Hello and welcome to this daily flow for tight wrists,
Forearms,
Shoulders,
And chest.
So I personally like to think of this flow as like my post-workday opening.
So if you spend a lot of time at a computer or driving or on your phone for work,
This area is the area that really tends to get very,
Very tight.
So I wanted to show you and lead you through my personal favorite flow to open all of this up.
So we're going to begin in easy seated position.
Creating a long spine and softening the shoulder.
We'll begin just by rolling out the shoulders,
So rolling them up.
Back and down.
Switching directions,
Rolling the shoulders back,
Up and forward.
And then releasing the shoulders down and just shrugging them a few times.
What I think is interesting about this shoulder shrug is that you almost need to put a little tension in the shoulders on the shrug so then you can really release down.
Let the shoulder blades slide down the back.
Find stillness with the shoulders.
And we'll drop our right ear down towards our right shoulder.
And if you'd like,
Left hand can reach down towards the ground.
So opening a little bit through the neck as well.
And inhale moving through center and exhale switching side.
Noticing that especially with your neck,
It can feel very different from side to side.
This is something you may really notice as well in your shoulders.
We tend to do a lot of repetitive motions that use the same one muscle or joint over and over.
It causes these imbalances.
We'll come back to center,
Taking our hands to our low back,
Clasping them and lifting them up off of the low back.
In that opening and across the shoulders and chest.
It's one of just my favorite arm positions.
It always just feels so good.
Releasing the hands down,
Inhaling up,
And exhale,
Bend the elbows,
Open up the chest.
So we'll flow through this inhaling up.
Exhale,
Hands behind the back.
Inhaling lift,
Chest expansion.
Exhale,
Lower.
And inhale up.
Exhale,
Bend the elbows,
Open the heart.
Doing this a few more times on your own,
Just flowing between these different shoulder opening positions.
When we bend the elbows,
Open the heart.
We're working more on the interior part of the shoulder.
You'll notice when you do the chest expansion,
It works a little bit more on the top of the shoulder.
Our shoulders are a ball and socket joint,
Meaning that they move in many,
Many planes of motion.
We'll do all of this just one more time.
So if you really want to work on shoulder mobility,
Opening the shoulders,
You're going to have to move those shoulders through many different planes of motion to do so.
Releasing the hands down,
Interlacing the fingers,
Rolling out the wrists.
Making sure to go both directions with your circle.
And releasing the hands down,
Making your way over to a tabletop,
Finding all fours.
Stacking shoulders over wrists and hips over knees.
And we're going to begin here by taking our hands and rotating them.
So middle fingers pointed towards the wide edge of the mat,
Thumbs pointed towards the top of the mat.
And from here,
We'll just draw some small circles with the body,
Beginning to massage out the wrists.
And switching directions with your circles.
And coming back to center,
Rotating our hands one more time.
This time,
Thumbs will be pointed towards the wide edge of the mat,
Middle finger pointed towards the knees.
Forearms will be opening towards the front of the mat.
So you'll be able to feel this in the wrists and the forearms.
And if you'd like,
You can take your hips,
Dropping them even one inch closer towards the heels.
You'll really feel that opening in the wrists and the forearms.
And if you'd really like,
You can do a few cat-cows here.
With this arm variation.
You'll notice.
.
.
At most likely with this arm variation.
The Cat-Cow becomes a little bit less about the flexion and extension of the spine and a little bit more about the wrists and the forearms.
I'll do one more of each if you chose this option.
Then we'll come to a neutral spine.
Releasing the hands,
Bringing them back to neutral in the tabletop,
And then tucking the toes behind you and sitting back on the heels.
I'm going to give you one bonus.
Foot opening even though I know the focus is more on the wrists.
But I want to give the rest a moment.
To sort of rest,
Reset.
When you have a joint,
You put a little bit of compression on it and then you release a lot of that fresh synovial fluid and lymphatic system.
It kind of works to sort of flush out through the joint.
So we want to give our wrists a small break.
Interlacing the fingers,
You can roll the wrists out once again.
And switching directions.
I'm coming back to a tabletop.
This time we can start with the right hand flipping the right hand over so back of the hand is on the mat,
Palm is towards the body.
Now you could do this one at a time or you could do both at the same time.
It just depends on what feels good to your body.
And then once you've found this position,
Back of the hand is flat on the mat,
You'll curl the fingers in,
Almost like creating this little gorilla foot,
And then release.
So you'll curl and release.
Just massaging out the wrists.
If you're doing one at a time,
You can switch sides now.
And then releasing,
Coming to a tabletop on your forearms.
So taking your forearms,
We're getting them down into the mat and now doing a few more of these Cat-Cows.
And seeing if you can invite a little bit of movement into the shoulders as well.
So of course the spine is moving between these two shapes.
But letting the shoulders play around too.
Do one more of each.
And then releasing,
Keeping the hips where they are,
Walking your hands farther in front.
And dropping the heart towards the mat,
Finding a puppy pose to open the shoulders.
And walking yourself back.
And we're going to do a small flow here.
This is one of my favorites,
But it's a little bit different,
Which is why I like it.
So we're going to begin by bringing the knees a little bit wider than hips distance apart.
So it's almost like you're in a wide-legged tabletop.
We'll bring our hips back to our heels,
Finding a child's pose.
And then on the inhale,
You're going to keep your hands where they are,
Bend the elbows,
Draw your heart close to the mat,
And land in a baby cobra.
It feels a little bit different.
Then pressing through,
Finding a cat pose,
And return to child's pose.
Let's try that all together.
So inhaling here,
Big number five hands,
Drawing the heart across the mat,
Landing in a baby cobra.
Exhaling moving through cat and returning to child's pose.
So start doing this at your own pace.
Really playing around with it.
Playing around with how it feels if you get your chest a little bit closer to the mat or a little bit farther away.
What is it like when you move slower or faster?
We'll do one more and then we'll meet in our child's pose.
And now from this child's pose,
Take your right hand,
Thread it underneath the left,
Finding a variation on thread the needle.
Left hand can be reaching towards the top of the mat,
Or it can wrap behind the low back for the half bind.
Breath is down low in the belly.
And we'll move back through Child's Pose.
Going right into the other side,
Right hand will stay,
Left arm will cross underneath the right.
Option to reach your right hand towards the top of the mat or wrap behind the low back for the half bind.
And moving back through center child's pose.
And inhale coming up to all fours,
And then make your way back to a seat.
Pausing here for a moment.
And then inhale,
Sweeping hands overhead.
Exhale,
Bend the elbows,
Open the heart.
And from here,
Opening the arms out wide.
It's like you're trying to give me the biggest hug possible.
Thumbs up towards the sky,
Inhaling here.
Exhale,
Just turn thumbs down.
Doing a few of these,
Inhaling,
Thumbs up.
Inhale,
Thumbs down.
Is rotating your shoulders.
Through their range of motion.
And inhaling,
Thumbs up,
Opening a little bit wider.
Exhale,
Curl and round,
Give yourself a big hug.
And inhaling open.
Exhale and close.
Inhaling open.
Exhaling closed.
And then inhaling open.
Exhaling close now inhaling open taking your hands behind you legs come out long.
And just broadened through the heart here.
And if it feels good,
You can bend the knees,
Taking the feet as wide as the mat.
And just windshield wiper the legs from side to side.
Coming back to center.
And bringing your hands to your heart center.
Taking a big,
Deep breath in through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
And releasing your hands and opening the eyes.
And that was our daily flow for opening the wrists,
Shoulders,
And chest.
