Why is my back so stiff every morning?

That stiff, "rusty" feeling in the first hour after waking is incredibly common and almost never means something broke. Through the night you barely move, the fluid inside the discs redistributes, and the muscles around a spine already squeezed by the day settle into one position. You wake up holding the same tension you went to bed with - the body just needs time and movement to come back online. Animals solve it instinctively: the first thing they do out of the den is stretch.

Gravity Stretching gives the spine what the night could not: in the hang it lengthens instead of staying squeezed, and decompression of the body creates space and takes the pressure off. The discs are sponges - give them space and they drink up and spring back. Slow, supported movement with calm breathing wakes the guarding muscles gently, so mornings start with more give and less of that locked feeling.

Build it as a short, regular habit - stiffness gives way to regularity faster than to any single big effort. And if mornings stay very stiff for hours, tell your trainer - we simply start even softer.