17 Exercises for Upper Back Pain (with Videos)

this is fitness blenders easy warm-up cardio workout for this warm-up we're when we doing 10 different exercises at 30 seconds each for a total of 5 minutes also this routine does not require any equipment so with that said let's go ahead and get started with our first exercise the lateral step with a pull get ready and begin you're doing kind of a side lunge back behind you a reverse lunge stepping down leaning forward just slightly and as well as adding in that arm motion that pull motion so as you swing those arms down you actually want to work against yourself pulling those arms down back by your sides and then extend them right back up as you come back up from that lunge and then go right back in over to the other side so keep all fitting back and forth left to right the same time is moving those arms we're gonna move on to the next exercise the slow rocking butt kickers and switch it up just gonna move back and forth nice and slow bring that heel up to tap that butt just altering that weight back and forth from foot to foot now make sure that you just slowly bring that heart rate up you don't have to really push into it real hard at this point but by the time you're done with this routine you should be sweating so every single one of these exercises should get just a little bit harder than the last so I had a few seconds left when we move to that next exercise coming up next we have high knee pulls and switch it up focus on that high knee motion first driving those knees up making sure you're all turning back and forth nice slow controlled motions getting that knee as high as you possibly can every single time as well as adding in that arm motion every single time you draw those arms down you want to be working against yourself pulling those arms down as well as getting a little bit of a crunch as you lean those shoulders forward the bottom of that range of motion with those arms just got a few seconds left when I switch that next exercise you've got arm swings plus a lateral step coming up next and switch it so those arms can swing straight across in front of your chest just a stretch back behind you as well as bring them across over top of your chest as much as you possibly can make sure you're alternating which arm is on top every single time as well as just kind of slowly stepping back and forth from side to side opening up those hips trying to give that a hurry up just a little bit higher keep it going got just a few more seconds till we switch that next exercise we're doing a torso twist plus a knee and start them up they're going to be doing four torso rotations and on the fifth one as you come back across you're gonna drive your knee up to that outside elbow that opposite elbow then start again four rotations and on that fifth rotation you bring that knee up now if you keep on that rotation making sure that every fifth rotation you bring that knee up you should be using a different knee different elbow every single time now we go just a few more seconds till we switch to our next exercise which is going to be jogging in place which it up this is just regular jogging in place and nothing fancy just slowly keeping that heart rate coming up a little bit more a little bit more you almost does a few more seconds our next exercise and be just traditional squats and start him up get those feet a little bit wider than shoulder-width squatting down really nice and low since you're not using any extra weight on this one you want to really focus on range of motion try to get really nice and low dropping those hips down to at least knee level lower if you can as long as it's comfortable now let's keep that motion going again trying to focus on getting that hard up just a little bit more as you get closer to the end of this just a few more so we're moving on to our next exercise front kicks and start him up that legs is gonna come straight up in front that hip it's all turning back and forth nice slow controlled motion you don't want to snap that leg out too far you don't want to go to an actual full extension on that leg you always want to keep that knee just a little bit soft you don't want to damage that knee just keep those legs moving back and forth really use those core muscles and those leg muscles to keep that motion going almost done exercise and me the boxer shuffle and start them up just shuffle those feet back and forth make sure it's a really nice quick motion again trying to get that hard up just a little bit more now feel free to add in a little bit of a jump rope motion with those hands just to get a little bit more exercise out of it to try to get that hard up a little bit faster if you need to just a few more seconds till this one's done coming up to our last exercise last one is going to be crossed toe touches and start him up so reaching down with that opposite hand to foot rotating those shoulders left to right you want try to get a nice torso rotation as well as leaning over nice and straight forward keeping a nice straight back leaning down trying to touch that toe on that opposite side of the body so that left hand is going down to the right foot that right hand is going down to the left foot just keep altering back and forth come back up to a full standing position every single time keeping that motion quick but under control just about five seconds left let it relax alright good job this warm-up is complete now you're ready to start in any one of Fitness blunders hundreds of workout videos

NARRATOR: Hi, welcome to OSU Sports Medicine's Endurance Medicine Team's dynamic warmup for the endurance athlete. The dynamic warmup is used to increase blood flow to tissues, to increase mobility in joints and muscles, and to take your body through ranges of motion it will need for your training. At home, you will complete 10 repetitions of each exercise, starting with small motions and moving into larger motions. For demonstration purposes, our subject, Melissa, will start with only a few repetitions of each. She's gonna begin with the upper body, starting with head rolls. This will help loosen up the head and neck muscles. She will then move into shoulder rolls. This helps increase blood flow to postural shoulder muscles. And then, she's gonna incorporate larger motions with arm circles. This helps open up the front of the chest to make breathing easier. She'll move into the swimmer's stretch, also to improve flexibility in the front of the chest, and then she'll begin the helicopter. You can see here, this incorporates more lumbar mobility. Next are trunk rolls. This increases pelvic motion, opens up the lumbar spine and hip flexors. Next she'll move into windmills, an even larger motion where she's improving her hip mobility. She'll now move into the lower body, beginning with squats. She'll make sure to keep her feet parallel, her knees parallel, and she's making sure to sit back in a squat. She'll then move into a walking lunge, more representative of a runner's stride, making sure to keep her front leg, her knee from going over her toes and her trunk upright. She's next going to add an element of rotation with a Spiderman lunge. You can see here, this really incorporates increased trunk rotation and opens up the hips, which is very important for the endurance athlete. She's then gonna move into a lateral motion with side shuffles. This engages the lateral hip muscles, which are important stabilizers for the endurance athlete. Walking hamstring toe touches will improve hamstring flexibility. She's gonna keep her front leg straight, her toes pulled up to the ceiling and her back flat. Next is the dynamic calf stretch. She's making sure to keep her feet pointed forward, she's minimizing side-to-side sway and gently getting a good calf stretch. She'll then move into ankle rolls, taking all of her foot and ankle stabilizers through a large range of motion, and she's going to end with leg swings. She's gonna complete side-to-side, as you can see, a lateral motion important for stabilizer muscles, and her standing leg is doing a large amount of stabilization, which helps in the runner. Front to back leg swings. She's minimizing use of her hip flexors, trying to incorporate greater use of her glutes and keeping her trunk upright. And this concludes our dynamic warmup. Thank you!

For shoulder shrugs, you're just going to bring your shoulders straight up. So you're not hunching down, but you're bringing your shoulders up.

arm circles engage your upper back muscles to keep shoulders back and down make soccer ball size circles with your palms facing the floor

neck rolls i'm going to drop my chin as close to my chest as possible rotating left bringing my left ear to my left shoulder dropping back into extension looking up bringing my right ear to my right shoulder and then finishing back at the front

if you've got a tight lower back this move can help sit into your right hip bending your left foot over onto the floor like this place your left hand on the floor behind you and your right elbow on the outside of your left knee straighten your torso and turn gently to look over your left shoulder holding for five to ten breaths then switch sides

Pelvic tilt. Begin by lying on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the mat, and hands at your sides with your palms down. Tighten and contract your muscles of the abdomen and buttocks, so as to push the lower back flat against the mat. Your pelvis should tilt forward and back during the movement. Move through a comfortable range of motion. Slowly return to start position. Perform three sets of 10 repetitions twice a day for five days a week.

hi my name is dr david oler chor and today we're going to go through how to do the cat cow effectively the cat cow is a great stretch for your low back it's probably one of the number one stretches i show all my patients to do majority of us spend most of our days sitting at our computers sitting in our cars and we don't get to move the spine enough and this is a very effective way to do that and it's very safe to do even with acute low back conditions what i'm going to show you today is the most effective way to do it i'm also going to show you a really good variation on this stretch that can actually target the upper back as ‏ahad important movement or the thing to grasp initially with this that i find most people have the hardest time to do is actually where the mov originates actually come from your pelvis and your hips so if you start just in a kneeling position and you're basically p ani front and back that ‏right here and if we tuck our pelvis under basically stick your butt backwards you get a curve in your low back or if you tilted the opposite way you bring your pelvis forward you're going to flatten your low back that's the motion we're going to do but we're going to do it in the all fours position so we want to go down into all fours essentially your knees should be directly under your hips and your hands should be directly under your shoulders you don't want to be out here you want to stay in a nice neutral position we're going to start that movement again from our hips so we're going to tilt that hip forward that's going to increase the curvature in your ‏at the have head ext backs and then we're rse that so head is to move forward as back moves up into this position this is what they known as the cat portion you're stretching up like a cat getting a really good tuck of your pelvis you're pushing up through your chest expanding your shoulder blades and keeping your head down so as we move down we drop the belly down we going to til the head backwards this is what they call the cow position ‏so we're oscillating back and forth between that cat stretch spread those shoulder blades apart and then we're going to go back down drop your belly and drop your head back that's into the cow and we're going to repeat nice and slow through these movements if you hit a point that doesn't feel comfortable you stop and you move the other direction again looking to slowly move between these positions so into that cat ‏down into the c and just going nice and slow and try repeat this 10 to 15 times try to maintain normal breathing you don't have to bree in or out in any particular order just try maintain normal breathing and this should be very relaxing and it should actually feel good ‏all exercises position and form is crucial so we're going to go through a couple variations and things that you should not do or you should look out for to see if you're doing wrong you can have someone else observe you doing this to make sure you're doing it correctly because a lot of times people don't realize that they're doing it improperly so the first thing the easiest thing to pay attention to is position so you want those hands again directly under those shoulders you don't want them in front of you and you don't want them behind so you want them directly under your shoulder joints and the same with the knee knee should be directly under your hip so position is crucial ‏many people start add in forward and back motion people will move forward and back don't any movement like this not idea idea is general spinal stretch is up p ‏posterior and then dropping it down basically sticking your butt out so it's an up and down motion it's not a forward and back motion this stretch is extremely effective for low back pain patients now it's really important that they here to certain rules when they do this exercise you don't want to be pushing through a lot of pain some people when they do stretches they do exercises they think you know i got to break through that pain or the more pain i get the better i can really push through it that's not the idea ‏exerc supposed to maintain the pain range of motion and after time after doing this repe that should actually expand so if we're into the stretch and we start to go up and we hit a point where it starts to really bother us and it feels uncomfortable on our back the idea is not to power through that we want to stop at that point and then reverse and go the opposite direction some patients i have initially that have really acute l back pain moving this much ‏few days that range of slowly to exp and eventually we get normal pain free ranges of motion but if you sit there and you power through that pain and you really try to break through it you can actually inflame those tissues and make things worse and you're really not doing anything effective so stick through the pain free range when you do this exercise so the cat cow is an excellent overall spinal mobility stretch like i said i teach all my patients thatch ‏people dood modification to the cat we can do we really target the upper back more and we can really push through ranges of motion that we need in that are so instead of being in this all fours position here we're actually just going to sit back you're to your butt to your heels and you're going to bring your hands right ‏or in a flat position it's whatever you feel comfortable with i prefer to be in a slightly tuck position with the toes to get a little bit of stretch out of the bottom my foot so from this position now that we're sitting down you're actually your low back they call it lumbar locked it's not moving anymore it's very hard for us to tilt through our low back most of this motion is going to come through our thc spine or upper back so the same movements apply so now we're going to be pushing through chest and try to exp and push up look this ‏fores reverse at this point you really feel those shoulder blades try spre really throw th spine up you really want to push through and then reverse it and as you come down you want to picture some back ‏push through that spine that upper back and reverse almost like you're hing at the moon here at the end just getting that chest as high as you can and just mov i hope you enjo today video did please like it share

these are wall angels so we're gonna do is we're gonna go ahead and line up against the wall bring your feet out and then bend your knees so that your low back is glued against the wall from here we're gonna do is gonna bring our arms back keep your palms up facing forward and then from here what we're going to do is we're going to run our arms up against the wall trying to keep our low back glued against the wall and then bring our shoulders back so you don't want to let your shoulders come up like this so think about keeping your shoulders down as you bring your arms up and then come down so the whole time you're trying to keep your low back flat against the wall and then you're reaching your arms up if you feel like your shoulders are coming up then you don't have to go up as far just work it until it starts to loosen up and then you should be able to bring your arms up a little bit further without raising your shoulders up and those are some stretches for your upper back pain I hope that helped out if the symptoms continue to persist please consult your medical professional you

This exercise is called lower trunk rotations. We are going to start lying onthe back with the knees bent. We're going to place our feet together. You're going to keep the feet and knees together. As we rotate the legs from side to side making sure that the feet stay stacked. On one another just pausing for onesecond and each side back and forth.

Begin by lying on your stomach. Extend your arms straight out in front of you and then raise both arms and legs off of the ground, approximately one foot and hold for one to two seconds before returning to the ground. If you experience any neck pain, you may keep your head closer to the ground. Complete three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. If you are in need of a more challenging exercise, this can be altered by lifting the opposite arm and leg--right arm, left leg--and alternating. Again, if you experience any neck pain or discomfort, you can keep your head and face closer to the ground. Complete three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions.

How to Do the Cobra Pose. Cobras are known for achieving a menacing pose by expanding their hoods when threatened. You don't need a hood—or a threat—to strike a cobra pose. Just expand your chest. You will need Comfortable clothing suitable for stretching and moving A calm place where you won't be distracted or disturbed and a yoga mat or folded blanket. Step 1. Lie on your stomach with your forehead and the tops of your feet against the mat. Your palms should be face down and next to your chest, your elbows bent and tucked close to your sides, and the tips of your fingers aligned with the tops of your shoulders. Step 2. Use your back muscles to lift your chest up and off the ground, keeping the back of your neck relaxed and drawing your shoulder blades and elbows back. Step 3. As your chest begins to face the sky, start to look up. Step 4. Press your hands into the ground to lift your chest a little higher, but only lift as high as feels okay for your lower back, neck, and shoulders. Always keep your elbows tucked close to your sides, and keep them slightly bent to prevent tensing up your shoulders. Step 5. Breathe slowly for between 5 to 20 breaths. To stretch out your face in this pose, stick out your tongue and open your mouth wide. Step 6. To come out of the pose simply lower your body down—no fangs necessary. Did you know In Hindu culture, cobras are considered harbingers of rain—and therefore symbols of power and fertility.

the starting position is going to be with the elbow bent to about 90 degrees the band is anchored to a doorway or wall even with the arm and there's a small towel roll between your arm and elbow and your body and we're going to be moving away from the body so the wrist stays in a neutral position the elbow stays bent at 90 degrees and you externally rotate your arm away from the body pulling the band so there's tension on the way out and then nice slow controlled return maintaining that wrist and elbow position through each repetition

so the setup here is the band is again anchored uh to the side either in a doorway or at the wall elbow is bent to about 90° the wrist is going to stay in a neutral or straight position there's a small towel roll between your arm and elbow and the side of your body and maintaining the elbow and wrist position you're going to slowly pull across your body pulling the band toward you that the elbow stays bent at that 90° position and the wrist stays in a nice straight or neutral position

a plank is an isometric exercise that recruits synergistic strength from the entire core it improves stability of the spine and pelvis for high plank lay in prone position with hands underneath your shoulders curl your toes into the mat to grip the floor press up to top of a pushup tighten your glutes and abdominals to transition to low plank simply bend the elbows and drop to the forearms the forearms should be parallel to to one another create a fist with your hands low plank is every bit as challenging for the core muscles as high plank but it alleviates pressure from the wrists both High Plank and low plank may be modified from the toes to the knees dropping to the knees instead of the toes in a plank decreases the body weight load that your core muscles have to lift lifting a leg in high plank removes 1/4 of the balance points making the exercise more challenging without shifting any other body part hyperextend at your right hip lifting your right leg 6 to 12 in off of the floor hold this position as long as you'd like then place the right foot back down to grip the ground and lift the left foot for equal duration this has been a Plank Series

this exercise is the glute bridge so we're going to be strengthening the hamstring muscle the low back and the glutes so go ahead and lay down on the ground and first you're gonna make sure that your feet are about shoulder width apart and then we're gonna try to get that pelvic tilt so what that means is we're going to rotate our hips back so our low back is touching the ground once you do that you can double check that and put your fingertips just inside your hip bones and you can feel those deep core muscles activating once you have the pelvic tilt then you're going to squeeze your glutes and raise up towards the ceiling you're going to hold there for a couple seconds and then you're gonna come straight back down nice slow and controlled when you come back down come out of the pelvic tilts and then reset again so we're gonna be working on resetting on each reps that you do for the glute bridge remember squeezing those glutes and coming up to the ceiling as you get stronger and you're strengthening the pelvic tilt you're actually gonna hold it for each rep so remember rotate those hips backward till you have your low back into the ground squeeze those glutes and come up towards the ceiling you'll pause there and then slowly return down to the ground and maintain that pelvic tilt squeeze the glutes and then come back up towards the ceiling you should be feeling this in the glute region or the hip region you're gonna take the elastic band and tie it around your thigh make sure to double knot it'll be right above your knee and this is actually gonna help us to strengthen the glute meet us Allah the muscle on the outside portion of your hip you'll lay back down and again starting with that pelvic tilt rotating back so your low back is touching into the ground you're going to spread your knees apart and then squeeze your glute and raise up towards the ceiling making sure you're going nice flowing controlled and breathing throughout the entire range of motion you'll come back down and then try to hold that pelvic tilt squeeze those glutes push against that elastic band up towards the ceiling again nice slow and controlled [Music]