Upper Back Stretches

The delicious release that comes from upper back stretches is probably one of the most popular benefits of yoga. Basic positions that open the muscles of the upper back and shoulders can have a huge effect on our daily lives with a just a minute or two of practice every day. Stretching the muscles of the upper back can free us to breathe more deeply and infuse our blood and cells with oxygen. And the yogis tell us that oxygen carries with it our vital life essence, known as prana or chi.

To practice these upper back stretches, all you need is yourself, a spare minute or two (five tops), and the desire to be free.

Standing Upper Back Stretch easy

Cat Cow Pose easy

Cobra Pose

Urdvha Hastasana - Standing Upper Back Stretch

2. With your arms relaxed at your sides, soften your weight down into your feet. Then take your arms over head. They don't have to clasp, just open your fingers brightly and and straighten your arms.

3. Fill up and expand with your breath (Read more about filling up here). Draw your muscles lovingly in around that filled up feeling. Keeping your arms straight, even draw from your finger tips down into the fullness in your chest, as if you were plugging your arm bones into the light of your breath itself.

4. Then, From the belly, root down into your feet, and reach your heart for the sky.

Cat Cow Pose

1. Get down on all fours. Point your hands straight ahead, and press down into the roots and the pads of your fingers. Tuck your toes for stability.

2. Soften, and fill up with your breath.

3. Gently and sweetly hug your muscles in around that filled-up feeling. You can even draw your hands slightly towards one another isometrically (without actually moving them), as if you were trying to wrinkle the floor beneath you.

4. As you inhale, slowly extend your heart area forward and down slightly. You can lift your head and press your ears back a little too, if it feels appropriate to you, and if it enhances the sensation of stretch in your upper back. The action should not be a dropping of the waist so much, but more of a luxurious, intentional stretching, like the way you may stretch and move when you first wake up in the morning. Read more about stretching here.

5. As you exhale, in just the same way, round your back by lifting the sides of the waist toward the sky.

6. Repeat this a few times, at a comfortable pace. Finish by resting in child's pose (balasana).

cobra pose

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