Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and Queen Khaleesi.
And today we're gonna show you general stretching for stress relief.
So let's get started.
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so these general stretches should help
relieve some stress.
help you relax get rid of some of that anxiety. so the first one is just going
to be an upper trap stretch. and a lot of
these stretches are
in the neck and kind of in the chest
area because a lot
of our stress comes from our shoulders
and our neck area. so the first one
is just an upper trap stretch, and you've
probably seen me do this before if
you've seen some of my videos, but
there's a couple different ways you can
do it. so for the upper traps those that's that
big triangle muscle
in the back of your neck and the whole
trap goes down
into your upper back as well. so if
you're
stretching your left side you can either
sit
on your hand. if you're sitting in a
chair, you don't have to be on the floor,
you can hold on to the chair or you can
place your hand behind your back. so
whichever one is more comfortable for
you.
i like just kind of sitting on my hand
and that holds your shoulder down. so
you don't have to do this but it'll give
you a better stretch because a lot of
times when people are stretching,
their shoulder comes up, and then they're
not quite getting the stretch they need.
so i'm going to place mine underneath me
just to keep it down.
and then you're going to take your other
hand and kind of bring your middle
finger over to your touching your
ear. and so all you're going to do is
gently pull
away. so i'm not turning my head to the
side, i'm not looking up right now,
i'm just taking my head completely over
to the side and getting that nice
stretch. i
feel that stretch kind of through that
upper trap area right through there
maybe even down into my shoulder if my
shoulders tight as well.
so this is going to be a full stretch.
you're going to hold it for 30 seconds
and then after that 30 seconds you're
going to come up
relax it a little bit, give a little time
in between and then go back into the
stretch.
so i'm going to take a moment to do a
little smile for my thumbnail.
you can take that picture if you want to. and then again that 30 seconds three
times.
you want to do both sides, so now i'm
gonna do behind my back so you can see
it behind my back.
bringing my hand up over with my fingers touching my ear,
and then just gently pulling over. if
it's comfortable in all
the directions of where your hand is, you
might want to try it because you might
feel a slightly different stretch
depending on if it's back here or if
it's on your side.
and then just pick the one that you feel
like is really best for you.
so the next one is going to be a levator
scapulae stretch. and that levator scap
is the one that come it is all the way
down into your shoulder blade and it
comes all the way up into your neck
connecting to that cervical spine. so
really stretching this one out
out helps real relax you and gets rid of
some of that stress.
so this one again you can do a couple
different ways. i like if i'm stretching
this side
to kind of put my hand here with my
elbow up.
this again helps hold that shoulder
blade down to give you a better stretch. if you have some shoulder issues and
this isn't comfortable,
you don't have to do it. you can also
raise your hand
and do get that stretch, or again you can
kind of put your hand behind your back.
so whichever one is more comfortable for
you.
i always learned it this way, so i this
is the way i usually do it, but again you
can do it whatever
way is comfortable for you. then you're
going to kind of turn your head
at a 45 degree angle. so it's not
straight in front of you,
it's not completely to the side, you're
going to turn your head at that angle,
put your hand up and over behind your
head and then kind of pull down almost like
you're trying to tuck your nose
into your armpit there. and you should
feel that stretch
right in there and that's where that
levator scap is.
but again i'm going straight down this
time. i'm not turning my head to the side
i'm at that angle. i'm really almost just
trying to again
pulling that nose into the armpit and
holding it for that 30 seconds, getting
that nice 30 second stretch,
doing that three times, doing it on both
sides. i like to alternate back and forth
in between, so you're kind of giving each
side a little break in between, but if
you want to do them all on one side you
can.
so for this side, i'm going to put my arm
behind my back.
and then so same thing my hands coming
up and over.
my heads turned, and i'm trying to tuck my
nose into my armpit there. you might want to
make sure you've got some
deodorant on if you uh haven't been out
in a few days.
and then just holding that for that 30
seconds and then coming back up. so again three
on each side.
so then the next one is going to be for
our
sternocleidomaston muscle or the scm. and
that muscle
comes all the way up to this little
mastoid bone on our skull here,
and comes down to the clavicle
here, and attaches. so it comes all the
way through
here and so this one again helps relieve
stress if you get it relaxed.
so this one is kind of interesting
there's a couple of different ways you
can stretch it. you might have seen me
do the uh the artist pose, but this one's
gonna be a little bit different. so
you're just going to
turn your head to the side, and you're
not going to move your head but now
you're going to turn
your eyes down towards your shoulder. i'm
trying to look at my shoulder. and it's
very interesting because i didn't think
this
would make a big difference with your
eyes, but when i turn my eyes
i feel an even better stretch right
through there.
so again holding for 30 seconds really
turn those eyes and look over towards
that side because it's really going to
get that stretch in there and then
coming up. again if you want to alternate both
sides that 30 second hold,
three times. so i'm side bending and then
i'm looking
over to the side over towards that
shoulder, and i can really
feel that stretch when i do that side
bend over there.
and with my eyes it makes it stretch
even more. so it's really interesting how
that works because it's all connected,
you know
our eyes and then even our muscles here
are all innervated by those same cranial nerves up there. so when you're
moving one, you're really activating some
stuff in the other one, so it's a really neat trick there.
so then the next ones are just going to
be isometric exercises for
the cervical muscles or your neck
muscles. and isometric exercises
are really that you're activating the
muscle, but you're not moving. and so what
that does is it's really good to help
relieve stress because a lot of times
when you have stress your muscles are
really tight.
and so it might be painful to move it,
but if you're activating those muscles
sometimes it will help them relax.
so with isometric exercises what you're
really going to do is just
push into your hand. and so the motion i
would be doing first is going to be like
a side bend motion. so
this is the motion i'm doing, but i'm going to use my hand just kind of on the
side of my head so i'm not moving my
head. so i'm
pushing my head into my hand.
some people want to push their hand in
their head that's a slightly different
exercise.
so this is the movement i'm doing, but my
hand
is stopping it. when you first do these i
would just start at maybe like 30 to 40
percent of as hard as you can push. i
wouldn't push as hard as you can. you
might see
some of these muscles activate and just
for about a three to five second hold,
and then again switch side. so again this
is the motion i'm doing, but i'm
not actually doing the movement, but i'm
activating my muscle by
pushing into my hand. and as you do more
you can then
increase the the how hard you're pushing
up to about 75. but i don't know if i'd ever go 100 but
you but you can as long as it's not
painful. so then the next one would be just
turning your head
into a rotations turning it to the side.
and so it's the same thing, this is the
motion i'm doing, but i'm stopping myself
and i'm just trying to turn my head into
my hand. but my hand is stopping it.
so again that three to five second hold,
and then you can alternate back and
forth if you want to. i like doing that
just to give each side a little break.
holding three to five seconds, maybe
doing five on each side.
so then the last one is just going to be
diaphragmatic breathing or belly
breathing.
and this really helps use our pelvic
floor muscles when we
breathe through the diaphragm. and the
reason that's important is because again
when we get really stressed out or we
have
anxiety, all of our muscles tend to just
get
all kind of angry and stressed out. and
if you look at the nerve pattern in our
body,
in our belly area there's nerves all
over.
and so to get those relaxed and to relieve that stress,
breathing through your belly and using
those pelvic floor muscles really help.
so belly breathing or diaphragmatic
breathing is kind of like it sounds,
you're breathing through your belly. so
you're not
breathing in where your chest is coming
up and down, but you're breathing where
your belly
is coming in and out while you're
breathing. and so you're not just pushing
it out you're really trying to get that
air coming
in to the belly area. sometimes i find
that it's easier doing it lying down
just for me because i can kind of see it
rise up and down.
but a lot of times if you just place
your hand on one hand on your chest and
one hand on your belly,
you want your the one on your chest to
stay still
and the one on your belly just to
slightly move in and out. and that's how
you know you're breathing through your
belly.
so i'm gonna do it some my tummy might
make some noises it tends to do that
when i do
belly breathing, so if it does i apologize.
um so i'm just gonna breathe in
and breathe out. it might be a little
hard to see my hand moving but you
should
be able to see my hand moving just a
little bit like that. so again
if you truly want to relieve some stress,
i'd say maybe lay down and do it, but you
can do it sitting in a chair maybe if
you're at work or you're working on the
computer and a little stressed out.
you can do it sitting as well and again you really want to see that belly moving
in and out and you can
even just after five nice deep breaths
with belly breathing i
always feel a little bit more relaxed. and so it's a nice way to help kind of
relieve that stress.
oh i know that's right. so those were
general stretching
for stress relief. if you'd like to help
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be safe have fun and i hope you feel
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