Back stretches that ease stiffness and increase flexibility

If you’ve been struggling with a tight back for a while, this blog will provide a few top tips and movements that you can do to reduce the stiffness and increase flexibility. We’ll go through some lower back, middle back, and upper back stretches. A tight back can be due to increased mechanical load of the back muscles. So many athletes will struggle with a tight back. A tight stiff back might also be due to poor posture whilst you’re sitting at a desk for work, or it can also be due to lack of exercise.

Upper back exercises

The first stretches we’ll do are for your upper back. So you can do this standing or seated, bringing your hands together, lean forwards, and really pushing in front of you, drop your head through and breathe through the stretch. Good. And you can hold that one up for 30 to 40 seconds. If you want to increase the stretch of back, you can get someone to hold the end of your hands and pull you this way. Or if you don’t have anyone to hold you, you can put a band around your hands, attach it to something nice and strong and also allow that to pull you.

Mid back exercises

The next stretches are for the mid back. So if you have a foam roller for this, if not something of the shape at home. So many people will be stiff in the middle of their back. So you bring yourself to line up, and all you’ve got to do here is it bring yourself into extension and back up. Down and back up. You can move a little bit further up and feel through each of the segments where it feels particularly stiff. Roll a bit further down. Okay. So that is increasing the extension of the middle of your back if it’s particularly tight.

Another one for middle to lower back is a combined movement. So if you bring your one leg over. This is my right leg. Left arm comes over here. Right hand out, rotate through. And I’m putting a little bit of pressure on the outside of my knee to really increase that stretch. Make sure your head is following your spine around. And as you take a deep breath in and out, you should be able to go a little bit further. Same again on the other side. Bring that leg over. Again, holding there for 30 to 40 seconds.

Lower back exercises

Now, moving on to our lower back. So if it is, lying on your back, bringing your leg up. One hand holds the outside and you want to bring that leg over. You want to ensure that your shoulders stay on the ground and that this leg stays straight. If you’re particularly tight, you won’t go that far, but just really make sure that your shoulders stay on the ground. Your back should not be lifting up at the top. You should feel that nice through your lower back and through your hips. If you go a bit further… And then same again on the other side. Again, holding there for 10 to 40 seconds.

The final stretch for our lower back is called the seal. So onto our front. And all you’re going to do is raise up with your hands. You might feel this through the front, through your abdominals, but mainly you should be feeling it in your lower back here. So it’s stretching your lower back in extension, and then to come in, it’s a flexion. Go back onto your heels, push your head to the floor, walk your hands out and let your whole body weight drop into the mat. Whilst you’re in this position, we can also add a combined movement to stretch the side of your arm, and down into your back. So whilst we’re here, walk out to the side, and that should be giving a nice stretch through the left-hand side. Again, coming back to the middle, walking out to the left will provide a nice stretch down the right side.

So that is a combination of stretches you can do to really decrease that stiffness and increase the flexibility. A tight back might also be due to tightening somewhere else. For example, if you have tight hamstrings, they become shorter. If your hamstrings become shorter, your lower back will be forced to curve more. If your lower back is forced to curve more, the alignment of your spine is changed, which then means that there might be stiffness, with or without pain. In that case, you would want to target your hamstrings.