of safety or danger you felt breathing into the front of your belly and the sides of your belly. Was it dangerous to breathe into those places? Was the breath likely to harm you in those places? And so let's just introduce a scale on a scale of one to ten. How likely is it that the breath in the front of your belly would harm you? ten being certainly absolutely one hundred percent likely to harm you, and one being not at all, not even remotely likely to harm you. And then if you want, you can practice breathing into your sides a moment. And let's pull out our scale here. How likely is breathing into your sides to hurt you? Ten being certainly absolutely one hundred percent will hurt you. Is it five? Kinda like yee sorta yes and no, or is it one? Like nah, it's not gonna hurt me to breathe into my sides. And now I'd like for you to direct your breath into your low back. Direct your breath into your low back. And again, in order to breathe into a place, it's more about where we don't let the breath go. So the side bodies and the front of the belly will be a little stiffer. So that you can feel your breath expand into your low back, which by the way is the most stubborn place to try to expand. So it's not gonna feel quite as compliant as the front or sides okay? So try again, breathe into the low back. And then rest. And on a scale of one to ten, how dangerous was it to breathe into your low back? Ten being very dangerous. Absolutely injury is eminent. Is it an eight? Is it a two? And without getting too deep into the weeds now, maybe just examine the level of danger of breathing into your low back versus the level of danger of breathing into the front. Is it actually dangerous or are you just carrying a lot of fear and protection in this place? And let's continue. So the next time you breathe into your low back, I'd like for you to tilt your pelvis so that the tail rolls up, like you're trying to tuck your tail between your thighs. Your low back may smoosh down into the surface that you're laying on. And then on the exhale find a neutral position. inhale, press your low back into the floor. Exhale neutral. Inhale, expand into the low back as you press it into the floor. Exhale neutral. Do three more. And now that you have the movement mastered and the breath mastered, start to find that sophistication, that nuance in observing your thoughts and your beliefs. Do you believe this movement is dangerous or do you believe it is safe? And then rest. Rest in neutral and notice what got stirred up in you. Yes, the tissues have a little bit of an echo of that movement in them. But since this is such a sensitive, protected area in your body. Probably some thoughts and feelings got stirred up too. Maybe you're feeling your heart pound a little faster. Maybe your jaw is clenching. All of these signs of fear, of sensing danger and threat. And so I ask you now, on a scale of one to ten, how likely is it that I will hurt my back doing this? Not you. Mandy. How likely is it that Mandy will hurt her back doing this movement with this breath right now? Is this movement inherently dangerous? And now how likely is it that you will hurt your back doing this breath and movement? Is it inherently dangerous? And now I'd like for you to breathe and expand the front of you. Expand the front of you and then feel it collapse. Inhale into the front of you. And then Next time you breathe into the front of you, tilt your pelvis the other way. So you're gonna arch your low back. Your tailbone is gonna reach for the floor and then exhale neutral. Inhale, expand the front of you. It almost acts like a sail catching the wind, pulling your back into that arch. And then exhale. Neutral. And notice by the way if your neutral is smushing your low back down. It's not good or bad right now, but it's not neutral. I'm just gonna point that out, okay? That's about that's a a flexed lumbar, okay? So inhale, fill up the sail of your belly as you arch your back, tilting your pelvis anteriorly, and then exhale to what feels like neutral to you. No judgment, whatever it is. Neutral to you. Inhale, fill up the sail. Exhale neutral and rest. And notice what got stirred up, what feelings or thoughts. Maybe you have a belief that it is unsafe for your spine to be in that lordotic position. For some reason, maybe you were told this by a healthcare provider, or maybe it's just caused you pain in the past. This is a belief that you have about your back. No judgment. It's not good or bad. It's simply a belief that you have about your back, which may or may not be true. And was there fear in that movement? Was there fear there? Is your body safe here on the floor or in your bed? Laying flat, there are no loads exerted on your body. Okay now I'd like for you to stand your feet a little bit wider. So separate your feet and bring your arms out to the sides. Bring them out to the sides. Maybe a little stretch. Can't resist. And then breathe just into the right side of your belly. And then exhale the right side of your belly. Is it safe to breathe into the right side of your belly? On a scale of one to ten, how dangerous is it to breathe into the right side of your belly? And the next time you breathe into the right side of your belly, windshield wiper your knees to the left. So let the knees and hips tilt, knees and hips tilt to the left. So your right glute is probably going to leave the mat or the bed. Exhale the right side as you bring your hips and thighs back to neutral. Inhale into the right side, windshield wiper to the left. Exhale, return to your back with your feet flat, hips flat. Inhale. And on your exhale, be a little bit more sort of squeeze your right side to return to your back. Inhale, expand the right side as you tilt to the left. Exhale, squeeze the right side almost like it's the pulley returning you to neutral. Inhale. Let that breeze tilt you to the left. Exhale, squeeze is the right side, and rest. So twisting is a movement that many of my low back pain clients struggle with. In fact, many of my clients have been told that it's not safe for them to twist their back, which is really unfortunate because it's such an essential human movement. It's so required for a really robust quality of life, right? And so I want to remind you that here on your back, the f the forces working on your spine are absolutely neutral. This is by far the safest way for you to explore twisting your back. And I'll ask you on a scale of one to ten, how dangerous is it for you to breathe into your right side and tilt your hips like this? Ten being 100% likely to harm me. And regardless of what your answer is, it's not good or bad, it's simply a belief that you have about your body right now. Now let's do it on the left. Expand into the left side. That soft part of the left side waist, and then exhale it. You might even squeeze the left side, practicing. Inhale the left side. Exhale, squeeze it. Next time you inhale the left side, tilt to the right. So your hips are tilting, your thighs are tilting. As the left side expands and then squeeze the left side to pull you back to center, feet flat, hips flat. Inhale to the tilt the knees to the right. Exhale, squeeze the left side to return you to the center. Inhale the left side to tilt the legs to the right. Squeeze to return. Do three more noticing thoughts and feelings and beliefs. Notice tension. Do you find that tension is cropping up, making it hard to do these movements? Tension is a way of your body shooing you away. It's saying, mm-mm, we are protecting this. Didn't you see the yellow caution tape? It's shooing you away. It's saying, Oop, you shouldn't do this. Those thoughts and beliefs and feelings that are swirling, they're more caution tape. But here's the problem. These movements are not dangerous for you. All of these protections, all of this caution tape is surrounding nothing. If you duck under that caution tape and you walk right to the epicenter of the place that is being protected, you will find that what's there is safety. It's safe to move like this and then come back to the middle and rest. And so sometimes I have to provoke something. I have to poke the parts of you which have such robust protections around them so that you can really examine them and find the truth. That when you duck under that caution tape and you walk into this area, it's actually safe. It's safe for you to be here. So the next time you breathe in, come back to that lower back expanding inhale, pressing your low back into the floor. Exhale neutral. Inhale the low back, press it into the floor. Exhale neutral. Notice your body's responses. Is it hard to breathe? Are you holding your breath? Are you feeling quite tense? Do you feel your skin starting to get a little damp? All of these are signs that your nervous system is shooing you away. It's saying, No, no, no, no, no, I don't want you to go there. I'm afraid for you. And now your job is to show your nervous system, see, it's okay here. It's okay here. I'm safe here. I'm adding on. Next time, expand your low back, press into the floor on your inhale. On your exhale, squeeze your low back. Anteriorly tilt your pelvis. Find an arch in your spine. Inhale your low back. Press it into the floor. Exhale, squeeze your low back, arch it. Anterior tilt. Inhale, low back, smoosh to the floor. Exhale, squeeze your low back, find the arch. Squeeze it and hold. Hold the low back. Squeeze it. I know this is so scary. Every fiber of you has been trying not to squeeze your low back for so long. And here I am asking you to squeeze it and breathe calmly. And maybe right now isn't the time for you to confront this. Maybe it's not the time to poke it right now. And you'll return to neutral and simply imagine that you're doing the movement or maybe you are ready to confront it. And then rest. Rest, rest your back, rest your breath. Notice what got stirred up. So thoughts, beliefs, feelings, they are embedded in this experience of your low back, just like the muscle tension, just like the stiffness, it's almost like scaffolding that your body has created to maintain this stiffness, literally in the connective tissues of the low back, the thoracolumbar aponeurosis. So I'm not saying that this stiffness doesn't also exist in the biology of you. But that's only half of what causes this stiffness and sustains it. Your thoughts and beliefs and feelings will need to change for you to begin to do the work of changing the biology. And all of this over time provides good news to your nervous systems that these protections are no longer necessary. And your nervous system communicates with your immune system and says, We don't need all of this inflammation here anymore. But do you see the catalyst is in this simple act of observing your thoughts and beliefs and feelings? So I'd like for you now to roll on to your side. You can curl up there. In fact it may feel good to curl up, kinda like a fetal position. And you can make whatever you're resting your head on a little thicker to support your head. And congratulate yourself for confronting. That wasn't easy. It took a lot for you to do that. And it will take a lot for you you to continue to do that. And this is a wonderful practice to return to over and over and over, to start to change those thoughts and beliefs and feelings. That's the catalyst to changing the entire experience of your back. I want to thank you warmly for joining me for this practice. Hopefully, after observing your thoughts and beliefs and your feelings and moving your body and breathing a little bit differently, you're noticing that your back feels a little bit different. Maybe it feels better, maybe it feels worse, but it feels different. And what's important for you to recognize is that the experience of you is not fixed. It's always evolving, always changing, always learning. And learning is the process by which We begin to unravel this pain which has been so limiting for you. Now, unfortunately, one single practice isn't going to get you there. This is something that you need to be working on daily or at least several times. a week in order to facilitate the change necessary. So if you enjoyed this practice and you would like access to it along with hundreds of additional practices for your pain condition, I would like to invite you to join me in my Somatic Strength Collective app for free for seven days. That'll give you time to kick the tires. Check into some of the programs, some of the workouts, some of the somatic work or education that's available there so that you have a continuous supply of resources available to facilitate the kind of learning that you've just begun today. just scroll down into the show notes, click that link for the Somatic Strength Collective app, and I'll see you inside.