The No-Arch Programme

1. Lie on your back, arms pointing at the ceiling, knees bent up over your hips.
2. Flatten your lower back into the floor. Keep it there.
3. Slowly lower one arm overhead and the opposite leg out straight.
4. Stop the moment your back starts to lift. Come back. Swap sides.

Test yourself: slide a hand under your lower back. If you can feel a gap opening as you extend, you've gone too far — shorten the range.

3 sets · 8 reps each side · slow, ~4s per rep

1. Hands under shoulders, knees under hips.
2. Push one leg straight backwards, not upwards. Stop at hip height.
3. Reach the opposite arm forwards at shoulder height.
4. Hold, then swap. Hips stay level — don't let one side tip up.

This is the modification that matters most. Every demo you'll find online lifts the leg high. That version finishes in the arch you're trying to avoid.

3 sets · 8 reps each side · 3s hold at the top

1. Lie on your back. One knee bent, foot flat; the other leg straight.
2. Slide both hands palm-down under the small of your back.
3. Lift only your head and the tops of your shoulders — a couple of centimetres.
4. Hold. Breathe normally. Lower. Swap which knee is bent halfway through.

Not a sit-up. Your lower back never leaves your hands, and you never curl up off the floor.

3 sets · 6 reps · 8s hold each

1. Lie on your side, elbow directly under your shoulder, knees bent behind you.
2. Lift your hips so head, shoulder, hip and knee form a straight line.
3. Hold. Breathe. Lower under control.
4. Once 30s is easy on both sides, straighten your legs and hold from the feet.

Build by time, never by adding a twist or a reach.

3 sets · 15–30s each side · both sides every time

1. On your back, knees bent, feet flat and close to your backside.
2. Tuck your pelvis slightly, then squeeze your glutes and lift.
3. Stop level. Squeeze for two seconds at the top.
4. Lower slowly, one vertebra at a time.

Drive with the glutes, not the lower back. If you feel this in your back rather than your backside, you've gone too high.

3 sets · 12 reps · 2s squeeze at the top

1. Stand side-on to a band anchored at chest height. Feet shoulder-width.
2. Hold the band at your chest with both hands. Brace.
3. Press straight out in front of you. The band will try to rotate you — don't let it.
4. Hold, return to the chest, repeat. Then face the other way.

Nothing moves but your arms. Hips and shoulders stay pointing forwards throughout.

3 sets · 10 reps each side · 3s hold at full reach

1. Kneel on one knee, other foot flat in front. Pad under the knee.
2. First squeeze the glute on the kneeling side and tuck your pelvis under.
3. Then shift your weight forward a few centimetres. That's it.
4. You should feel it at the front of the kneeling hip. If you feel it in your back, re-tuck.

The order matters. Tuck first, lean second. Lean first and you're just doing an extension.

2 sets · 45s each side · daily, especially after driving

1. Put the roller across your mid-back, roughly level with the bottom of your shoulder blades.
2. Lace your fingers behind your head to support its weight.
3. Keep your backside on the floor, ribs down, and ease back over the roller.
4. Breathe out at the end range. Move the roller up an inch and repeat.

Never let the roller sit below your ribs. Down there it becomes a lower-back extension — the exact thing you're avoiding.

2 sets · 5 slow breaths per position · 3 positions up the mid-back

1. Lie on your back. Bend one knee, foot flat on the floor.
2. Loop a belt or towel round the other foot and raise that leg, knee almost straight.
3. Pull gently until you feel a stretch behind the thigh — not a sharp pull.
4. Hold, breathe, swap.

Stop if it produces the shooting leg pain. That's the nerve, not the muscle, and stretching a compressed nerve makes it angrier.

2 sets · 45s each side · daily

1. Lie on your back, no pillow or a very thin one.
2. Nod gently as if saying "yes" to something very small.
3. You should feel it deep in the front of your neck, not in the big surface muscles.
4. Hold, relax fully, repeat.

If the muscles down the front of your neck stand out like cords, you're doing it too hard. Go gentler.

10 reps · 10s hold each · once or twice daily