QUICK Back Pain Relief: Simple Stretches You Can Do In a Chair

Back Pain: Make it Stop!

Back pain is something that many of us deal with on a day to day basis. Just because you are dealing with back pain, doesn’t mean that there is nothing for you to do. In fact, by the end of this article, you will know a few simple stretches that you can do all from the comfort of a chair, to help relieve your back pain and get you back to moving better in life.

The Main Goal

The problem with back pain, is that it could be from a variety of different areas. Low back, upper back, mid back, etc. Because of this, these exercises cover the entire scope of your back to help you not stretch out just one area, but the entire back, as this will keep you the most balanced overall. All of these movements are great, but my favorite exercise is by far the last one.

Back Pain Relief Stretches You Can Do In a Chair

Forward Fold

For the forward fold, you will start with your feet wide apart on the ground. Then, you will cross your arms, and gently allow your torso to fall forward towards the ground, imagining the weight of gravity to pull your lower back deep into the stretch. Hold this position for 30 seconds, and feel free to do it multiple times.

Pigeon Pose With a Twist

This back pain stretch will work your middle and lower back, and will start by bringing one foot up onto the other knee. After that, you will grab your leg that is up with both hands, and pull yourself towards that leg, twisting your body around. Imagine trying to look behind your chair. Hold for 30 seconds, and make sure to repeat this movement on both sides.

Something You Need To Know

Those first couple stretches are excellent at relieving some of your back pain, but without doing these last few stretches your back pain might slowly come back.

Medicine Ball Stretch

The medicine ball stretch will work the upper back area, to help relieve pain there. For this one, grab a soft ball or medicine ball (one I use will be linked down below), and place it behind your upper back around you scapula area. Next, you will either place your hands across your chest, or behind your head. If you have shoulder pain, I’d recommend across your chest. For 30 seconds, slowly lean back against the ball on the chair, repeating as needed.

Hamstring Stretch to The Side

For this back pain stretch, start with one of your legs out to the side at a 45 degree angle, with your knee nice and straight. Now, try to bend to the side, slowly reaching down to touch your toe. If you notice your leg starts bending before you can touch your toe, stop reaching down at that point, and hold for 30 seconds. Remember to repeat on both legs.

Side Lean Hold

One of my favorite back pain stretches in a chair, is a side lean hold. Sit up tall in a chair, and slowly bring one arm up over your head, bending to the side. Breathe and hold this position for 30 seconds on each side feeling the weight pull you over. This is great because it not only stretches muscles on the side of your body, but also strengthens them as well. This is incredibly important because this area is often weak.

Follow these chair stretches daily to help relieve your back pain to the fullest! All of the products mentioned will be linked below, in addition to our low impact strength program as well. If you don’t want to do either of those, make sure to check out some of the chair stretching videos I have created below!