Nobody wants to deal with pain, but we know from experience that it is highly likely that most people will have to deal with neck, shoulder or back pain at some point. The way in which we live our lives these days doesn’t help – whether it be spending a long time in the car, sitting at a desk all day or looking at your phone for frequent periods of time. All of these things can affect the way your body feels.

When most people start to feel pain

Whether it be a stiff neck or upper back vertebrae pain, they generally like to see if they can ease it using painkillers such as ibuprofen. However, although this will probably give you short term pain relief, it doesn’t deal with the cause of the pain or give you any relief in the long term. For longer term relief, there are some simple techniques you can use that will not only help your pain to subside but can also help to strengthen the problem areas as well.

There is a great quote that everybody knows, which goes ‘prevention is better than cure’, and this is a great thing to remember when it comes to upper body pain! Try not to spend a huge amount of time in one position – either standing or sitting – and make sure you get up and move around a lot during the day. Gravity is a marvellous thing, but it can cause us to slump if we stay in the same position for too long.

One easy stretch you can do

To relieve upper back pain quite quickly is to arch your body backwards and rotate it from side to side.  You can also lean backwards over the top of a chair to get a similar result. If you find that this isn’t helping then grab a foam roller (or a rolled-up towel) and lie on this on your back. Then just twist your lower body from side to side, squeezing your shoulder blades together, or focus on the muscle that is tense and try and make this contact and then relax.

Basically, changing position and helping muscles to not be ‘on’ all the time with sustained postures is a great way to relieve back pain. The really important thing to remember is to control your movement throughout and make sure you take good deep breaths as well. Making time to do some small exercise like this daily will strengthen your back muscles and can help you develop a better posture.

If you need help with your upper back pain, then please give us a call to see how we can help. We have over 25 years of experience between us. You can contact us by telephone on 01625 422 825 or use the booking form on our website today.