upper back pain is a huge problem experienced by people who work at desks
a lot or people who drive a lot it's really important to get on top of it
because left uncontrolled upper back pain will rise up and develop into neck
pain and headaches what I've got for you in this video is
three really simple what I call first aid movement stretches they will stretch
out the muscles in your upper back that are causing your pain however it'll only
give you temporary relief to get permanent relief you need to be
considering a much longer program to rebalance the muscles in your back this
is available on my website and if you are interested in controlling your upper
back pain long term and really getting rid of it then do consider doing that
program
so how do you choose the best exercises to do to give you immediate relief from
upper back pain the rule of thumb is you need to take the spine through all its
ranges of motion so they are forwards backwards sideways and a nice little
twist or rotation in the case of upper back pain you're already in a slouched
position so I don't think it's necessary to take yourself forward to relieve
upper back pain I think it's important to do the other three so we're going to
do the other three planes of movements so let's start with one very simple
movement it's going to be a side Bend I'm just going to take your spine your
upper back into a side Bend so separate your feet hip width apart soften your
knees tuck your tailbone under draw your abdomen in roll your shoulder blades
back draw up from the sternum draw your chin in and just nicely lengthen through
the back of the neck allow yourself just to feel that beautiful plum line feel
all your muscles relaxed place your right hand under your navel just gently
relax no tension in your arm place the left hand above you imagine that you're
holding a great big beach ball inhale lengthen your spine and as you exhale I
want you to just gently side bend to the right reach up with that left elbow
that's fantastic push down through that right big toe
raising up contract the abdominals and switch around to the other direction as
you exhale inhale lengthen the spine separate the hands exhale drop down to
the left and really reach up with that right elbow stretch out through the rib
cage push down through that left big toe and back to Center okay
you can repeat that in your own time so that's exercise number one
exercise number two we're going to take your back into an extension which means
a back bend we spend a lot of our time lot of our days slouching in our daily
activities and that doesn't help your upper back pain so we want to take you
back you want to get your shoulders back we want to extend that upper back and I
want to get some movement in the opposite direction
so start with your feet hip-width apart just bring the hands behind you clasp
the hands together palms face the ceiling
gently roll the shoulder blades back extend the hands down towards the floor
make sure your tummy doesn't drop forward pull the tummy in pull the
tailbone under extend their hands down towards the floor take gently take the
chin up towards the ceiling as you look up really squeeze those shoulder blades
together control that low back so it doesn't dip forward and bulge forward
just let that extension occur through the upper back to come out of that you
just release the elbows release the hands and shake out
so the third exercise is going to get a fantastic rotation through your upper
back we're going to lock out below back and just force the upper back to do all
the movement you will love this exercise you're going to need a really wide
stance for this so start with your feet really wide what about shoulder-width
apart nice and wide bend your knees and I want you to fix your knees your knees
need to stay in alignment with each other don't let them drop like this okay
keep them in alignment that's absolutely crucial if you don't your low back the
rotation will go through your low back and we want it to go through your upper
back okay so fix your knees fix your low back now this is known as I named this
the sumo okay so what I want you to do is relax your elbows your upper back
should be completely free you're going to aim for this midpoint between your
feet you're going to drop that right elbow and shoulder towards that midpoint
relax relax relax and we're going to turn the head to look at the ceiling
your low back should be completely locked out there should be no movement a
huge rotation through the thoracic spine releasing the lungs the ribcage and all
those thoracic nerves getting a great stretch up into the neck as well okay
when you're ready you come out of that come back to neutral
give it a little wiggle and then drop down again to the midpoint in there with
the opposite arm turn our head to look at the ceiling
you're really freeing up underneath the scapula there that scapula is being
lifted off the rib cage the rhomboids are stretching erector spinae is
stretching that door size stretching and even trapezius it's a great all-round
upper back stretch back to neutral chin down uncurl shoulders roll back ah
doesn't that feel great
if you've enjoyed these exercises and you found that they've helped your upper
back pain I've got a lot more available for you on two websites one is soothe
clinic calm where you can find specific movement programs for neck pain back
pain headaches disc injuries and the second is a yoga website w-w-whoa you go
online calm there you will find hundreds of hour-long half-hour long 10 minute
long yoga classes that will really really help you relax unwind and find a
little bit of peace and calm in your life