Either of these viniyoga DVDs by Gary Kraftsow is great, depending on if you need upper or lower back work (or get both):

www.amazon.com/Viniyoga-T.../ref=sr_1_2

www.amazon.com/Viniyoga-T.../ref=sr_1_1

My faves are low cobra & cobra. Also, I can't remember what it's called, but when you lay on your belly & then use your back muscles to pick your arms & legs off of the ground & gradually get them higher with each lift. That one really helps me out a lot! I noticed my back getting stronger as well as more flexible with these two.

Hi Zee,
Do you know if you have any skeletal issues that restrict your movement or that your doc told you not to do to avoid damage?

If not, then be sure to warm up with some walking or big movement (high knee stepping with arms, etc.) before you try to stretch. Try something as simple as standing with your hands on your hips, lifting the ribs up out of the waist as much as possible and drawing big circles slowly with the torso as one unit. Cat/cow on hands and knees would be a good warmup stretch too. I"m guessing that low cobra/cobra may be kind of ambitious for you - as a starting stretch, or maybe at all - if your back is "quite stiff".

How about sitting cross legged on the floor and doing rib slides sideways and front/back, also circles just to get the vertebrae sliding in different directions? For a sustained stretch after you're good and warm, you could lay over a physio-ball either face up or on your sides and relax the muscles into a nice deeper stretch.
Push your current range gently so your body doesn't "push back".


Good luck,
Mahin