Low Back and SI Joint Exercises, Phase 1: Calm and Move

Auto Injury Chiropractic · Home Exercise Library

Low Back and SI Joint Exercises, Phase 1: Calm and Move

LB-1 · Version 1.0, October 2026

Your home exercises for the first phase of your low back and SI rehab plan, done daily for one phase. This phase works on calming sore muscles, practicing gentle movement, and waking up the small muscles around your spine and hips, with no weights yet. Get checked by a provider before you start. If you are our patient, your provider will show you each exercise.

How often: Daily for one phase. Each session takes about 15 minutes, 2 times a day. Exercise 5 is optional and adds about 5 minutes, 1 time a day.

What "no pain" means: Each exercise should not cause sharp pain. A small stretch is okay. If something hurts, stop. Try a smaller motion. If it still hurts, skip that one and tell your provider.

Do not use these exercises if:

• You may have a broken bone in your lower back. Wait until your provider checks your scans and says it is safe.
• You have any of the warning signs listed in the warning signs section.
• You have shooting pain, numbness, or weakness down your leg, and your provider has not yet cleared you with imaging.
• You have lost control of your bladder or bowels, or feel numb in the groin or saddle area. Stop everything and seek emergency care.

1. Diaphragmatic Breathing

Dose: 2 times a day, 5 minutes each
You need: A chair, or a spot to lie down

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Or sit up tall in a chair.
2. Put one hand on your belly. Put the other hand flat on the side of your ribs.
3. Breathe in slow through your nose for 4 seconds. Feel your belly rise AND your ribs spread out to the sides.
4. Breathe out slow through your mouth for 6 seconds. Let your belly settle and your low back relax into the floor.
5. Keep going for 5 minutes. Do this two times a day.

Too hard? Try this: If feeling rib movement is hard, lie down with a folded towel under your low back so it presses lightly into your spine. The pressure helps you feel the motion.

Too easy? Try this: Add a small gentle pelvic tilt (Exercise 2) on each exhale.

2. Pelvic Tilts

Dose: 2 times a day, 10 reps
You need: A mat or carpeted floor

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, about shoulder width apart.
2. Find your natural low back curve. There should be a small space between your low back and the floor.
3. Tilt your pelvis backward by pressing your low back flat into the floor. Like trying to flatten a fold in a sheet under you.
4. Hold 3 seconds. Then tilt your pelvis the other way, lifting your low back slightly away from the floor.
5. Hold 3 seconds. Slowly switch back and forth. Do 10 full rocks.

Too hard? Try this: Just do the flatten-to-floor part. Skip the lift-up part. Or hold each position only 1 second.

Too easy? Try this: Add slow, controlled breathing: inhale as you tilt one way, exhale as you tilt the other.

3. Single Knee to Chest

Dose: 2 times a day, 5 each side, with 20-second hold
You need: A mat or carpeted floor

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with both knees bent, feet flat on the floor.
2. Bring one knee up toward your chest. Use both hands behind your thigh (NOT on top of your kneecap).
3. Gently pull the knee in until you feel a comfortable stretch in your low back or buttock.
4. Keep the other foot flat on the floor with the knee bent.
5. Hold 20 seconds. Lower the leg slowly. Do 5 on this side, then switch.

Too hard? Try this: Hold the stretch for only 10 seconds. Or use a towel looped behind your thigh if it is hard to reach.

Too easy? Try this: After 20 seconds, slowly straighten the leg up toward the ceiling for 5 seconds before lowering. Or hold for 30 seconds.

4. Cat-Cow

Dose: 2 times a day, 10 slow reps
You need: A mat or carpeted floor

How to do it

1. Get on your hands and knees. Hands under shoulders, knees under hips.
2. Cow: slowly drop your belly toward the floor. Look slightly up. Let your back arch gently.
3. Cat: slowly round your back up toward the ceiling. Tuck your chin and tailbone.
4. Move with your breath. Inhale into cow, exhale into cat.
5. Do 10 slow reps. Move only as far as feels good.

Too hard? Try this: If the floor is uncomfortable on knees, use a folded towel under them. If hands and knees are hard, do the same motion seated in a chair.

Too easy? Try this: Hold each position for 3 seconds before switching.

5. SI Joint Mobilization (optional)

Only if your provider assigned it.

Dose: 1 time a day, 2 to 3 minutes on each tender side
You need: A medicine ball (inflated with slight give is best), or a foam roller

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with knees bent. Feet tucked in close to your buttocks, as close as feels comfortable, and about shoulder-width apart.
2. Place the ball or foam roller under your SI joint. (This is the area right where your low back meets your buttock, on one side of your spine.)
3. Slowly roll your body weight onto the ball. Stop right at the point where it feels tender but NOT painful. Do not roll off the joint.
4. Stay on that spot. Belly breathe slow and deep (Exercise 1) for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Slowly come off. Do the other side if it is also tender.

Too hard? Try this: Use a softer ball or a folded pillow if a medicine ball is too firm. Or shorten the time to 1 minute on each side and build up.

Too easy? Try this: Stay on the same spot, but pick up the leg on the SAME side as the joint you are stretching and place it in a figure-four position: ankle on top of the opposite thigh. This puts more weight on the SI joint. Roll back onto the tender spot and breathe for 2 to 3 minutes.