9 Poses to Relax Your Stiff Back

Feeling tight in your upper or mid-back? Yoga poses, combined with focused breathing techniques, can open up those sticky spots in your body, while expanding your chest and sides to help you breathe easier and more fully. This sequence by yoga teacher Dana Slamp shows you the way.

Most people conceptualize their lungs as only living in the front of the chest—thanks in part to the two-dimensional anatomy charts we glanced at briefly back in high school biology. But your lungs are three dimensional and quite movable, and, as it turns out, the most oxygen-receptive part of your lungs is located in your back. Our lungs expand into our sides, distend our bellies with the downward contraction of the diaphragm, lift our collarbones, and yes, expand our backs when we take a full inhalation. Practicing this “global breathing” can support lung and heart health, allowing for greater oxygen saturation in the blood.

see also Poses for Your Back

The bronchial passages are like an inverse tree that expand down into the lower lungs, and the lungs are tilted slightly to make room for your heart. Thanks to this tilt, there is simply more “lung space” near the lower part of the thoracic spine, filled with the microscopic alveoli responsible for gas exchange. In fact, lying on your belly has been shown in a hospital pilot study to increase the oxygen saturation by ten percent!

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A Sequence and Breathwork for Back Pain

In this sequence, take full advantage of your lungs with stretchy asana designed to open your intercostal muscles and oxygen-receptive lower back lungs. Then, enjoy a sweet and accessible breathing practice to boost your immunity and create coherence in your mind and body.

Suggested props: One folded blanket and two pillows or a bolster.

see also Stand Taller With These Side Body Stretches

Balancing Sequence

Kapalabhati Pranayama (Skull-Shining Breath)

Find a comfortable seat on a pillow or a yoga block. Tuning into the flow of your breath, take a few shoulder rolls and gentle twists. As you do this, allow your mind to arrive on the mat. To begin Skull-Shining Breath, sit with a nice long spine, extend your arms in a “V” with your thumbs out as if hitching a ride. (If you are pregnant or on a heavy day of your menstrual cycle, practice slow deep breaths here.) Exhale out of your nose, making a sniffing sound, while quickly snapping your low belly in. Let the inhale be easy and focus on the exhale as you pump your low belly in each time. Pick up the pace–completing 40 to 108 skull-shining breaths. 

Rest briefly in Balasana (Child’s Pose). Remain in Child’s Pose and begin Victorious Breath (ujjayi breath, where you breath in through your nose and slightly constrict your throat as you breath out through your nose. The exhale feels like you are trying to gently fog up a mirror.)

see also Ujjayi Breathing 101