Yoga-Based Stretching: Upper Body

This 8-minute practice (Intensity 1, Complexity 1) focuses on the upper body, shoulders, and range of motion. Warm up or cool down with this simple and informed sequence of lower body stretches. Suitable for all levels of experience.

Transcript

Hi everyone, This is Carrick. This is a short practice focusing on stretching and opening the upper body. Hopefully these are poses and practices that you can do in the gym, Like right before or right after you work out, Or before practice, After practice, Before or after game day. All right, Let's move into Down Dog, Which I realize might not be the most comfortable or practical pose to do in the middle of the gym, But it's such a great pose to start with. Lift your arms and soften your heart towards the ground. I'm not going to keep you here for very long. Just stretch from your heart out through your hands and stretch from your heart out through your hips. We'll be focusing on actions that you can do in the stretches. So most of the stretches I'm going to show you today, Hands to your hips, Inhale to stand. These are poses or stretches that you've probably seen and done many, Many times. And then we're going to put sort of a yoga take on them. We're going to focus on what to do while you're doing the shape. So you've obviously done these shapes before. Interlace your fingers behind your back. And pin your shoulders back, Reach your hands back. You can do this in a forward bend and take your hands over your head. You might feel that this position gives you a little more power. However, Again, If you're in the gym and you don't want to bend forward, You can just do this standing. All right, So interlace the fingers behind the back. Here are the actions to focus on. Squeeze your forearms in, Widen your shoulders out. So it's like you're trying to broaden the shoulders as you squeeze the forearms in, Okay? Actions. Squeeze your forearms in. Widen your shoulders out. Now pin the tops of the shoulders back. Pull your shoulder blades down your back and push your heart forward. Lift your chest. Keep the lowest ribs pulled in and then start to reach your hands away from your hips. And up towards the ceiling. Draw your head and your shoulders back. If you're in the forward bend, Hands go high and forward towards the front of the mat. The main actions again, Forearms in, Shoulders wide, As you reach your hands away from your hips. Just two more breaths. One more breath. Okay, For the next stretch, We'll take the arms in a different position. Take your arms over your head. Take your left hand behind your back. You've all done this stretch before. Pat yourself on your upper back with your left hand. With your right hand, Bring the elbow as close to the center line as possible, And then push your head into your forearm. My left shoulder is super tight, So it's pushing my head forward, And I'm going to use my head and my neck to open the shoulder. Keep the lowest ribs pulled in. So if your ribs pop up, It feels good to get your arm back, And you might feel like you're doing a better shoulder stretch, But really what you're doing is you're taking the stretch into your upper back. You're doing a backbend. So keep your rib cage pulled in, Minimize the backbend, And then use your head pulling back to open the shoulder. To keep the elbow centered. Near the middle of your head. It might be out here, That's alright. Depending on your flexibility, You're going to try for center. Now push your head back, Draw your chin in, Keep your ribcage pulled in to stretch the shoulder. All right, Let's switch to the other side. So again, Right palm to the upper back, Use the left hand to pull the elbow in as far as you can, Right? And then again, That might be here for today. Alright, Draw the lowest ribs in, Minimize the back bend, And then as I pull my rib cage in, It pushes my head down because my shoulder's tight. So now to stretch the shoulder open, I lift my chin and I pull my head straight back. Keep the ribcage pulled in. So then to stretch the shoulder, This is great for your neck actually too. So you're using the neck muscles, Pulling them back into neutral to open the shoulder. Just two more breaths here. One more breath. Okay, And then release the arm. So, That's shoulders. Also triceps. So, As you take the arm over and you bend the elbow, You can stretch the tricep. Let's stretch the sides of the body a little bit. Just lean, Set your feet about hip-width apart and lean to your left. And then I'll face you and do that same thing. So now it's a side stretch, Not a back bend. So I'm trying not to lift my chest up that way. I'm trying to really side bend to the side. And I'm opening up all the little muscles under the arm and through the rib cage. So place your left hand on your outer thigh and reach down. Reach the top arm up and over. You can kick your hips out to the sides. Make both feet heavy, Push your feet down, And then from your hips, Lift up and out through the top hand. Good, Stretch long, One more breath. Open up all the side muscles. Inhale to the middle. These muscles get tight, And we often don't stretch them very much. So just side opening here, And then as the opening in the side body gets longer, It allows for a range of motion in a lot of activities, Including sports and in our daily life. Okay, So it's good to keep this length here. Pull the hip down. You can even use your hand. Pull your hip down, And then stretch your arm out to the side. Remember your side bending? Not backbending. You can look up if you want. Good, Inhale back to the middle, And then let's roll the shoulders back and stretch the upper back just a little bit. Place your hands on your hips, Roll your shoulders back, And lift your chest. We'll just do a standing back bend, Okay? You can interlace the fingers behind the back again, So back to the shoulders, Pull the shoulders down. Now this time, Let the ribcage lift up, Okay? So that the bend moves more into the upper back, Okay? So ribcage pushes forward and up. Thighs stay back. And then bend the upper back. Lift your chest to the sky. Draw your head back to a position that follows the arc of the spine. So the farther you take your shoulders back, The farther you can lay your head back. So I want my head and my neck to follow the arch of my spine. Reach your hands down and lift your chest high. Broaden across the upper chest. Open your heart. Bend the upper back. Just one more breath here. We'll stretch the upper back in the other direction in just a moment. And how to come up. Okay, Now I'll face you, Cross your arms. Left elbow over your right elbow and if you can, You can double wrap the hands. Your thumbs should point towards your face. You're wrapping the arms one on top of the other and then this is going to broaden your upper back. So from behind, If I cross my elbows, You'll see my upper back broaden, The back of my shirt stretches as opposed to taking the arms wide and I can wrinkle up the back of the shirt. Okay, So I'm going to let the upper back stretch as I cross my arms. Now from here, Pull your elbows in. In towards your shoulder sockets, Root the arms back. As best you can. And then push your palms together and stretch your upper back. And then you can round just a little bit here. To stretch across the upper back and you push your palms in. All right, One more breath. Inhale up, Switch sides, Cross the arms, Push the palms, Widen the upper back, And bend in. Two breaths. One breath. Okay, Inhale to come up. Alright, So those are some great ways to just lightly open the body before your upper body workout or before you get out on the field.