Break Free From Back Pain

Here Is A Daily Stretch That Will Help You Stay Free Of Upper Back Pain And Neck Pain.

This exercise is called the Wall Angel, you start by standing about 6 inches from a clear wall, sit onto the wall so your lower back is comfortable. Then tense the deep neck flexors as you did with the Bruger’s postural relief. Now raise your arms up with the elbows at shoulder height and bent at 90 degrees.

Start position for Wall Angel Exercise

Here’s the side view:

Note the chin is tucked in

You should aim to get the elbows back to the wall and the hands flat to the wall WITHOUT letting your body arch like this:

This is wrong, back is arched too much

Now if you have a tight upper back and shoulders you won’t be able to get flat without the back arching. So you need to gently tense the stomach muscles to make your spine rigid, then just take the elbows back until you feel a stretch. Refer to do’s and don’ts of stretching for more tips before doing this. Remember this should not cause pain. If it does, go back to the previous exercise Bruger’s Relief Position.

Now you should be comfortable, back stiff and relatively flat to the wall, your arms will be somewhere between being on the wall or a long way forward. Now you need to lower the arms to your sides keeping the elbows bent at 90 degrees. As you do so you will feel a stretch on the front of the chest and tension between the shoulder blades on the Rhomboid muscles.

Note the elbows stay bent at right angles

If you have tight shoulders you will feel the hands lift away from the wall. This is fine, the trick now is to keep the spine still, so make sure you maintain tension in the abdominal muscles. As long as you feel some stretch on the front of the chest that is fine.

Note back is still flat against the wall

This shows the wrong way to do it:

Back over-extended, less specific for shoulder

OK, now you should be getting an idea that this is all about control, you really need to focus on the only movement occuring at the shoulder. Got that? Good.

Now you simply bring the elbows back up level with the shoulders, pause for a second or two and repeat about 15-20 times. Always remember quality is more important than quantity and if it hurts you stop straight away.

Within a few weeks you’ll feel alot more freedom in the shoulders.

All the best for now

Steve Oldale BSc, DC                        Chiropractor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Back In Form Chiropractic Clinic                                                                                                                                                                                                         65-67 Commercial Rd                                                                                              Poole                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   BH14 0JB

Upper Back And Neck Postural Relief Exercise

This simple yet powerful exercise will help reduce the tension that commonly builds up in the shoulders and upper back when sat at a desk, or driving.

When we sit at a desk for prolonged periods we tend to let our heads move forwards, our upper back becomes rounded, the chin pokes out and our lower backs slump. This causes stress and deformation of the ligaments and joints and leads to pain. If it goes on for 30 years there could be obvious postural changes.

Here’s a simple exercise to help:

This exercise is called the Bruger’s postural relief, after Mr Bruger who first developed and recorded it.

First stand up tall, look straight ahead, and then retract your head so that it stays level. Try doing this in a mirror as you should still be looking straight at yourself. If you are doing this correctly you’ll feel tension under the jaw, you’ll have a double chin and if you talk you’ll sound a bit nerdy. See photo for poor posture and correct posture.

Typical slumped Upper Back Posture

Backing away from your hand can help achieve correct posture

It’s Time To Stretch

Now reach up with your arms going in front of you, not to the side. Reach as high as you can with one arm and hold it there, then do the same with the other and alternate until they won’t go any further. This releases tension in the upper back and mobilises the upper thoracic spine.

Reaching Up And Mobilising The Upper Back

Now lower the arms in front of you and rotate the shoulders outwards, then extend the wrists. This stretches the chest muscles, strengthens the upper back muscles and mobilises the nerves into the hand.

Arms are rotated back and hands extended

Note the shoulders are not pulled back, but only rotated

This will help to reduce the effects of creep on the spine, for a full guide on causes of back pain look at our website www.backinform.co.uk