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Chest and back workout
Body Part:
Chest & Back
Equipment:
Maxi Foam Roller
Level:
Beginner
This 6-Minute Chest and Back Workout Relieves Upper Body Pain, Improves Breathing & Reduces Stress
Your back is one busy body part. This hard-working hind area protects your vital organs, supports your entire body weight, and facilitates flexible movement. Your back doesn’t lie down on the job. And how do we reward our industrious corpus core? By developing bad everyday habits that tense its muscles, limit its range of motion, restrict its ability to help us breathe correctly, and cause it pain.
A stiff back and constricted chest can negatively impact your breathing. Your mid-back is connected to your ribs by a cartilaginous joint. Each time you inhale, your mid-back extends so your ribs can make room for your lungs to expand. If your back is stiff and your chest muscles are tense, the amount of air you take in can be limited. Breathing correctly is important to your body’s entire operation, from cognition to digestion, stress reduction to sleeping.
We’ve developed a chest and back workout that can help promote good mobility, increase your range of motion, strengthen your diaphragm for better breathing, and reduce neck, shoulder, and back pain. The routine only takes 6 minutes, and all you need is our maxi foam roller. Check out our YouTube video below or scroll down to get step-by-step instructions on how to perform our chest and back workout.
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Chest and Back workout step-by-step
For this exercise, you’ll need our maxi foam roller.
Buy now
Step 1: Back Foam Roll Massage
- Lie on your back.
- Place the maxi foam roller in the middle of your back so that your spine is resting in the protective groove. Make sure your head and buttocks are touching the floor.
- Press your spine into the maxi foam roller and breathe deeply.
- Apply enough pressure so that you reach between 8 and 9 on your personal pain scale.
- On each exhale, alternate rolling slowly to the left and to the right.
- Roll for about 2 minutes and finish.
Step 2: Chest Hang
You can perform this stretch on the floor between two chairs or standing in a corner.
- Place a chair on either side of you at arms distance. You should be able to reach the edge of each chair with your hand.
- Sit back on your heels and raise your arms until they are at a 20° angle.
- Lock your arms and bring your body forward until each hand is touching a chair and your chest is hanging.
- On each exhale, lean closer to the floor until you’re between 8 and 9 on your personal pain scale. Make sure your arms stay locked, and your head stays straight.
- Stretch for about 2 minutes.
- Slowly sit up and finish.
Step 3: Diaphragm Stretch
- Sit at the edge of a chair with your knees slightly wider than hip-distance apart.
- Inhale through your nose, filling your lungs to capacity.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth completely.
- Drop forward between your legs and exhale more.
- Squeeze your nose closed with your thumb and index finger, close your mouth and come back up to a sitting position.
- Create suction by inhaling against your closed nose and mouth.
- When you’ve created as much suction as you can, open your nose and mouth and inhale.
- Repeat 10 times.
Put Your Back Into It.
Perform our chest and back workout 6 days a week for a 2-week sprint. As soon as you notice improved posture, reduced upper body tension, and a positive change in your breathing, you can reduce the amount of times per week to as often as you like.
Fight Pain with Information.
Subscribe to The Pain Relief Advisor
Sign up for our free newsletter and discover how to manage your pain yourself. Every two weeks, we’ll deliver follow-along videos and articles to your inbox.
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