Sebastian Brosche · 16 min · 879 words
Previously titled: Video 5 – Upper Back Rehab Program
Hi everyone, welcome back. This is the final day of our upper back rehab program. Today we want the foam roller and the band that we've been using all throughout. I'm also going to use a broomstick.
A curtain pole also works or if you haven't got that, even an umbrella or a golf club. If you haven't got a stick, then you can do a lot of this with a band, but I'm going to show you quite a nice sequence so it might be worth getting hold of one. Okay, so we're going to start with the roller again. And once again, we're going to start with this upper back mobilization.
Again, roll myself down. You may start finding that you're getting more mobility than you had at the beginning of the week. This is definitely a good exercise to keep doing. It's a good one to keep in your regular routine, just maintaining that upper back mobility.
That's one of the things we tend to lose when we do a lot of jujitsu or a lot of heavy training. Again, I can just finish rolling the muscles a little. And drop the roller to one side by my band. Again, on the band, fix to something which isn't going to fall over when I pull on it.
I start with the band in front of me, a little bit of tension. I'm going to pull to the hip and then palm down. I pull to the side of my ear. I'm trying to make sure I'm not twisting my upper body, keeping shoulders nice and stable.
It's all coming from the the shoulder blade and the upper arm. Then switch sides. Again, a little bit of tension on the band to start with. Low and then high.
Repeat that one more time. Again, a little bit of tension on the band. And switch sides. And rest there.
Drop the band, grab your broomstick. And I'm just going to start with the broomstick across my shoulders. I'm going to do some rotations. I want to keep the knees nice and soft.
And again, I want to try and get as much of that rotation, feeling it in the middle back. Not forcing it, just taking it as far as it wants to go. And back. And I'm going to push up, take the broomstick overhead, and we're going to go side to side.
I'm almost pulling myself to the side with the hand. And I'm going to do the same thing. And then from there, I'm just going to go over and back, and back to the front. So if the stick feels...
If your shoulders aren't mobile enough to be able to do this very easily, you can do it with a band, and that's fine. And then from there, some people find that a little bit easier. And the last one, I'm going to do lying on my front. So I'm going to put the stick out in front of me, and we're going to do dorsal raises.
I'm going to lift the arms, lift the stick, along with the upper body. And coming back up. And we're going to do the same thing again, behind the neck. Stick over the head, side to side.
Now we can do the over the head and back one standing up. For a little bit of variation, I'm going to get you doing it lying down. So again, on your front. So this just gets gravity involved.
And then finally, dorsal raises. And drop the stick to one side. And come up. And we're just going to finish off with a bit of mobilization in this very upper back area again.
Fingers linked behind the neck. We're going to trace those up and down movements with the elbows. Once again, trying to feel the movement, just that inch or two below where my hands are. And then we're going to go into figures of eight.
Back to up and down. And then to finish off with a bit of head movement, side to side. Looking left, looking right. We're just going to go for a little bit of a stretch.
These muscles that go from the neck to the shoulder blade. Looking the head forwards, other hand behind my back. And I can push the head back into the hand nice and gently. And just relax into a bit of a stretch.
And push the head back into the hand again. And relax. And then we're going to go in the opposite direction. Putting the head forwards.
Again, I'm only taking that to the point where it's comfortable. I'm just going to push the head back into the hand. And relax. And one more time, push back into the hand.
And relax. And just go back to a little bit of head movement. Stretch up. And there we have it.
So that's the end of our upper back rehab program. So if you've discovered any little shoulder issues or neck issues while you've been doing this, we have plans specifically for those areas as well. So they fit quite nicely into the upper back program. So maybe think about going back and having a look at those next.
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