Hello, everyone. We're about to do one of my favorite stretches for undoing kind
of mouse-claw hands, phone-holding hands, hunched over and sunken in chests
from staring at the computer all day. So, this is really one of my favorites for
opening and expanding and I always get in some good wrist cracks, too.
So, won't get any props. You'll just need a mat or a soft surface to lay down on.
And I'll meet you down on the mat.
So, let's lie down. We're going to lie down on our backs, feet: hip distance apart, knees bent slightly.
I'll shuffle up so you can see me a little better here.
Now if you'd like something behind your head just to support your neck, please feel free to
modify this stance to whatever feels comfortable for your body. So, if you need
a little pillow behind your head to support your neck, please feel free to do so.
Okay.
So, just to start here, let's take a couple deep breaths.
So, really—with your inhale—letting that breath come in fully expanding wide for that rib cage.
So, sometimes it can be helpful to put your hands on either side of your
rib cage here.
Let that breath flow in so that it moves
your hands outwards, pushing the ribs against your hands, as you inhale.
So, let's take a couple more just like that. Really filling that rib cage and
expanding laterally into your hands.
Now, on your next inhale, you can keep your
hands here just for a little accountability, but I want you to use
that breath to fill the back of your rib cage. So, it's going to allow your back
to feel like it's getting a little bit more contact in with the mat.
So, as you breathe, if you feel you're expanding out into your hands, see if you can redirect
that breath towards the back of your body. So, it can fill that space between
the back of your rib cage and the mat.
Let's take two more nice, deep inhales here.
And then, you can bring your arms up. So, before we start, taking a second to
plug those arms into the shoulder sockets here.
And now, we're going to rotate at the shoulder socket. So, as much as possible, we don't want to rotate at the
wrist. We don't want to rotate at the elbow. We want to try to rotate from the
shoulder socket to send our arm into a T. We're going to take this in both
arms. But, as we do, as we rotate through that shoulder socket, the palm of
the hand is going to start to face the floor. So, as much as possible it will be
tempting to just you know rotate from the elbow or rotate from the wrist, but
pretend you don't have any joints here. See if you can just take that motion, that rotation,
from the shoulder socket. So, it might feel a little bit tight, but that's
exactly why we're doing it. So, starting with both arms up here, see if you can,
again, rotate from the shoulder socket to send both arms out into a T.
So, here you are in your T. And I want you to give a little gentle reach
through both of those pinky fingers. So, as if you're trying to push someone away
with both your pinkies. Reaching out even more. And now let's take that to the ring
fingers. So, reaching through both of those ring fingers,
And through the pinkies. And now, let's add on the middle fingers.
Reaching through as if you're shooting little laser beams out of those fingers.
Let's take and add on the pointer finger here. The index finger, reaching through shooting, laser beams
outside of those fingers. And then, adding in the thumb. So now, you are reaching
through all those fingertips. Let that sternum sink towards the mat behind you.
And let's take two big, deep breaths.
Filling that with rib cage towards the back of the rib cage. Exhaling fully. Let's take
that deep breath again.
Exhaling fully. So, this may already feel like a deep
stretch. And we're going to take this up a notch, even a little bit more.
So, you've got your reach through the fingertips. Now, you're gonna flex at the wrists.
Nice flat palm here on both sides, as if you're pushing the walls away to either
side of you. So, you can think of it like how Spider-man shoots his web out of
this space here. Imagine that you're shooting that web out.
And let's hold here, taking those two
deep inhales into the back of the rib cage again.
And now, continuing to reach through those fingertips, we're gonna bring those hands
down, fingertips towards the floor, and now you're going to be reaching through
those wrist spaces here.
Filling that rib cage with your breath.
And then, bringing those palms back to a flexed position here. And so, again rotating at the
shoulder socket, we're just going to, as if you're waiting to someone, bring
that arm into rotation. So, as if your hand's waving, or is a little windshield wiper.
We're going to do that same thing to both sides, and let's just take it in
the same direction for both arms. So, they're waving in unison here.
Or windshield wipering in unison here. Remembering to breathe as if your breath
is helping to create more space for this movement to happen.
Pausing here at the center, reach through the heels of those hands and let's, again,
bring those wrists—just got a nice little crack. Again, reaching through
those wrists spaces here, fingertips towards the floor. Let's bring them, once
again, back up into a flexed position and now we're gonna windshield wiper
opposite directions for the arms. So, as this hand comes forward, the other hand
is going to come back. And so, you'll probably feel this stretch across the
chest. So, breathe a little bit deeper, make a little bit more room for this
stretch to happen. And, again, see if you can allow the rotation to happen at the
shoulder socket versus just moving the wrists or the elbows.
And then, bringing those palms back to our flexed position here. One more time.
Fingertips towards the floor. And then, back to our original T position, we're
going to bring those arms all the way back up into the starting point.
And so, the last thing we'll do here is one arm is going to reach overhead as the
other arm comes down towards the five. And we're just going to gently reach the
fingertips towards these opposing directions, before again, plugging those
arms deep into the shoulder sockets—nice and heavy shoulders—as you switch.
So, now, that other arm is going to come overhead, reaching overhead as the other
hand reaches down towards your toes. Heavy through the shoulders, as you switch.
Nice deep breath.
And pausing here at the top. You can let those arms rest at your sides. Take a
second and just feel into the difference there. They probably feel a lot looser.
I know mine definitely do. Okay. So, I hope this is helpful. I hope you feel a little
bit less tense, a little bit less like you've been sitting all day and I'll
meet you back here for some more tips to help you stay feeling well in your body,
mind and spirit. Thank you so much for joining.