Easy Stretching – Rotation Through The Back
Rotation through our back is extremely important in our everyday movement. Making sure that we have the flexibility to move pain and injury free is becoming increasingly important as we move towards a more static working environment.
Here are some back stretches with a focus on rotation through the spine. These are great for anyone sitting at a desk all day, or hasn’t had much time to move.
So this first stretch what we want to do is lie on our side knees pulled up into our chest. We want to drag our top hand above our head whilst touching the ground. We want to bring it around as far as we can or until it is in line with our other hand on the other side. Then we are going to slowly bring our hand back to the starting position. We want to keep our knees pressed together and our knees pressed into the ground.
If you are really tight through the back here then it’s okay to lift the hand off the ground, just make sure the knees are tucked up tight.
If you would like to get more of an upper back and middle back stretch, the higher the knees are the more you will get an upper back stretch. The lower the knees are the more you will feel this through your lower back.
This next one is called threading the needle. You are on your hands and knees, and you are reaching under one arm as far as you can. Hold this position for a few breaths, trying to reach further away with each breath out. You will then reach up towards the sky, again, holding for a few breaths. This is going to help open up the back. If you push your hips back into your feet more, this will help with the middle thoracic back, as oppose to the lower lumbar spine.
We recommend doing both of these stretches 5-10 times on each side, and you can do this throughout the day.
On days where you are feeling extra tight, just gently ease into these stretches. There is no need to push to your edge. Some gentle breathing and movement will be great in helping to open up the back.
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