I wake up with tightness in my lower lumbar region quite often in the night. I need some good stretching excercizes. And what preventitive methods should I use to alleviate this before and after a workout?

The tightness is a deffence system. To stop you breaking your back in your sleep your body pumps water into the cartalige to tighten it up and restrict movement.

Within an hour of waking up 90% of the extra water will drain away. But dont do anything that will damage your back in the 1st hour of waking up.

And you should never do any streches before warming up. If you want to strech in the mornings, make it the last thing you do before you leave the house or after a hot bath or shower so your muscles have a chance to warm up. Streching when cold will just damage the muscles.

thanks so much for that useful information. When is a good time to stretch. And what excercizes should I do?

R.Lewis...

That is some serious ***** you just posted!!! GOOD GOING!!!

That research is actually from back expert Dr. Stuart McGill...glad to see updated reseach being spread here.

Well I learned from the best!

Thanks but I cant take the credit, You told me that yourself John about 6 months ago.

Damn...I did?

Man..I totally forgot....

Anytime you want to increase flexibility or decrease tightness... stretching is a good option. However, as others posted above, it is best to stretch only after a proper warm up.

Stretching AS your warm up = not good.
Stretching without a warm up = not good.
Stretching to a point of pain = not good.

I like to stretch after my workout. I hold each stretch for 30 seconds. I use this as my cool down. Look into some yoga site (yogajournal.com) for some good poses.

I also use a lot of basic stretches (the kind from gym class!)

thanks for the great tips.

Lynn - oh yeah! Allways strech after a workout. Its the best time.

Also do some research of diffrent types of streching. I switch weekly from static to dynamic. And I always use the floor/walls or equipment. You can strech your muslces much further with help than you can on your own.