Lateral line

Overhead side bend

Reach one arm overhead and bend away from it, keeping both feet heavy. You are opening the long seam that runs from ankle to armpit, one of the most under-stretched lines in a chair-shaped life.

How to do it

1. 01Stand tall, feet hip-width, both feet pressing evenly into the floor.
2. 02Reach one arm overhead and let the other rest on your hip or slide down your thigh.
3. 03Exhale and bend sideways away from the raised arm, reaching long rather than collapsing.
4. 04Breathe into the open ribs for a slow breath or two, then rise on an inhale and switch sides.

Mistakes that waste your reps

• ×Twisting forward or backward instead of bending purely sideways.
• ×Letting the opposite foot peel off the floor, which shortens the very line you are stretching.
• ×Crunching the bottom ribs down instead of reaching the top arm long.

Where this comes from

Discomfort that eases as you move is normal; pain that sharpens is a stop sign. If this area is injured or persistently painful, a clinician outranks this page.

Written by Kyle Jenkin · updated August 31, 2026 · how we grade evidence

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