(serene music)
- When you first wake up in the morning,
you might feel stiffness in the body.
Especially with arthritis,
there tends to be a stiffness in the joints
that particularly happens in the morning
or it could happen at any time of the day,
especially if you've been sitting still
or not moving for long periods of time.
It can be helpful to move the body
and get the synovial fluid moving, lubricate the joints,
and, perhaps, feel a little bit less stiff.
We're gonna move sequentially through the body
and articulate all of the joints as a way to warm up,
which you could use anytime you're gonna do
an activity that requires more mobility and movement,
or just if you're feeling stiff
and you feel like you need a little bit of movement.
Starting with the feet,
we're gonna lift the toes up and wiggle them,
and imagine that you're sort of
playing the piano with your toes.
And then from there, moving the ankles,
rocking back and forth on the feet,
taking the weight into the balls of the feet
and then the heels.
And then you can alternate,
taking one forward and the other one back,
like you're doing a little march with the feet.
And this starts to lubricate the joints of the feet
and the toes and the ankles.
If you're sitting in a chair,
slide back so that you feel like you're supported
by the back of the chair,
and then you can lift one leg and lower it down,
and you can even play with moving with the breath here,
exhaling as you lift, and inhaling as you lower.
If you're feeling really adventurous,
you might even try doing them both at the same time.
And even try balancing by taking the arms
out to the sides as you do that.
This requires a lot of leg strength
that may take some practice
and strength-building to move toward.
From here, lift the legs one at a time,
so now we're moving up into the hips.
And it doesn't matter how high your leg goes,
just that you're getting a little bit of movement
into the hip joints.
We're gonna come forward in the chair now
to have a little bit more movement,
and you can do a little circle with one side
and go the other way,
and then the other side.
You could even try these at the same time
if you're feeling really adventurous.
And then go the other way.
And then because we just did
a lot of movement with the hips,
we're gonna do a little stretch of the hips,
so slide to one side or turn to one side,
take the leg back
and feel a little stretch in the hip flexors.
This is really good for people who sit
for long periods of time,
to get a little bit of a stretch here
because these muscles tend to be condensed
and tight throughout the day.
And then we'll go to the other side.
Make sure that you're protecting your low back here
by engaging the muscles of the core
so that you don't have too much of a sway in the back
as you're stretching the hip.
And then come back to center,
and we're gonna start to articulate the spine
with what's called the seated cat cow,
so you round the back and then arch,
and this can be a small movement or a big one,
whichever feels comfortable to you.
And you can try to organize this movement
so that the top and the bottom of the spine arrive
at the end of the movement at the same time.
This can also be coordinated with the breath,
inhaling as you arch, exhaling as you round,
and you might feel the natural tendency
to let the hands slide along the legs.
You could exaggerate that and make the movement bigger,
moving the shoulder blades as you go, if that feels good.
And then come back to center,
roll the shoulders one way and the other way.
You have muscles on the outside
and the inside of the shoulder blades
so when you move the shoulders like this,
you're giving yourself a little massage.
The cheapest, easiest massage you could ever get
just by rolling the shoulders.
And again, you can alternate one at a time,
backward and forward,
and you can even move the arms with it
like you're doing a little swim stroke, and go backward.
And then take the arms out to the front and now,
imagine that you're playing the piano with your fingers,
a little bit more realistic than doing it with your toes.
Spread the palms and then bring
the fingertips toward each other,
and it's fine if the fingertips don't touch,
but just moving the hands open and closed
starts to stretch the muscles in the hands
and may even increase your mobility there,
rolling the wrists out, rolling them in.
Extend the arms out in front,
and it's as though you're flexing
and pointing with the hands.
And again, whatever range is available to you here is fine.
It's not important that the movement be large,
and then you can alternate, like a little doggie paddle.
Spread the fingers away from each other and together,
away and together, away and together,
and then just shake out the arms and lower them down.
Lengthen the spine and turn the head to one side,
back to center, and then to the other side,
and back to center.
Make sure that you're sitting up nice and tall,
that you're not slouching as you do this movement,
and then take the ear toward the shoulder,
and the other way, but not the shoulder toward the ear,
so we're not doing this.
We're letting the shoulder stay relaxed
and just stretching alongside the neck.
And then if you feel comfortable,
you can roll side to side very gently,
very small movement here without going back,
and then bring the head back to center.
Take the arms up with a big inhale,
as high as the arms go, whatever feels comfortable,
exhale down, inhale up, and exhale down.
If your arms come all the way up overhead, that's fine.
If they don't, that's fine too, and lower them down.
Sit up nice and tall, take a little side stretch.
You might wanna hold on to your chair here.
You can take your arm up overhead if that feels good to you.
Feel a nice big, juicy stretch in the side of the body,
come back up to center, and then go the other way,
sit up nice and tall,
take a little stretch over to the side, and come back.
Roll the shoulders again, shake out the whole body,
and release.
(serene music)