Tight Back?
Tight Upper & Mid Back?
At the end of the long day have you noticed your stiff back and just notice how tight everything seems to be right through your upper-mid back? Well, today I’m going to show you an easy stretch you can do to help combat that at the end of the day, as well as calm your mind. I’m Dr. Kara Penson and I’m a chiropractor at HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center here in Plano, Texas.
The Cat-Cow stretch is simple and effective.
The stretch that we’re going to be doing today is called the cat-cow stretch. I have my lovely patient here to demonstrate for you guys what to do. You’re going to start out on all fours and this doesn’t have to be on a table, you can be on any solid surface. What you’re going to do is start by inhaling and coming down, so you’re going to lower your back into this nice arch right here. You’re going to bring your head up as you inhale, looking straight up in front of you, and then on your exhale, you’re going to bring your head down and bring your back up. Coming into like the arch of a cat when it gets scared.
Again, you’re going to inhale, bringing down, and this is a very slow movement, and you’re going to try to do a vertebra by vertebra. Exhale, come back up. You just want to see that nice movement in your spine to get rid of that stiffness and that’ll increase then strengthen your muscles in your back as well. The cat-cow stretch is a really good stretch to help increase the stretch in your muscles in your mid-back as well as your shoulders. It’s also good for strengthening those muscles to help reduce the tension you feel at the end of the day across that area. It is also a great stretch for helping calm your mind because it focuses so much on your breathing.
If this exercise works for you please share it with a friend that you think it can help!
HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center is a chiropractic and wellness center located in Plano, Texas. Our founding chiropractors, Dr. Christy Flick and Dr. Jennifer Taylor have been helping patients function better since starting private practice in 2005. Dr. Kara joined the team in 2020. For information about this article or other chiropractic questions, please contact our office at 972-612-1800, visit our website at https://www.healthworkstx.com/, or stop by our office at 2317 Coit Rd., Ste B, Plano, TX 75075.