stretch for your thoracic spine which is your upper back. Really with all of us just spending so much more time sitting nowadays and maybe working from home a lot of us are experiencing some more mid-back or upper back pain. So this is a really wonderful stretch and can help a lot with some of that pain and discomfort that you’re having.
So really what you’re going to do is we’re going to start on all fours so all down on hands and knees. Making sure that your knees are sort of hip-width apart making sure also that you kind of has a nice straight flat back. We’ll start here, I’m going to raise my left hand, so raise your left arm up and slowly. You’re just going to thread it through and underneath your right arm. In this position, you can rest your ear and your cheek down on the floor. Or if that’s not a comfortable position for you, you can also bring a pillow to prop your head up on a pillow. You can hold this position than for about a minute.
You really just want to make sure as well that you’re relaxing your low back. Your pelvis and your hips are really
just staying in a nice neutral position so that you don’t put any extra strain on your low back. Then slowly winding out of this position.
I’m just going to show you again how you would do it just on the opposite side so you can see it from the other side too.
So for this one raising my right arm slowly threading it through underneath my left arm. Now i’m going to bring
my right cheek down towards the ground, again resting it on the pillow. And then coming up slowly out of that position.
So if you just make sure that you hold it for approximately a minute. Repeating it on both sides and it’s a
great stretch if you can get it in and do it once a day for a minute each side.
Orthopaedic and Pelvic Physiotherapist, Alison Hock, shows us some great stretches to do at home for upper and middle back pain.
