Often, when our lower back hurts, the real problem is in the mid to upper back. The upper back, right behind your chest, is the hardest part of the spine to make mobile. The neck is easy to maneuver and the lower back is where we take a lot of bends, though we shouldn’t. So here are two exercises to loosen up the shoulders and upper back.

Here’s something that you can do right now at your desk to stretch out the shoulders and upper back.

It feels really good to do.

Clasp your hands together behind your back and lean far enough forward to place your hands on the back of your chair.

Now straighten up as much as you can, keeping your arms as straight as possible.

Breathe slowly. When I do this, I get a warm feeling flowing into my shoulders. It feels very good.

Try it.

Now, to stretch out the upper back and get a lot of the benefits of Reverse Triangle right at your desk, twist to the right holding the back of your chair and looking over your right shoulder keeping as much of your lower trunk facing forward as possible.

Hold there for a few breaths.

Now twist to the left looking over your left shoulder. Hold and breathe.

This twists the verterbrae of the mid back squeezing out the pads between the verterbrae, then when you come out of the twist, fresh intervertebral fluid flows in plumping up the disks that act as shock absorbers for the spine.