6 Resistance Band Exercise For Upper Back Pain (2024)

This post has been updated to include 16 amazing upper back pain relief exercises.

Upper back pain can be debilitating. If the pain is acute, it can quickly expand to the neck or mid-back area and starts to interfere with your daily activities. In this post, I’ll share the most effective exercises I found to alleviate upper back pain.

After many years of trying different upper back stretches or exercises, only to make the pain worse, I finally found a few exercises that actually work without aggravating the spasms.

In addition to getting you relief, these upper back exercises will also strengthen those upper back postural muscles so you can avoid pain and re-injury.

I prefer band exercises to dumbbells because they are lower impact and won’t put additional load on your upper or lower back.

Below is a brief breakdown of the causes of chronic upper back pain. We can avoid the pain from returning by working on fixing these causes.

Primary Causes of Upper Back Pain

Postural imbalance: Posture plays a huge role in avoiding or triggering upper back or neck pain.

If you have a desk job or spend long hours sitting and typing, you’re more likely to develop Upper Crossed Syndrome (1).

In upper crossed syndrome, tightness of the upper trapezius and levator scapula tightness crosses with pectoralis major and minor tightness. (Chest and upper back are tight).

In addition, weakness of the deep cervical flexors crosses with weakness of the middle and lower trapezius.

By the way, there are specific routines to strengthen the deep cervical flexors in Trapezius Control program.

This happens when the shoulders start rounding, the head starts to travel forward, and the upper back rounds.

Upper-crossed syndrome can also affect the joints and muscles down the kinetic chain. Most people will rounded shoulders, and a forward head posture will later develop lower back and hip pain as well.

Helpful tutorials:

• Sitting posture to avoid hip and upper back pain
• 4 Trapezius exercises for upper back pain relief
• How to fix anterior pelvic tilt
• How to fix rounded shoulders

Muscular imbalances: muscular imbalances can develop because of bad posture and/or also due to an overuse/underuse of muscle groups.

For example, if you’re frequently slouching when you sit or work on your desk, your chest and frontal shoulder muscles develop chronic tightness.

An example of overuse is doing predominantly frontal exercises at the gym, such as biceps curls, chest presses, and push-ups. Spending a lot of time working the anterior chair muscle and not balancing it with posterior chain exercises to strengthen the back muscles. You can see how this leads to a muscular imbalance where the back muscles weaken and cause chronic upper back pain.

Exercise tip: always balance pushing with pulling exercises to maintain muscular balance.

The shortened and overactive muscles are usually: the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, latissimus dorsi, sternocleidomastoid, and pectoralis major and minor (referred to as pecs).

The weakened and lengthened muscles are usually: the deep cervical flexors, rhomboids, mid and lower trapezius, and teres minor.

The goal here is to help restore proper posture and fix the muscular imbalances that have triggered and are the root cause of upper back pain.

This is exactly why massaging the back muscles doesn’t fix the pain in the long run…because the cause of the pain hasn’t been addressed.

In addition to the exercises I’ll provide below, Trapezius Control is a solid program that’ll help you fix these imbalances with 7 corrective exercise routines and tutorials to fix postural imbalances.

Recommended program: Trapezius Control

Specialized routines to eliminate upper back pain.

Upper Back Pain Stretches

Full disclosure:this post contains affiliate links, and if you purchase using my affiliate link, I get a small commission from Amazon. You won’t pay more!

The first step in releasing upper back pain is to perform gentle stretches that target the upper back and chest muscles. A tight chest pulls the shoulders forward, weakening the upper back muscles.

You can perform this release and stretch daily as well if you spend a lot of time typing at your desk, driving, or doing many frontal exercises.

Upper Back Pain Stretches

• Sit or stand with one hand gently, pulling your head towards the opposite shoulder.
• This stretch targets the upper trapezius muscles located in the upper back and helps release tightness.

Levator Scapulae Stretch

• Place one hand behind your back and tilt your head diagonally, bringing your ear towards your shoulder.
• Use your other hand to gently apply pressure to increase the stretch, targeting the levator scapulae muscles.

Upper Back Stretch

• Cross your arms in front of your body and gently round your upper back, stretching the muscles between the shoulder blades. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds to alleviate upper back and shoulder tension.

Front neck muscles stretch (sternocleidomastoid)

How to stretch the chest:

• Place your fingers along the side of your neck and press down.
• Tilt your head slightly backward and rotate diagonally towards your shoulder.
• You should feel a gentle stretch along the side of your neck.
• If you tend to flex your head forward a lot, you may feel a lot of tightness there, so repeat a few times until you can feel some good release.

We’ll use a resistance band to complete these exercises and a massage ball to release the pectoral muscles.

The equipment you’ll need to complete the exercises: A Massage Ball and a Resistance Band or a Loop resistance band.

Upper Back Pain Release

Gentle Upper Back Pain Release:

A great way to release upper back tension and relieve the pain is by using a massage ball against the wall. The massage ball is also very effective as you can easily control it.

Place the ball higher up, on your neck and press on the tender spots.

Pectoral Release & Stretches

How to release chest and shoulder tightness using the massage ball:

• Place the massage ball (or a tennis ball) between your chest and a wall.
• Keep your hand (my left as illustrated) behind your back.
• Press against the wall and slowly move to find a tender spot.
• Rest on that spot for about 30 seconds and move to the other side.

• Stand against the edge of a wall or door frame. Make sure your shoulder is down and both your hand and elbows are touching the wall.
• Rotate slightly (to the right as illustrated) as you move forward. Hold for 10-20 seconds, release, and repeat on the other side.
• Keep your arm at a 90-degree angle. You can perform this stretch daily as the chest muscles tend to tighten up pretty fast.

Below is a list of back strengthening exercises to help you with long-term relief from upper back pain. I’ll include a few upper back pain stretches as well.

The exercises will target the upper back muscles (mainly the upper, mid, and lower trapezius), the rhomboid, and the latissimus dosi.

I’ve included a few options and also 2 video tutorials that demonstrate the exercises listed.

If you’re looking for light dumbbells exercises, check out my full video workout here on fixing rounded shoulders with light dumbbells. It’s a great complementary routine to the one below.

Upper Back Strengthening Exercises

The first video will focus on lighter exercises to help restore your posture and strengthen the smaller upper back stabilizers.

This next video will focus more on the large back muscles that will help stabilize the smaller upper back muscles.

The Upper Back Exercises:

Upper Back Shoulder Mobility

This exercise is fantastic for opening up your chest and improving shoulder mobility. The resistance band also works the back muscles. Make sure you use your back muscles to pull the band and move up and down. Follow the instructions below:

Instructions:

1. Hold the resistance band in front of you.
2. Pull the band apart to create resistance.
3. Keep your shoulders down. Raise your arms overhead. Avoid shrugging your shoulders in a way to help you push the band backward. Go as far back as you can while keeping your shoulders in alignment.
4. Maintain a neutral posture as you move your arms up.
5. Remember not to overstretch the band at the top.
6. Then bring your arms down in front of you.

Face Pulls

The face pull exercise is great for strengthening the upper posterior chain muscles. It strengthens the rhomboids, rear deltoids, and trapezius. Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together and pausing for a second.

You can use a cable machine as well for this exercise, but I’d like to give you this band option you can do at home.

Anchor the band to a heavy item such as a heavy table or sofa. I’m using my heavy dumbbell.

• Hold the band in the middle.
• Hinge at the hips and keep your core and glutes tight.
• If you’re using a cable machine, you’ll be standing. Keep your core tight for stability.
• Pull the band towards your face. Your hands should go toward the sides of your face, not the front.
• Focus on the rhomboid muscles and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
• Slowly release and pull again.

Band Pull-Aparts

This exercise will target the rhomboid muscles and strengthen the area. Grab anopen-endedorclosed-ended band.

Make sure you keep your shoulders down so you don’t exacerbate upper back pain.

Instructions:

1. Keep your shoulders down. Hold the band 1/3 of the way in from each end.
2. Pull the band using your back muscles. It helps to engage and contract your mid back before you pull (imagine you are trying to bring your shoulder blades together).
3. Slowly release and bring your arms in front of you, then repeat for 10-15 reps.

Posterior Deltoid Strengthener

Instructions:

1. Start by holding one end of the band with your left hand. Keep that end stable.
2. Hold the other hand with the working arm and pull out as you keep your arm straight. If this is hard to picture, watch the video tutorial above where I demonstrate this exercise.
3. One hand is anchoring the band. The other is holding the band and pulling it out. Remember to keep the arm straight.
4. Bring your hand to a neutral position and repeat for 10-15 reps on each side.

Rotator Cuff Strengthener

One of the main causes of shoulder injuries and upper back tension is weak rotator cuff muscle group:

This external rotation exercise strengthens these very important muscle stabilizers.

Instructions:

1. Hold the resistance with your arms facing right in front of you.
2. Bend your elbow at a 90-degree angle.
3. Rotate your arms externally.
4. Pull the band outwards as you externally rotate your arms out.
5. Make sure your elbows are as close to your body as possible.
6. This is a small yet important exercise. Control each repetition and focus on the rear shoulder muscles to do the work.

Band Back Rows

Instructions:

1. This is a great low-impact exercise to perform back rows without dumbbells.
2. Anchor the band under your feet. Grab the middle of the band.
3. Engage your core. Hinge at the hips and keep your back stable.
4. Pull the band towards your chest and squeeze your back muscles.
5. Slowly release the band and repeat.

More mid-lower trapezius strengthening exercises here.

Lats Strengthening

This great exercise works the latissimus dosi, the largest muscle in the upper body. This muscle is important in stabilizing the back and balancing the hips.

You can activate it with a resistance band or by using the cable machine at the gym.

1. Anchor one end of the band.
2. Lie on your mat and hold the other end of the band overhead.
3. Straighten your arm and pull the band down.
4. Make sure you aren’t pulling down with your triceps or forearms.
5. Engage your lats first before pulling down. Keep your shoulders down.

Band Rows

You can do this exercise sitting or standing:

Standing version:

This is a great low-impact back strengthening exercise. To get the most out of this exercise and work the back muscles, perform the row, contract, and slowly release.

Strengthening the latissimus dorsi and mid-back area helps restore posture and relieve upper back pain. With our daily lifestyle, we spend more time sitting hunched over and engaging in more forward-bending movements. This exercise helps to strengthen the back muscles, which promotes a better posture.

Instructions:

1. Anchor the resistance to a door, a stable table leg or a heavy dumbbell.
2. Hold the ends with one hand.
3. Step backward to create resistance.
4. Keep your core engaged so you’re not using your lower back.
5. Pull the band towards you.
6. Hold for 2 seconds and return to starting position in a controlled movement.

Lying Band Pull-Aparts

1. Lie down on your mat.
2. Grab the band on each side to pull to create resistance.
3. Engage your core. Stretch your arms up and pull down the band until it touches your chest.
4. Slowly go back to starting position.
5. Keep your upper back and shoulders down and use your mid-back to initiate the movement.

You can complete these exercises daily if you’d like, but it’s important not to overwhelm your muscles and cause more pain.

Upper-Mid Back Mobility: Wall Windmill

This mobility stretch is amazing for the upper and mid-back area. It’s very beneficial for the thoracic spine.

• Get into the lunge position next to a wall.
• Extend your arms.
• Keep one arm forward and rotate your arm in a circular motion over your head while keeping your arm closer to the wall.
• Follow your arm movement with your eyes/
• Video tutorial of this thoracic stretch here.

When it comes to pain relief, try to do less and monitor how your feel. Especially when the muscles are hurting. You don’t want to overwhelm your body with more stress. Choose a few exercises from above and do them for a few days.

If you’d like a step-by-step plan, I recommend my program Trapezius Control.

I hope you found this post helpful. Thank you for reading this far. If you have any questions or if something isn’t clear, let me know in the comments.

Related Posts

• 5 Light dumbbells to fix rounded shoulders
• 7 Resistance band shoulder strengthening exercises you can do at home
• Fix upper trapezius pain (full guide)