Welcome everyone. Today we're going to be doing some chest opening stretches and some
heart opening stretches with the foam roller.
So if you don't have a foam roller that's okay, you can roll up a big beach
or bath towel
to prop yourself up with and to massage the the rib cage in the upper back with
and as well if you find that the foam roller you have feels a little bit too
firm you can wrap a towel around it so that
the feedback you're getting is a little softer and a little less intense.
So feel into what works best for you. I'm using quite a pillowy roller here,
but use what you have to find the sensation that feels most supportive.
We're going to be starting laying down on our side
and there are a couple spaces that I just want to point out to you that we're
going to be using with the foam roller. So the first
place it's gonna be right kind of right beneath the armpit here
and the second place is gonna be just below that kind of um
if you were to think of a bra strap where it sits across the ribcage here. So
really these two spaces we're going to be working with. So let's find a sideline
position you've got your foam roller here.
You can kneel with your legs to one side and let's just
find that first spot. So it's right beneath the armpit here
making sure your pelvis feels relatively stacked. Now your other arm it can be
supporting you here it can be laying straight that can be a personal
preference.
If it feels really tender in this space, you can just use your arm to
support your body so that the feedback is a little less intense for you.
Once you're here laying in this space you can bring one hand around to the
back of your head and we're just going to rotate forward
back to center and slightly backwards so we're really just massaging out this
muscle. We're just taking it back and forth
again. It's easing into the space that feels supportive so if any of this feels
uncomfortable start out with a towel.
Start it with a rolled up towel
because the feedback is going to be a little less intense.
So let's just take one more time taking that
across back to center
and slightly backwards back to our starting point. You can use
your arm to prop yourself up and scoot that roller down. Now we're finding that
little bra strap line across the ribcage and let the foam roller sit there
and again using your arm to the extent that feels helpful. If it feels like it's
a comfortable pressure, you can just let your arm feel easy.
Again, the hand comes to the back of the head. We're just taking this across
that muscle so forward back to center and then slightly back
like it's a little massage letting your jaw be easy
and we'll take just a couple more here and back to center. Again using that arm
to help you up. We'll keep the roller here
and we're going to turn around so that roller is resting right at the bottom of
our shoulder blades so as you lean back into that space just feel for where is
the roller in contact with my shoulder blades. We want it towards the bottom.
We don't want it beneath the shoulder blades so if it's a little above that
point that's okay, but as long as it's on the bony part of your shoulder blade
and hands can wrap just to support the head a little bit and we're going to
just gently extend the spine over the roller just to the point that feels
comfortable. Bringing it back up here
and feeling it to your pelvis we want that pelvis to be slightly curled as if
you're curling your tail between your legs just a little bit so we can support
that back. As we extend over the roller in this way.
So just taking a couple kind of countering a lot of this
punch forward posture that
many of us find ourselves in for a lot of the day.
Once you come back up let's start to take this from side to side. So thinking
that the bottom of your ribcage is hugging down towards your hip bone
and then taking that to the other side and it's not the hips lifting up to meet
the rib cage it's really the ribcage that wants to slide down to meet the hip
bones. So the pelvis gets to stay steady as you mobilize the thoracic spine.
The thoracic spine is that little chunk of your spine so the lumbar spine is the
lower part your cervical spine is your neck and the upper part. So thoracic
spine is really the chest then we want to mobilize and loosen up.
Let's take one more time here really giving yourself a nice deep breath all
the way out the side of this lung. So think of breathing into that full side
of the torso and then same thing to the other side.
One more time I'll just take that back
extending over. If this feels really good for you,
experiment with the roller even a little bit further up so you could just kind of
scoot forward so the roller is resting towards the top of your shoulder blades
and again extending over taking that side to side, but just
exploring what movement feels possible through the thoracic spine and really
leading into what's there.
So we're going to roll all the way up and we're going to take this around to
the other side so same muscles that we're using underneath
the armpit and across that bra strap. Let's take that to the other side and it
might feel different to this side so just listening to your body
and making sure you're sticking with what feels good supportive and safe for
this side. So again hand comes behind the head the
legs can be bent comfortably here we're just going to rotate forward
and back again we're treating this like a
massage so easing into the pressure that feels tolerable that feels supportive
letting that roller do the work and you might feel on this side you want
a little extra cushion. You might prefer to use just a roll-up towel you may
prefer to roll a towel around your roller.
Take a couple more times across this muscle here
and then back to center. Use your bottom arm cell view up we'll scoot that roller
down just a little bit and again same thing we're just going to
massage out that space so taking it forward
and cross opening that heart up slightly towards the ceiling.
Just nice and gentle, making sure that you continue to breathe
out into the spaces that feel sticky or the spaces that they're feeling
stretched last time here is traveling across that muscle
and kind of exploring the tissue with the roller.
Back to center go ahead and help yourself up to a seated position
and as you're sitting here just feeling
how does it feel through my chest. Perhaps even taking a big deep breath
breathing into your rib cage as if you're blowing up a balloon. 360 here
and just exploring how does it feel to breathe into the sides of my ribcage.
How does it feel to breathe front to back
especially after loosening up that space across the chest
and across the ribcage. So go ahead and stand up. You can either use
this as a standalone just movement break a little stretch for the chest to feel
easier and looser through the rest of your day. You can absolutely use this as
part of a workout routine.
So allow this to work for you and thank you so much for joining. I'll see you
back here next time on the Y's Recharge With Us from Home series. Take care.