Morning back stiffness: why you wake up stiff and how to ease it

Animals stretch the moment they get up - it is the first thing they do coming out of the den. People forget: we wake, grab the phone, and rush off before the body has had a chance to move. After a whole night held still, the muscles and fascia have set into one shape, and the first movements feel tight and reluctant because the body has not been asked to move yet.

It is rarely a sign something is wrong. Far more often it is a still night on top of a day of sitting, with no moment to move the back through its full range. That is the good news: what stillness stiffened, gentle movement can loosen.

Overnight the discs between the vertebrae quietly refill with fluid, like sponges soaking up water - which is part of why you are a touch taller in the morning. But the muscles and fascia around them stay still for hours and lose their easy glide, so when you first move, everything feels tight and a little sore until it warms up and starts sliding again.

We work with the cause, not just the morning ache. The cause is a body that stays still and rarely gets to move through its full range - so we give it space to decompress and move rather than push through the stiffness.

In the practice you suspend the body on soft lianas (ropes), and gravity - which usually presses you down - starts to gently lengthen the spine and let the whole back move freely. The discs get space, the stiff muscles and fascia get to slide again, and the back relearns its full easy range instead of the one frozen shape it wakes up in. There is nowhere to fall, the coach is right beside you, and you relax into it rather than strain.

We never push through pain. You come to the edge of the stiffness, breathe out through it, let the back soften, and ease back - and after a few rounds it moves freely on its own. Most people feel some relief already after the first session; the morning stiffness usually settles over sessions four to six, and around ten sessions hold it so it does not creep back.

The first change is usually a body that moves more freely and mornings that stop starting with an ache. With a gentle, regular rhythm - once or twice a week - the back keeps its easy range instead of setting stiff overnight, and getting out of bed stops being the hardest part of your day.

It is not about forcing or 'no pain, no gain'. The best results come when you do it almost lazily, letting relaxation do the work - and it is worth borrowing the animal habit of a slow stretch before you rush into the day.