One day my sister told me that her upper back is really hurting her and she had no idea about the cause.
Two days later I entered her room and saw her sitting on her desk studying with her back bent towards the desk and her head was nearly inside the book she was studying.
At that moment I knew the cause of her suffering.
Bad posture especially during sitting is one of the leading causes of pain to the upper spine.
But wait a second we sunk in to the story and forgot to define upper back pain.
It is the pain in the part of your back where the ribs are attached to vertebrae.
I consider neck pain also as a part of it.
It is the same concept as any other back pain, there is a spasm in one group of muscles while the opposing group is stretched as shown in the figure.
I couldn't put the picture but you can see it on my website.
This spasm is the cause for your pain.
Some people including my sister did not believe the fact that bad posture is the cause for the pain, if you are among those people you'd better check the importance of maintaining good posture.
For immediate relief of pain perform the stretches, and to prevent pain recurrence follow the postural measures especially that part concerned with keeping your chest inflated.
It is important to keep these postural measures especially while sitting, because sitting is much more harmful to your upper back than standing.
You have also to perform the upper back exercises regularly and don't forget the psychological aspect and you will find in my book the ultimate guide for back pain relief the different techniques to cope with it.