Bad Back Routines for Spinal Recovery - Self Guided

How To Use This Page

This page is designed to help anyone dealing with a tight, irritated, or severely painful back by providing a clear, progressive path toward spinal stability. The routines are presented in order: Flat Back Routine, Table-Top Routine, Breath-Led Core Activation, and the Spinal Accordion, each one building greater mobility, support, and control. These spine-neutral practices are useful for everyone, from yogis and martial artists to powerlifters, desk workers, construction workers, and busy parents. When your back starts tightening up, use these routines to release tension, access range of motion, and rebuild support from the inside out. If inflammation or pain is extreme, move gently until symptoms calm and movement becomes more comfortable. By applying the principles of Momentum, Edge, and New Normal, you can redirect your trajectory, rebuild stability, and reclaim your life.

These routines also build a foundation that practitioners can use as a launch point into other training paths that restore the body’s ability to support itself long-term. At minimum, every person should be able to manage their own body weight in everyday situations. Strength patterns such as pushing and pulling, hip-hinge mechanics, and squatting can supplement these routines and allow true recovery to take place. Practices like bodyweight calisthenics and consistent walking build a stronger structure on top of this foundation, improving resilience, stability, and confidence in movement.

Reclaiming an active lifestyle is within your reach.

Flat Back Routine – Level 1

This Flat Back Routine – Level 1 is designed for people dealing with back pain, stiffness, or limited range of motion who need a safe place to start. If your back feels tight, fragile, or unpredictable, this routine focuses on restoring basic movement, spinal awareness, and internal support without forcing intensity.

Flat Back Core Activation – Level 1

This Level 1 Core Activation sequence integrates into my Flat Back Routine, designed to reduce back pain by teaching the body how to stabilize itself from the inside out.

Instead of bracing or forcing tension, this routine focuses on waking up the deep stabilizer muscles that support the spine and protect the lower back. When the core learns how to engage correctly, posture improves, movement becomes easier, while with less pain, the back no longer has to rely on stiffness for support.

Flat Back Routine – Level 2

Flat Back Routine - Level 2 - If your back has been giving you trouble, this is the routine your body has been waiting for. This Flat Back Routine is designed specifically for people with stiff, tight, or painful backs, using functional stretching and “bad back yoga” to help you move better and hurt less.

6 Ranges of Motion/Femoral Rotation - Table Top Routine

This Table-Top Routine is the next step up from my Flat Back work, designed to restore spinal function through both mobility and activation. Instead of stretching passively, this routine teaches your body how to move with control using the six ranges of motion of the spine: anterior/posterior flexion and extension, lateral flexion, and rotation, while also including femoral rotation through positions like pigeon pose.

The Core Canister - Belly Breathing

This video is a spinal and core activation breathwork practice designed to restore posture, internal spinal support, and body awareness from the inside out.

This is more than posture correction. It’s a practice that creates a new option: a body that knows how to hold itself up with clarity, stability, and confidence.

Move slowly, breathe deeply, and allow for the structure rebuild.

Open & Close Your Spine Like an Accordion | Part 1

Using a child’s-pose-based position, we anchor the shoulders, lead with the breath, and gently create expansion through the spine, rest, then followed by intentional collapse. This rhythmic expansion and compression restores circulation, wakes up stabilizing muscles, and teaches the nervous system that movement is safe again.

The Spinal Accordion (Bolster Variation) | Part 2

By supporting the shins on a bolster, the spine is placed into a curve that creates a unique opportunity to open specific vertebral segments that often resist movement. From this position, we use breath-led expansion and intentional collapse to restore circulation, reduce guarding, and allow the spine to organize itself from the inside out.

Pelvic Floor Activation - Kegel Exercise for Women

In this episode, Dr. Rena Malik, MD is joined by pelvic floor physical therapist Dr. Sara Reardon to explore the nuances of pelvic floor health. They discuss the correct way to perform Kegels, common mistakes, the importance of integrating pelvic floor exercises into daily routines, and how to address both weak and overactive pelvic floor muscles.

Pelvic Floor Activation - Kegel Exercise for Men

Kegel exercises aren’t just for women, they’re a powerful tool for men too. In this video, Dr Eric Leckie walks you through step-by-step Kegel exercises specifically designed to help men learn how to identify the right muscles, perform the exercises correctly, and incorporate them into a scheduled routine.