Why Your Upper Back Sucks at Backbending (and How to Make it Suck Less)
Why Your Upper Back Sucks at Backbending (and How to Make it Suck Less)
Are you struggling to bend from your upper back? You’re not alone! In my 11+ years of training & teaching, I’ve found vast majority of students have a hard time arching through their upper back in backbends - and that’s because our upper back isn’t really designed to bend. Thankfully you don’t have to be doomed to have a flat-as-a-board upper back in all your bridges and backbends forever. With the right training and coaxing, anyone can improve their upper back flexibility and let it join in on the backbending part-ay!
A Quick Anatomy Review: What You Need to Know About Your Upper Back for Backbending
Work Your (Spinal) Curves
If you look at a spine from the side, you’ll see that it is one big ol’ S curve: our neck (cervical spine) is naturally arched, then our upper back (thoracic spine), rounds the other way, and our lower back (lumbar spine) arches underneath that. This S curve helps us evenly distribute weight throughout our spine and helps us balance appropriately when doing complex movements such as walking.
From an evolutionary and anatomical perspective, our upper back - aka our thoracic spine - supports our rib cage and is designed to protect our internal organs. If you look at the spinous processes (the little bony bits that stick out of the back of each vertebrae), you’ll notice that they’re longer in our upper back than in any other part of our spine. They extend so long they actually cross over the vertebra that’s underneath. This means the vertebrae do a great job at covering the spinal column to protect it from predators like a saber tooth tiger trying to take a bite out of your spine. But that does make backbending more of a challenge because it does eventually create a hard limit of how much you can physically arch through your upper back before bone-hits-bone in your spine. Here’s what that looks like in a backbend:
This is a simplified visual (it doesn’t even include all the vertebrae) - but you can see how the little boney bits that stick out of the back of your spine “hit each other” sooner in your upper back (gold) vs. in your neck or lower back, which limits how much it can bend in comparison.
That doesn’t mean working on your upper back is a lost cause, virtually everyone has progress that can be made there. It just happens to be more challenging for most students to learn how to backbend with their upper back than using their lower back.
On a positive note: while our upper back isn’t great at extension (arching), it is decent at lateral flexion (side bending) and even better at axial rotation (twisting). So starting off with movements that target the range of motion your upper back likes to move in (twists and side bends) is a great way to help it get warmed up and more receptive to arching after.
Shoulder Position Is Important Too!
A common mistake many beginners make in backbends - especially in bridges - is “internally” rotating the shoulders and letting the shoulder blades slide together towards the spine. This often feels easier for the shoulders (especially for folks with tight lats, which get to be put on a bit of slack with how the upper arm is rotated in this position), which is why it’s a common variation. The problem with letting the shoulder blades slide together (actually this is just one of the problems with this position - there are several reasons this is a less-than-ideal shoulder position for backbends) is that this creates a wall of bone on your upper back. Your shoulder blades are pretty big bones, so when you smoosh them towards each other, you’ve created a pretty big section of your upper back that’s no longer going to be able to arch!
Here’s what that actually looks like in a body:
You can see my should blades hugging toward my spine in the version on the left, and aaaaall the space between my shoulder blades which are wrapping to the outsides of my ribs in the version on the right
Look at how much more I can evenly arch through my upper back (and even reach my arms back farther!) in the version where I’m using my external shoulder rotation
Recommended Blog Post: The Importance of “External Shoulder Rotation” in a Backbend
How to Improve Your Upper Back Backbending Flexibility
As Always, Start with a Warm-Up!
As always, start with a 5-10 minute aerobic warm up before doing any “serious” flexibility work, or do your flexibility training right after your regular exercise / active hobby of choice!
Mobilize Your Upper Back
Cat/Cow
Start in a “tabletop” position on hands and knees
Round your back by tucking your chin toward your chest, and tucking your tailbone, pressing your hands into the floor to engage your chest/shoulders and round through the upper back
Arch your back by lifting your head, dropping your belly, and lifting your tailbone
Repeat rounding then arching 4-8 times
Optional variation: use a stretchy resistance band to challenge your upper back even more (video)
Seated Twists
Keeping your hips planted prevents your pelvis from twisting and trying to “cheat” the spinal twist. This is also a challenging one because it’s an “active” twist - you have to use your muscles to complete the twist, there’s no pushing with your hands/arms allowed.
Start in a comfortable seated position on the floor or in a chair. Choose a position you can sit in where you can sit up straight without rounding your low back (so if that’s a challenge when you’re sitting on the floor, you could sit on a yoga block or two).
Place your hands behind your head, elbows out to the side
Suck your belly button in toward your spine to engage your core, then slowly twist to one side, Make sure to keep your sits bones anchored to whatever you’re sitting on, don’t let your hips start to tilt or twist
Slowly twist to the other side
Repeat twisting side to side for a total of 10 twists (5 in each direction)
Standing Side Bend (Tall)
This is a great lateral flexion stretch for the upper back, and a solid stretch for your lats, which will help make that external shoulder rotation position I talked about above easier to maintain when doing some of the other stretches.
Start standing with one hand on your hip, the other arm reaching up overhead, thumb pointing behind you
Reach your free arm up (let the shoulder blade lift) over your head as you start to tilt to the side. Keep this tilt small! Think more about reaching UP and AWAY and less “Imma crunch down to the floor and side bend as much as I can”. We want this to be a very “lifted” side bend, where your low back and waist don’t bend, just your upper back and ribs. You should feel a stretch in the outside of your armpits and/or ribs
Hold for 10-30 seconds, then switch sides. OR you can do this one for reps, reaching to one side for 5-10 seconds, then the other side, repeating for 5 reaches to each side
Want to make it harder? Instead of bracing your bottom hand on your hip for support, lift that arm up overhead as well, so both hands are reaching overhead as you do your (small) tilt to the side
Support Your Upper Back
Using some physical support, like yoga blocks, a foam roller, yoga wheel, or - my personal favorite - a chair, is a great way to teach your upper back what bending can actually feel like!
Booty Drops on a Chair
You’ll want a sturdy (no swivel chairs, no chairs with wheels!) for this exercise
Lean back on your chair so that the edge of the seat of your chair is right at the bottom of your shoulder blades (you may have to tuck your chin toward your chest to make space for your head). Grab the back of the chair with your hands, and squeeze your elbows together a bit so they point towards the ceiling. Don’t let your elbows flop open out to the sides!
Keeping the elbows pointed towards the ceiling helps keep your shoulder blades hugging the side of your ribs. If you let your elbows drop to the sides during this exercise, that let’s your shoulder blades slide toward your spine - making that “wall of bone” we talked about earlier. So elbows up = easier to arch through that upper back (in this particular position)
Keeping the top of your upper back pasted to the seat of the chair (use your arms to hold it in place), slowly start to drop your butt toward the floor and reach it back towards the legs of the chair. I like to think that I’m trying to curl my tailbone or the back of my hips to reach the space between the chair legs.
Then press your hips back up to the ceiling
Repeat reaching your hips down-and-back, then pressing it up to the ceiling for 8-12 reps
Take Your Low Back Out of the Equation
One of the best ways to work on your upper back flexibility is to take your low back out of the equation. For most students, the low back is often the over-achieving star of the show that wants to do aaaaaall the bendy things for you (although I do work with a handful of students who struggle to engage and use their low back - all bodies are different!). So the best way to give the upper back time to shine is to not let the low back help. These are some of my favorite drills where the low back is taken out of the equation:
Back Extensions
This is such a great foundational exercise. I personally use several different variations of it in my own training. It’s hands-down one of the best conditioning drills you can do for active back flexibility (I’m such an evangelist for this exercise I wrote a whole blog post about them, Back Extensions: The Backbender’s Broccoli). Let’s talk about how to do a basic back extension:
Start lying on your stomach on the floor, with feet hip width(ish) apart (a little wider or closer together is fine), arms by your sides
Lightly engage your abs by pulling your belly button in toward your spine (you can also imagine you’re sucking in your gut like you’re trying to put on a pair of pants that are about a half size too small). You’re going to keep that light ab engagement throughout this exercise
Slowly lift your chest off of the ground - it doesn’t have to lift high! Feel the squeeze in the muscles running up and down the sides of your spine on your back. Feeling a squeeze in your glutes is OK too, but keep your feet on the floor (this isn’t a “superman” exercise - we want to keep the feet on the floor to make sure the upper back is doing all the work, not our low back and glutes)
Slowly lower back down with control
Repeat for 8-12 chest lifts
Low Cobra Slides
If you found that back extension exercise challenging, the good news is now you can use your arms to help! The less-good news is it’s still going to be hard (in a good way - let’s build those muscles!)
You’re going to want a foam roller for this exercise, or something under your hands that will help them slide on the floor
Start lying on your stomach, feet about hip width apart, arms straight reaching overhead. If you have a foam roller, rest your elbows on the foam roller while reaching those arms overhead. If you don’t have a roller - no sweat! You can just reach those arms forwards with your palms on something that will help them slide on the floor (you may not even need anything under your hands if you’re on carpet, but if you’re on a hard floor a towel can help your hands slide)
One vertebra at a time, we’re going to start lifting out upper torso away from the ground. Starting with your neck, lift your head away from the floor, then start lifting your chest. Once you can’t lift using just your back strength any more, you can use your arms to help - keeping your arms straight, press your arms into your foam roller (or press your palms into the floor as you pull them back toward your hips) to help continue lifting your ribs. Only lift up until you get to a “low cobra” position: keep your belly and the very bottom rib of your rib cage on the floor. If your stomach is starting to lift, you’re lifting too high (and sending the bend down into your lower back - not what we want for this drill)
Slowly, with control, lower back down, vertebrae by vertebrae, back to your starting position (drop your lower ribs, your chest, then your head). The lowering down should be controlled as well, not just a relaxed-flop-out-of-the-pose. Lowering with control is part of the strengthening that’s happening too!
Repeat for 3-8 slow lifts and lowers
Elevated Bent Elbow Puppy Pose
Puppy pose, like low cobra, is great for upper back work because it relies on your shoulders and upper back to achieve the bend - your low back is pretty limited in how much it can contribute to the stretch. There are a bunch of different ways you can modify your puppy pose to emphasize different goals, but I really like this version with bent elbows as a passive stretch because it encourages your shoulder blades to stay in the “proper” externally rotated position we want for upper back backbending.
Start kneeling in front of a chair or bench. Place your elbows shoulder-width apart on the edge of the chair/bench, and bring your palms together (optionally - if you want this to be more of a shoulder stretch, you can hold a yoga block between your hands).
Waddle your knees backwards so your hips are above your knees and drop your chest towards the floor. You should feel a stretch in the outside of your armpits (your lats) and/or between your shoulder blades. Relax here for a couple of breaths, letting gravity pull your chest and armpits towards the floor
Hold for 15-30 seconds
Chest Reaches with a Strap
Start sitting in a kneeling position with a long strap underneath your ankles, holding each end of the strap up at each shoulder with your elbows pointing forwards. If it’s uncomfortable for you to sit on your heels in a kneeling position, add a yoga block or two under your butt to make this more comfortable (and consider adding in some of these quad stretches if your quads are a limiting factor that make that position challenging!)
Keeping your elbows pointing forwards, lift your tailbone to start to tilt your pelvis forwards (“anterior pelvic tilt” for you anatomy nerds) as you reach your chest forwards, but still trying to keep your collar bone lifted towards the ceiling. Our goal is to encourage our upper back to arch to reach our chest forwards, not just lean forwards with a flat back - so keeping your collar bone and the tops of your shoulders pointing towards the ceiling will help. You should feel quite a bit of a squeeze in your upper back muscles between and below your shoulder blades on both sides of your spine
Bring your chest back to start, spine back to a neutral position
Repeat for 5-12 chest reaches
Belly Block Back Extensions
This is a slightly harder / more active variation of the exercise above. We’ll be going through the same movement pattern, but not longer have the strap to help keep our torso lifted - that means it’s gonna be all muscle holding your chest up
Start in a comfortable seated kneeling position (sitting on a yoga block or two if needed)
Place a yoga block across your thighs. Lean forwards so you’re gently smooshing the block between your belly and your thighs. You’re going to keep this block smoosh throughout the exercise (this is what’s going to prevent our low back from stealing the show!)
Place your fingertips on your shoulders and reach your elbows forwards (not out to the sides). Feel your shoulder blades slide to the side of your ribs - try to keep your shoulder blades hugging the sides of your ribs for the whole exercise, avoid letting them pull together toward your back
Keep leaning your belly into the block as you start to lift your head and chest, arching into a small backbend. Depending on your upper back strength/flexibility, this may be a very small arch - that’s OK! You should feel a squeeze in the muscles between and/or underneath your shoulder blades close to your spine working to help lift your chest
Lower/lean back forwards to flatten your back to the starting position (you don’t need to lean so far that you round your back, we’re just looking to go from neutral > slightly arched > neutral)
Repeat for 5-12 chest lifts
Got Questions? Ask ‘em in the Comments
Phew! This post ended up being quite the information dump - so hopefully you were able to pull out some helpful nuggets and discover some muscle activation you haven’t felt before. If this kind of flexibility work is your jam and you want to learn more, I do have a whole 60-minute recorded workshop on opening up the upper back and shoulders, as well as regularly work with students in 1-on-1 online private lessons on coaching them through learning to engage their upper back and access upper back flexibility in their backbends like bridges, chest stands, needle scales, and more.
