Unlock Your Spine! Complete Stretching Routine [Follow Along]

0:00 this is a 10-minute stretching routine to unlock your entire spine these are some of the best stretches for your neck upper back lower back and hips to not only decrease tension and pain in these areas but to help you to feel and move a lot better let's get started up in the neck with one of my favorite stretches this is going to be for your upper trapezius sit with really good posture and now the left ear comes over towards your left shoulder until we get a good stretch on this right side basically from the base of the ear to the tip of the shoulder and then the left hand comes up to the opposite side of your head to apply just a little more pressure to enhance that stretch we're going to hit start on the timer and we're going to hold this one for 30 seconds and sometimes I tell people you know you can kind of rotate your head

0:45 just a little bit to kind of vary where that stretch goes stretching needs to be very comfortable and if you've pushed far and if it's painful we've gone too far we're actually causing the opposite effect your muscles aren't going to like that and they're going to tense up afterwards so keep stretching very comfortable throughout this whole video everything that we do take it to a comfortable range not a pain range there's 30 seconds over here on that right side now let's go right ear over to the right shoulder until we get that stretch on the left side with my right hand I can come up to the left side of my head and again just a gentle over pressure just whatever feels comfortable this muscle this commonly gets knots if you spend a lot of time at a desk or on a computer constantly gets knots up in

1:31 that muscle this is a great way to help it to just relax and release and promote a little more just relaxation through that area the next one is going to be for your levator scapula this is a muscle in the back of your neck basically runs from the base of your skull to your shoulder blade what I want you to do is rotate your head about 45° and then look down so right now I'm looking down at my left pocket with that left hand we come up to the back of my head and again just apply a really gentle over pressure until I get a good just comfortable stretch like I said you're going to feel that one a little more in the back of your neck from basically the base of your skull to the tip of your right shoulder blade and again we can kind of rotate the chin just slightly to kind of very where we feel that stretch got five more seconds

2:20 here on the right side 3 two 1 and then let's come back to neutral um now I'm going to look to my right side down towards my right pocket right hand comes to the back of my head and apply just that little gentle over pressure until we get that stretch through the left side kind of the left back part of the neck just really comfortable neck stretching feels really good neck should be very mobile and so this is a great way to decrease tension and decrease pain up there and then we're going to move down 3 2 1 we're going to move down into the upper back with two of my favorite stretches um this one we're going to get down on the floor I'm I'm going to use my chair you can use a bed or a table or a couch but what we're

3:05 going to do is a is an extension stretch for your upper back hands are up on the back of the chair kneeling down and now what I'm going to do is let my chest let my head let everything fall down towards the ground down towards the floor until I just get a really good just stretch through that upper back you're going to feel this in your lap muscles these muscles right here on the side you kind of sit your hips down towards your feet let your chest fall down towards the floor just really good really comfortable there's 30 seconds you can kind of come out of it for just a second and then we're going to come right back down into it um a lot of times a lot of the issues that I see in my physical therapy clinic are posture related and kind of rounding your upper back and

3:51 shoulders this is a great way to work out of that and to promote this extension motion through your upper back instead so it feels really good this is one that I actually perform regularly I love the way that this one feels three 2 and one just like that we're going to stay in our upper back and we're going to do a rotation stretch now this is one of my favorite ways to rotate through that upper back another important motion and so I'm down on all fours now what I'm going to do is with my right hand I'm going to reach to my left this way as far as I can till I get a good stretch in my back and then I'm going to bring my right hand out towards you all the way up towards the ceiling as high as I can go hold one two and then come

4:36 right back down we're going to dive and reach to my left get that good rotation motion between your shoulder blades and then we're going to come right back up towards the ceiling again this is a great way that we can actually extend and rotate through that entire right side now let's plant the right hand and do the same thing on the left so I'm going to reach towards you with that left hand rotate through those shoulder blades and then the left hand goes out and up towards the ceiling let your eyes follow the back of your hand all the way up and then we're going to repeat for reps really good really comfortable nice and slow keep it in a pain-free Range don't go so high it doesn't need to be strenuous doesn't need to be strain

5:21 full just like that oh man that's a really good one okay then the next one we're going to do this is one of my favorite ways for uh to promote flexion and extension throughout the entire spine this is going to be a cat Cow so we're down on all fours the first thing I want to do is the angry cat so I'm going to tuck my chin into my chest round my back up towards the ceiling hold one two 3 and then I'm going to go the other way so now I'm going to let my chest and my stomach fall towards the floor my face looks up at the wall in front of me I'm extending through my neck through my entire back hold a couple of seconds and then we're going to go back into the angry cat part just like an angry cat arches its back that's where it gets the name from Tuck the

6:07 hips under now we're going to roll the hips the other way to extend again into that that cow or camel both are acceptable and so we're going to do this one for 60 seconds [Music] three two and one looks good oh man that feels good that back needs to move okay and so after that we're going to get into a lumbar rotation stretch I want you to lay down on your back with um your knees bent um the beginner version of this would be to drop both knees to

6:54 one side if that feels okay I'm going to extend my left leg and with my left hand I'm going to grab the outside of my right knee to promote a little more rotation through that motion and you're going to get that into your lower back you're going to get that through your hip we're moving down to the next segment this is kind of the first stretch for that and then we can hold this for 20 to 30 seconds some people kind of hold it for 10 come out of it and then hold it for 10 more like there's no wrong answer just everything helps we're just creating mobility throughout that entire back now to pull the the other way I'm going to extend my right leg my right hand goes to the outside of my left knee and then I'm going to pull that left knee over and I usually there it was I usually get one

7:39 or two pops out of this just in that lower back just as things are are freeing up things are releasing I said in the intro this is a great way that we can just unlock that entire back and oh man does it work oh man does it feel good just like that that was 15 seconds and so now let's get into a hip stretch a purform stretch this is for the tight hip rotators what I want you to do is cross your right foot over your left knee and then in this position I'm going to grab right here behind my knee and pull that knee up towards my chest just until I get a good comfortable stretch in that right hip you're going to feel that kind of right in that right buttock area and it's just again one of those deep hip

8:25 rotators if you have any kind of lower back pain going on chances are you probably have some tightness in this muscle this is a common common area for tightness to occur with that lower back pain or if your lower back feels stiff there's 30 seconds on the right so now let's switch it up so left um left ankle over the right knee and then I'm going to grab right behind that right knee and pull up and towards my chest just as high as I can just until we get a good comfortable stretch again all the way down into that left hip that left posterior hip that left butt area oh man some of those some of these get a little bit tight it's a good stretch right there just hold it comfortable range 30 seconds there we go okay and then the

9:11 last thing that we want to do is unlock those tight hip flexors and so what I want to do is get in this tall kneeling position I'm going to keep my right knee on the ground left foot comes forward and then in this position I'm going to Lunge onto that left foot until I just get a good comfortable stretch right here through the right front part if you want to take that to the next level which I usually do let's reach up and over our head and then reach over to the left and oh man as you do that we're just making this whole right side of my body really as long as possible you're going to fill in that hip flexor but then that's also going to sneak around into your lower back that's a good stretch for that quadratus lumborum as well 30 seconds there let's switch it up I'm going to go left knee down right

9:57 right foot comes out in front lunge onto that right foot until we get that good stretch through the left front of the hip reach up and overhead then reach over towards the right and we're going to hold that one for 30 seconds just like that now I hope that you've enjoyed this if you like this routine hit the Thumbs Up Button um that means a lot to me leave a comment down below I always love to hear from you if you want to supplement your stretching with some great strengthening of toal toally got you covered here on tone and Titan check out this video for your upper back this video for your lower back and core if you haven't subscribed to my channel hit the circle here to do that I'd love to see you back for future videos hope this helps and I hope to see you again soon