• Standing or sitting or lying
• Stretch up tall
• Try to gently pull your lower tummy muscles inwards (using 30% effort to contract your muscles) imagine that you are wearing a large pair of pants and want to contract all the muscles under this garment, (all your tummy from below your navel, your pelvic floor and your buttock muscles)
• Hold this for a few seconds then release (if you can synchronise it with your breathing; breath in to prepare then breath out to make the contraction)
• Build up to doing this 15 times 3 times per day (ideal to do whilst waiting at the traffic lights or waiting for the kettle to boil etc, try to incorporate these into your day)
  

• Lying on your back with your knees bent and hip width apart
• Put your hands on your hips, but with your arms and elbows resting on the floor
• Pull in your lower abdominals
• Imagine that your spine is like a bicycle chain and that each vertebra moves separately.
• Using your lower abdominals and buttock muscles lift your pelvis (vertebra by vertebra) off the bed or floor until your shoulders, pelvis and knees make a straight line.(your pelvis should remain completely still, no wobbling throughout) Hold for 30 seconds or build up to doing 15 repetitions daily
• You should feel your low back, buttock and low abdominal muscles working.
  To progress, lift one foot and straighten your leg (so that your foot, knee, pelvis and shoulders are in a straight line) keep your lower abdominals pulled in and your pelvis level) hold for 30 seconds then change legs.

• Lying on your front, hands by your side
• Pull your lower abdominals in, pull your shoulder blades together and down towards your belt line
• Lift your head (nose still facing the floor) approx. 2 inches
• Lift your arms approx. 2 inches off the floor
• Start gradually, aim to hold the position for 30 times.
• You should feel the top and between your shoulder blades, as well as your neck, back and lower abdominals
  BEWARE this one feels easy at the time, but if you over do it initially you may feel sore between your should blades the following day

Shortened or weak muscles can often cause asymmetry leading to pain, stretching these may help. For optimal results stretching exercises ideally should be done when the muscle is warm, each stretch is held for 30 seconds and repeated 3 times daily for six weeks.

a) Tight Hamstrings

Can cause pain at the back and side of the knee as well as pain in the buttock and back of the thigh
To stretch your hamstrings

• Put your foot on a chair (with something to hold onto for balance if necessary) keep your knee straight (keep your back straight)
• Pull your foot up towards you hold for 30 seconds you should feel a stretch along the back of your thigh
• Rotate your whole leg inwards hold stretch for 30 seconds
• Then rotate your whole leg outwards hold for 30 seconds
  To be done at least once daily (ideally 3 times per day for 6 weeks)
  You should feel a stretch along the back of your thigh, sometimes slightly below your knee

b) The piriformis muscle (Riders Muscle)

Can give rise to pain in your buttock, back of your hip and thigh. Again these symptoms may be helped by stretching this muscle.
To stretch your Piriformis muscle

• Cross one leg over the other, using your hands to help, pull your knees towards your chest.
• Hold for the count of 30 seconds
• You will feel a pull in your buttock

BEWARE if this stretch aggravates your symptoms do not continue

c) Adductors stretch (inside of thigh)

Adductor tightness can effect the symmetry of your pelvis

• Standing with something to balance against, take your leg to one side, to rest on a chair
• Keep your knee straight and your foot pulled up towards you
• You should feel a pull on the inside of your thigh, hold for 30 seconds

d) Quadriceps stretch (front of thigh)

Tight quads can cause knee pain as well as pain anywhere up the front of the thigh as high as the front of your pelvis

• Standing with something to balance against, pull in your lower abdominals (this is to keep your pelvis straight)
• Lift one foot, catch hold with your hand (or if very stiff hold your trouser leg)
• Pull your heel to your buttock (your knee should be pointing straight to the ground)
• Hold for 30 seconds you will feel a pull in the front of your thigh)

This can alleviate tension between your shoulder blades and neck

• Standing with your back against the wall with your feet as far away from the wall as you need to have the whole of your back (base of spine to top of your head) flat against the wall
• Then raise your hands and arms above your head, keeping your back flat on the wall, hold for 30 seconds.
• You should feel a stretch between your shoulder blades as well as the front of your chest