The spine is a 33 bone segment that sustains the rigors of daily activities and the force of gravity all day long. It gets compressed by a few inches if you do not take care to exercise it. If you perform some back stretching exercises every day, you can grow taller after puberty even. Here is a stretching exercise for the upper back to stretch and straighten it. Use an incline bench if you have one or you can use any regular flat bench. Lie down on the bench flat on your back. Move upwards so much that your upper back goes over the edge of the bench. Let your head fall backwards so that your upper back gets nicely stretched. Stay in that stretched hanging position for about 2-3 minutes. Donâ??t simply get up from that position because your head will be gushing with blood supply. Rest for another 2-3 minutes in a flat position before getting up.