Fix Your Stiff Upper Back

Unfortunately, many of us have to sit in front of a computer for work. It’s not natural to sit in a slumped position for 8 plus hours and unless you’re very purposeful in taking brakes and standing up, it’s likely you’ve dealt with some upper back pain. 

So chances are you’ve googled what to do about it, and found videos of rolling on a lacrosse ball or doing some trap stretches. They may help a little, but it’s not getting to the root cause. It’s a stiffness issue. The upper part of the spine is naturally in a flexed (kyphotic) position. If you have to sit for work, it’s likely going to augment that curve and the spine will get stiff into flexion, meaning it’ll be difficult to move into extension. All the muscle stretching in the world won’t fix that. 

Human movement is complex. The spine is supposed to be able to flex, extend, side bend, and rotate. Muscles attach to the spine and normally move with the movement of the spine. If the spine is stiff, the nervous system senses this and starts to produce pain signals in that area. That’s how pain works, it’s an alarm system telling you there is an error in that area like a check engine light in your car. 

Foam rolling, stretching, massage, etc. all have the effect of temporarily shutting off the pain signal. This gives you an opportunity, albeit temporary, to move. So how should you move? Well there are lots of great ways to mobilize the spine, but here are some of our favorites:

Move into extension this way:

Move into rotation this way:

Side bend this way: