In this video, I'm going to go over the best back exercises
for instant stress relief. Stay tuned!
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
Saint Joseph, Michigan. In this video, I want to go over some
easy back exercises that I personally use when I'm dealing
with tension that is leading to pains, aches, headaches, all of
the above. Anything that is just causing a lot of stress
and you want to get rid of quickly. I designed these
exercises to be done pretty much anywhere. They require no
equipment and make it quick relief even in as little as 30
seconds. So, let's get started. Let's start with an exercise I
called Dr. Rowe's Stress Slayer. It's going to focus on
muscle tension in the upper back to the neck. Tension that
tends to cause headaches. This one can be done standing or
seated. Start with very good upright posture. Take two
fingers, put them under chin, and drive your neck and head
backward as much as you can until you feel a deep
activation of the muscles throughout the neck. From
there, we're going to look upward towards the ceiling as
much as we can. This will put a deep stretch in the muscles at
the base of the Those are known as sub occipitals, big
instigator of headaches. Try to hold this one for about 10
seconds. From there, just relax and then repeat this one three
to five times and with each repetition, try to stretch into
it just a little bit more to knock out more muscle
tightness. This is how we can take it to the next level.
Again, begin with very good upright posture. Let's take
fingers right here and just drive our head back as much as
we can into that head retraction. I'm going to put my
arms out in front of me and this movement, we're going to
to open our chest and a little bit more into the upper back.
The movement, I'm going to reach out with my fingers while
bringing my arms backward like this at the same time. Keep
going back until you feel that deep stretch into the chest and
also the muscles activating in the upper back between the
shoulder blades. What you want to do is hold this one for 15
to 20 seconds. Just do nice, slow, controlled breathing
also. Relax into the stretch and let that tension out. From
there, just relax. On the next repetition, to stretch into it
even more. You can do that one three to five repetitions. To
get even a better stretch, we can incorporate what is known
as a wall angel. So, very good upright posture, we're going to
do our head retraction. This time around, I'm going to take
my arms and I'm going to bend them at the elbows and really
drive my elbow back as much as I can to get that chest
stretch. From there, we're going to rotate our hands
towards the ceiling and then, we're going to reach upward
towards the ceiling as much as we can until we feel a deep
activation of the muscles from the neck all the way down into
the upper back. Hold this for about a second and then you're
just going to bring your elbows down like this towards the
floor. Again, holding for a second. You want to do this one
nice and slowly for about 10 to 15 complete repetitions and
afterwards, see how you feel. Hopefully that loosens up the
neck, the shoulders, and upper back and just gets rid of a lot
of tension and stress that you built up throughout the day. If
you tend to keep most of stress in your upper back, shoulder,
and neck, here are a couple ways to get quick relief. We're
going to focus on two muscle groups, the levator scapula and
the upper trapezius muscle. Let's begin with the upper
trapezius. Stand with very good upright posture. Whatever side
that you're having issues, let's say it's my right side
right here. I'm going to shrug that side shoulder up towards
my ear as much as I can until I feel an activation of the
muscles around the shoulder going into the neck. From
there, I'm going to take the hand on the other side, hook my
head take my ear towards the other shoulder. When we do
this, you're going to feel a great stretch starting into the
neck going down into the shoulder. Really focus on that.
We're going to intensify this stretch by then lowering our
shoulder downwards. Kinda like taking our hand to pick
something up off the floor. This feels really good. I feel
a deep stretch from my neck going down into my shoulder. I
try to hold this position for about 15 seconds. Just relax
into it. Let the tension out as much as you can. From there,
relax, take a on the next repetition try to stretch into
it even more you want to do that for three to five
repetitions and then switch to the other side and repeat
another way to target the upper trapezius is to bend your elbow
at 90° and then slide your hand all the way across the lower
back until you find that that upper trapezius muscle right
here starts to activate once we hit that we're going to take
our hand hook off to the side of our head and then again pull
our ear towards the other side shoulder this feels really good
It puts a lot of motion into the neck also and it may end in
a satisfying self-pop, crack, or release into the neck. That
is quite normal. Just don't try to force that. Hold this one
for about 15 seconds. You're just going to relax on the next
repetition. Try to stretch into it just a little bit more.
Three to five repetitions on both sides. Next, let's focus
on the levator scapula and we're going to do a exercise
called the armpit stiffer and you're going to find out here
very soon why it's called that. Going to stand with very good
upright posture. Let's look over one shoulder as much as we
can until we feel the muscles in the neck start to activate.
From there, we're going to look downward towards our armpit.
Kinda like 45 degrees towards the floor. Once we get a very
deep stretch into the neck, we're going to take our hand,
hook the back side of our head, and then passively pull our
chin towards our armpit. This feels really good. Deep stretch
from the neck going all the way down into the upper back. Hold
this one for about 15 seconds. You're just going to relax on
the next repetition. Try to stretch into it just a little
bit more but I try to do that one for about three to five
repetitions on both sides. This is what I like to call the
break time stretch. It's perfect to do at work when you
have a couple of free moments and really want to focus on
back tightness, help improve posture and just feel better
overall. We just need a door frame for this. Let's start in
the middle of the door frame, put our legs and feet together.
This is three separate movements. The first movement
is a Y shape with our arms. Just this. So, straight right
at the elbow. We're going to lean into the door frame while
graping into it with our hands as much as we can. This will
create a deep stretch in the chest and upper back. We want
to hold this one for about 20 to 30 seconds. Just do nice,
slow, control breathing also. Let that tension out. From
there, I'm going to go into the second position which is a feel
goal shape with our arms or a U. Put your forearms flush
against the doorframe. If the door frame is a little bit too
big or too small, you can do this one arm at a time but
again, we're just going to lean into it with our body weight as
much as we can. This time around, you'll notice that it
hits the front, the chest, and also the back just a little bit
differently. 20 to 30 second hold, relax, and then we're going to
go into our third position which is a W. Take the elbows
down towards the floor as much as you can and then lean into
that 20 to 30 seconds. Go through all of these positions.
If you notice that one is just hitting it a little bit better
like let's say the feel goal right here. It just feels like
it's targeting my tension and tightness the most. I make note
of that and throw in more repetitions. Try to do it for
about 3 to five complete repetitions stretching into it
just a little bit more on each one. Here's one of my favorite
full back exercises that can quickly reduce tension and
tightness. This is known as threading the needle. We just
need a door or a wall. What I'm going to do is place my hands
overhead, arms roughly shoulder width apart. We're going to
grip into the door with a fingers for a stable anchor
point. That way they don't slide down like this. Let's
tuck our chin towards our chest and then slowly walk backward
until we feel a good stretch in the upper back. From there, I'm
going to put my weight onto my heels, bend my knees, and then
squat my butt down and away from the door and also allowing
my chest to sag forward towards the door. This creates a
wonderful stretch from the upper back all the way down to
lower back. Really focus on feeling it throughout the whole
back. When we hit that point we're going to hold this one
for 20 to 30 seconds doing nice slow control breathing also
relax from there take a breather and then just repeat
this one three times with each repetition try to stretch into
it just a little bit more this is how we're going to take it
to the next level by threading the needle let's take one arm
off bend the elbow at 90 degrees and then turn and rotate our
whole back and head in the other direction the more that
you go over the more that you're going to feel a deep
stretch in the upper back hitting those problematic areas
that a lot of people carry their stress in. We want to
hold this one for about 20 seconds. You're just going to
relax and then you're going to repeat this on the other side.
I try to do this one nice and slowly for about three
repetitions on both sides. Here's an exercise that you can
do throughout the day if you tend to carry most of your
tension in your lower back, hips, and butt. Start seated
with very good upright posture. Bring one leg up over the other
just like this. Rest the ankle over the knee. So, when you
look down, it should look like a figure four. If this position
is hard to get into, just bring it over the other side's leg,
place it right at the shin, grab a pant leg, and then slide
it up into position. Again, very good upright posture.
Let's take our hands, put them on our hips. We're going to
pivot forward through our waist through our hips, keeping our
back as straight as possible. We don't want to round our back
into this one but the more that you pivot forward, the more
that you're going to feel a deep stretch in the lower back
going down into the buttocks. We want to hold this one
comfortably for 20 to 30 seconds. From there, relax,
take a breather, and then repeat this three times. With
each repetition, try to stretch into it just a little bit more.
Let's take this one to the next level by putting a little bit
more dynamic movement in there to hit the muscles just a
little bit differently. So, let's get back into our
original stretch but this time around, I'm going to put my
arms in front of me, kind of like a genie position and then,
I'm going to twist or rotate and other direction. The more
that you go over, the more that you're going to feel the
muscles in the back get hit. Hold this one for 20 to 30
seconds, relax, and then repeat it on the other side. We also
can target a muscle off to the side right here. So, if you
have a lot of tension off to the side of the lower back,
give this one a try. It's going to hit a muscle called
the QL or the quadratus lumborum, a big instigator of
back pain. For this one, we want upright posture. Hand on
the opposite side of the bent knee is going to go off to the
hip right here my hand on the side of the bent knee is
going to go overhead just like this. What I'm going to do is
pivot away from the bent knee side. So, I'm really trying to
lean over as much as I can. This will open up that side of
the lower back right here and it feels really good. Again, I
try to hold this one for about 20 to 30 seconds. I relax and
then do this for about three times but go through all of
those movements. If you feel like one targets it a little
bit better, offers you more relief, throw more repetitions
in at that point and remember, whatever you do on one side,
always switch to the other to keep them both in balance. If
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get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks for watching!