So in this video weÕre looking at some
exercises to help loosen your chest.
The chest muscles can get very tight,
particularly when you do a lot of work
that is in front of you and very focused -
that could be computer work, or carpentry,
or cookery. Everything tends to get
pulled forwards, and this tightens the chest
muscles here, and in particular it can
start to cause rounded shoulders, but
also it can start to compress some of
the structures at the base of your
throat in an area that's called the
thoracic outlet. Here are the blood
vessels for your arms. Sometimes they
can get compressed which can cause
Swelling, tingling and discoloration in
your hands and fingers. Sometimes
compression of the structures in this
area can mean that you don't breathe as
freely and easily as you normally would
Do. If you've had a chest infection
recently sometimes this area can be very
Tight, so these exercises help to undo
chest restrictions and return your
posture to a more normal balance. You
can do a stretch for your chest using
any convenient doorway that's not being
otherwise used. Just place your hands
on either side of the door frame and
then take a step through. As you do this
you'll feel a stretch across the front
of your chest, and you can vary the
degree of stretch by how far you lean
through or not. Make sure that you're
comfortable and then you stay in the stretch
for at least a couple of minutes to
allow time for the fascia to release and
let go. You can vary your hand
position to either further up the frame
or further down the frame to stretch
different parts of your chest, making
sure you stay in each stretch for at
least two minutes. In this exercise
we're going to use a myofascial ball,
which is inflatable, to work directly on
our chest muscles. The Pec muscles
here sometimes can get very tight,
particularly if we do a lot of computer
Work, or work that's in front of us.
They start to become tight, which
pulls your shoulders forward and creates
rounded shoulders. One way of helping
these to release is by using a ball on
this area. To find the right area to
work on
feel for your collarbone which is just
in a line along here, and then your
shoulder joint. Then just below and
between these is this soft pocket and
that's where you're aiming to put the
ball in here.
Just rest your body on the ball and
wait for the tissues to start to release.
You can either work with just one
ball on one side, or if you like you can
work with two balls at the same time.
Here you're just waiting for a
couple of minutes for the tissues to start to
release and let go. This will help
your Pecs to release and the shoulders
drop back into the position. In this
exercise we are going to work on the top of
our back to help to release this area.
Sometimes when your pecs and your chest
are tight, it pulls your shoulders forward
and all the tissues across your upper
back can become tight and stuck. So as
part of helping to release your chest,
it's always a good idea to release your
upper back as well. For this I'm going
to use two balls in a bag and I'm going
to put them on my upper back just
between my shoulder blades.
Make sure that the dip between the
balls is where the spine is so you're
not putting pressure directly on your
Spine, and just wait for a sense of
things starting to release and let go.
You can do this exercise on the floor
like I'm doing, or on your bed.
Sometimes people find it's more
comfortable to have a pillow under their
Head, which is fine, and sometimes people
find actually it's easier to do this
exercise against the wall where you're
just leaning on the balls against the
wall. Whichever version works for you
is fine, the main thing is just waiting
for the sense of things starting to
release and let go in your upper back.
Make sure you're here for at least a
couple of minutes to allow that to start
to happen. In this exercise we're
going to do a towel stretch and so for
this you need to use a big towel like
this - this is a bath sheet, and you can
roll this up into a big sausage. Then
I'm going to lie on this with my head
and my bottom on the towel and my spine
along it.
At home you can do this on the floor or
on your bed, you can have your legs bent,
or you can have your legs flat,
whichever is more comfortable for you.
Then just allow your arms to relax
by your sides. What happens with the
towel stretch is it lifts your spine off
the floor and then gravity starts to
pull everything back down to the floor.
In particular it's going to pull all
the muscles and the tissues around your chest,
Shoulders, and upper back down towards the
Floor. It creates loosening in
all of these tissues and it helps to
correct posture and release tight chest
and upper back muscles. With this
stretch ideally if you can be here for
10 to 15 minutes then it allows the tissues
time to let go. The best time
of day to do this is usually in the
evening when things are at their
Tightest. You can find more exercises
like these in our Living Pain Free
online programme on our website where you
can also find our myofascial release kits.