3 Upper Back Stretches that will change your life.

Change your life!? Bold, I know. But hear me out – it’s not so much the exact exercises I will share with you that are life-changing, but the strategy behind them.

In other words, once you understand the WHY behind these 3 stretches, you will forever change how you stretch your upper back.

How to Stretch your Upper Back

It’s easier to understand a concept once you familiarize yourself with its opposite. So, let’s first examine how NOT to stretch the upper back. And it is the way most people stretch.

The problem with this approach is that just because a muscle feels tight does not mean it is tight. A sensation of tightness can mean many things – weakness, imbalance or poor load distribution.

What I recommend you do instead is focus on movement. Movement includes stretching but it also involves building strength, mobility and skill.

Stretches for the Upper Back

The first stretch is one that most of us need the most. Most of our daily activities require us to hunch over into spinal flexion so spending time in spinal extension will make a huge difference.

The next upper back stretch will target side-bending. This is another movement that most modern computer-using adults are limited in. Take your time with this one and don’t take too much range the first few times you do it.

The last upper back movement you will target is spinal flexion. An easy way to target this movement is through the cat/cow but with a slight modification.

Closing Thoughts

The 3 exercises in this article are 3 very good upper back stretches. They’ve been a part of my practice for years. But they are not gospel. What matters much more than the stretch you select is the intention behind the selection.