How to relieve middle back pain

 does your mid-back hurt when you look

down if you get pain in your middle back

between your shoulder blades when you

tuck your chin and stretch the back of

your neck I'll explain what's causing it

and how you can fix it in this article 📰📰📰

hey beautiful humans I'm Sookie Baxter

founder of whole body revolution where I

help you to rewire yourself for greater

health happiness and success if you're

middle back pain most people are

treating the symptom and not the problem

in order to understand why your mid-back

hurts when you look down it's important

to know that there are actually two

types of tight muscles those that are

locked short and those that are locked

long in the case of middle back pain the

muscles that are actually causing the

problem are the ones that are locked

short tight chest and shoulder muscles

these pull your shoulders into a forward

rounded curve and stretching the muscles

along your back and spine which are then

locked long or basically stuck in an

isometric contraction pulling against

the shortened muscles of your chest if

you'll pain in your back and shoulder

muscles because they're constantly being

stretched this is the same type of pain

that you would feel if you stretched

your hamstrings for example except that

it's prolonged unfortunately we don't

usually notice that muscles are tight

until we try to use them or stretch them

so most people are addressing the

painful muscles in their back with

massages and foam rollers and totally

ignoring their tight chest muscles which

generally don't hurt and while massaging

your back might give you temporary

relief what we really need to do is

relax your tight chest muscles to

restore balance to your back and

shoulders now before we get into the

exercises that I would recommend to

stretch your shoulders and fix your

mid-back pain I just want to note that

when you had muscle tension in an area

of your body for many many years it has

become a nerve

habit studies have shown that this kind

of chronic subconscious tension persists

at all times even when you're asleep

simply doing a stretch once or twice

won't completely eradicate the problem

for long-term relief you're going to

need to re pattern your postural habits

through practices that essentially reset

your nervous system releasing stored

stress and tension these exercises that

I'm going to show you are a good place

to start but for a deeper discussion of

how your body gets tight check out the

free pain free at any age  series

linked in the description box below okay

let's get into the exercises okay so the

first exercise that I'm going to show

you is a simple band pull exercise you

will need some kind of elastic band or

Thera band for this practice so go ahead

and hold your band in front of you

you're gonna wrap it around your hands

so that you've got it securely depending

on how strong your band is you may need

to widen your grip or narrow your grip

but you can adjust as we go and all

you're going to do is simply bring the

band in front of you keep your elbows

parallel to the floor so not too low not

too high but nice and parallel and

you're simply going to squeeze the

muscles at the base of your shoulder

blades so crush your mid-back together

to draw your elbows back and stretch the

band so it looks like this

now some things to note I am not opening

my arm to stretch the man so this isn't

about this kind of a movement where I'm

actually using my elbow to open the man

I'm really squeezing my back and

squeezing my shoulder blades together to

draw the band wider my elbow angle stays

exactly the same you really want to

focus on squeezing the muscles at the

base of your shoulder blades here and

not the muscles at the tops of your

shoulders you do not want your shoulders

to shrug up as you're doing this so you

don't want this kind of a thing going on

where your elbows are coming up as you

do it

but you also don't want your elbows to

drop down so commonly when I am showing

this exercise to people I see one or

both elbows kind of go down like this

and then you're using really more

shoulder muscles here in the upper arm

rather than the muscles of your back so

you want to keep your elbows nice and

parallel and squeeze your shoulder

blades together I recommend doing this

throughout the day particularly if this

has been a postural habit for a long

time this is a very easy exercise to do

quickly and periodically throughout the

day it doesn't take a lot of space and

it doesn't take a lot of time to do it

anywhere between about five and ten

repetitions at a time is a good place to

start okay for this next exercise go

ahead and come to a wall and place your

hands on the wall above your head but

not as high as you can reach and then

what you're going to do is keeping your

arms nice and straight you're going to

bring your chest close to the wall

and this will start to open up the front

of your body and we're just gonna hang

out here for a moment

reaching your chest as close to the wall

and the floor as you can so that you get

a nice stretch through your arms through

the front of your shoulder through your

chest making sure that you are breathing

really pushing your chest towards the

wall making sure you're not hyper

extending your low back good now put

your arms on the wall straight out in

front of you in line with your shoulders

palms flat and you're going to step back

and come down bringing your chest

towards the floor again keeping a

neutral spine so make sure that you're

not hyper extending your back as you do

this but that you're lifting your

tailbone towards the sky and pressing

your chest towards the floor and then go

ahead and release that for this next

exercise you will need a kettlebell and

I will link to my favorite source for

buying kettlebells in the description

box below if you don't have a kettlebell

you can sub in a dumbbell for a short

term but I do really like this equipment

for this exercise so what you're going

to do is lie on the floor and I'm gonna

take the cattle belt you're gonna place

it next to your shoulder now you want to

be using a kettlebell that you can

comfortably lift so this kettlebell

weighs 12 kilos that might be too much

for you or it might be too little for

you so you're gonna have to experiment

and see what works for you what you're

gonna do is you're going to press the

kettlebell straight out and keeping your

right knee bent you're gonna keep your

arm locked out you're going to bring

your left arm overhead and you're gonna

press your right foot into the floor and

you're going to roll to your left side

keep your eye on the kettlebell and

you're gently at this point going to

bring your right leg across bring your

right hip

down to the floor and press the right

side of your chest towards the floor as much 

as you can.

you'll feel a contraction through the

muscles in your back on the right

shoulder and a nice stretch along the

front and then reverse the process

coming back to the original starting

point lower the kettlebell and we'll do

the other side so from this side you're

going to take your left hand you're

gonna lock the kettlebell out keeping

your arm straight elbow straight

shoulder locked left knee is bent right

arm comes up above your head you're

gonna press your left foot into the

floor your left hip is going to come up

roll across your body from this

standpoint it really helps to keep your

eye on the kettlebell it helps with the

balance on your left foot across and I

find here I'm stable enough to bring my

head down and work my chest down toward

the floor again you'll feel a

contraction through the muscles in the

left shoulder and the back and a nice

stretch along the front and then

bringing your eyes back to the

kettlebell bring your left leg across

foot on the floor lower yourself back to

the floor and bring the kettlebell down

now you can do repetitions of this maybe

three to five on either side you can

also just get into that position and

hang out there and allow your body to

open up and this will build strength in

the back while stretching along the

front of your body okay so there you

have it three exercises to fix your

posture and eliminate mid-back pain when

you look down if you found this article 📰📰📰

helpful I'd love it if you give it a

I'll see you in the next one