Upper and mid-back · 30–60 seconds per side, moving slowly
The open book, for a stiff mid-back
Most backs do not need more bending. They need rotation, from the part that is built for it.
Your mid-back is the section of spine designed to rotate. When it stiffens, the twisting still has to happen somewhere — usually the lower back or the neck, neither of which is built for much of it. The open book asks the mid-back to do its own job, in a position where the lower back cannot easily cheat.
How to do it
- 1
Lie on your side, knees bent up toward your chest, arms out in front
Stack your knees and let them rest on the floor. Palms together, arms straight ahead at shoulder height.
- 2
Open your top arm across your body like a book cover
Let your eyes and head follow the hand. Keep your knees pinned together and on the floor — they are what stops the lower back joining in.
- 3
Go to the first point of resistance and breathe there
Take a breath or two, then bring the arm back over. It is a slow movement, not a sweep.
Make it easier
Put a cushion under the knees and a cushion under the head, and rotate only as far as the shoulder will go while the knees stay down.
Make it harder
Pause at the end of the rotation and take three slow breaths, letting the top shoulder settle a little further toward the floor with each exhale.
The mistake that undoes it
Letting the knees peel off the floor so the arm can reach further. That is the lower back rotating, which is exactly what this movement is trying to avoid.
When this one tends to help
Long stretches at a desk or a wheel, and a mid-back that feels locked when you turn to reverse the car.
Stop if rotation brings on symptoms travelling into an arm, and get the neck and mid-back assessed.
Also called open book stretch, thoracic rotation, side-lying rotation. Drawn from the clinically authored Vinys exercise library — how the method works. General movement guidance, not medical advice.