Osteopath Anna Wong Soo shows you different stretches you can do to help reduce pain and tension in your spine.
Poor posture and pectoralis major (pecs) stretch
Too often, we are sitting at our desk with poor posture (slumped forward with neck down), working on the computer, using the smart phone or driving. This tends to shorten the muscles on the front of your body. This means that your back muscles are being overstretched and are getting weaker. That tension builds up and can create pain between your shoulder blades all the way to your neck and head and can sometime cause headaches. To help manage back pain, you need to adopt a good posture and have an ergonomic desk set up, you can also do pec stretches to reduce this tension. The pecs are the muscles in the front of your chest.
Trapezius stretch
Whether you are a desk worker or a student, spending hours sitting at a desk can lead to tension across the neck and shoulders. The trapezius stretch can help ease that tension and give you some much needed breaks in between work or study.
Cat camel exercise
This is a good exercise to improve movement in your back and reduce stiffness. It’s a good warm up exercise that you can do first thing in the morning before doing other exercises.
Single arm and/or leg raise
After doing the cat/camel, you can do this simple exercise called single arm or leg raise that will improve the strength and endurance in your back muscles. The single arm and opposite leg raise is a progression from the single arm or leg raise.
Pelvic lift
To strengthen your core muscles, lower back and buttocks, try this simple exercise.
To sum up:
These are the stretches I give to my patients to help complement osteopathic treatment. If you have any pain in doing the stretches/exercises, please stop and check with your health care provider. Please feel free to contact us if you need any extra information.
I also work with children and adults of all ages to help manage headaches, neck pain, pelvic and back pain. Additionally, I have an interest in treating pelvic instability with pregnancy, sciatica, sports injuries (shoulders, knees, hips and ankles) and postural problems. And if you’d like to know more about me, check out my practitioner profile page – Anna Wong Soo
Please call our office to speak to an osteopath if you have any questions.
Have a look at our jaw pain, neck pain and lower back pain pages for more information about how osteopathic treatment might be able to help you with your pain.