Take a comfortable seat.
We begin with some seated cat-cow.
Taking the hands to your lap at your back and then in the inhale come forwards taking the shoulder blades together.
Repeat a few times moving in time with your breath and holding any position that feels good for your spine just now.
Now take your ear towards your right shoulder and your left ear towards your left shoulder.
Moving gently with the neck,
Loosening off the sides of the neck.
Moving in time with the breath.
Take the left hand down to the floor,
Right hand towards your opposite ear.
Take the hand to the back of the head and look down towards your knee,
Stretching into the back of the neck.
Breathing,
Not pushing too far.
Now we come to the opposite side,
Left ear towards left shoulder,
Right hand out to the side.
Gentle stretch into the side of the neck,
Breathing,
No pain.
Then moving the stretch to the back of the neck by looking down,
Placing your hand on the back of the head.
Working in a pain-free range all the time.
Now we're taking the chin up towards the ceiling and down towards the neck.
The chest again,
Moving in time with your breath and looking over one shoulder back to centre and back to the opposite side.
Holding any positions that feel like they're working better for you.
Loosening off the neck,
The upper back and the shoulders.
Take a few shoulder rolls here,
Taking the shoulders up,
Back and down and then switch positions,
Going in the opposite direction.
Take your arms in front of you and take the right over the left,
Coming into eagle arms.
You can wrap the fingers or keep them apart,
Whatever works best for you.
On an inhale we're lifting the elbows and allowing the shoulders to relax.
Now take your hands behind your back,
Interlace the fingers,
Pull the shoulder blades together,
Hands down towards the floor.
Come back to your eagle arms on the opposite side,
Taking whatever position works for you,
That could be four arms pressed together,
Lifting the elbows,
Feeling this into the upper back,
Cross the shoulder blades and then when you're ready,
Interlace the fingers behind the back,
Opposite fingers on top.
Stretch across the front of the chest,
Upper back.
I'm going to take the right hand down to the floor,
Open the left up and then curving,
Rotating,
Taking the top hand down a few times,
Mobilising into the spine,
Moving in time with your breath and then hold the extended position.
You can look up to the hand if that feels okay in your neck,
Otherwise keep your head in a position that feels best for you.
When you're ready,
Swap to the opposite side.
Again,
Moving in time with the breath,
Pain free,
Kind to yourself.
This is about loosening off any tension in the upper body.
Now I'm going to place the right hand slightly away from the body and take the left up into a side bend.
This is about opening through the side of the body,
The side ribs.
Focus on the breath here and then we'll come to the opposite side.
Only moving as far as feels okay for you and it might not be very far if you're feeling tight in the shoulders and upper back today.
We'll repeat that pose again.
You can pause the video and repeat or hold any of these poses for any length of time that works for you.
Now we're going to rotate and come down folding over the right leg.
If you're seated in a chair you can still do this.
This is a lovely practice to incorporate from a seated position anywhere.
Come back to the side bend and then we're going to swap to the other side.
All the while we're drawing the attention back to the breath,
Focusing on moving,
Breathing,
Being present and fold over the left leg to the side.
When you're ready come back to the side bend,
Back to seated.
I'm now going to take the arms up overhead and inhale and exhale twist round to your right.
The head doesn't need to move round,
It can stay in line with the rest of the spine.
Just breathe into that twist.
Lift the arms on an inhale and on an exhale go to the opposite side.
Feel the body rotating,
Feel the tension unwinding.
Come back to centre and walk your hands forwards lengthening the spine.
I'm now going to grab a strap.
You can use a belt if you've got one and hold it quite loosely.
Inhale to take it up and back if you can.
Exhaling to lower down,
Inhale take it back up,
Exhale down.
So we're moving up and back trying to keep the arms straight or straight as we can because we want to feel this in the shoulders.
Please only go so far as feels accessible to you today.
This is a great shoulder mobiliser.
It's nice for relieving tension at the end of the day.
You can also practice this without the strap but you won't have the same tension to work with.
So take it behind you and hold the strap in line with your shoulders and we're now going to rotate it so we're holding one arm down to the side and taking the opposite arm up.
Careful not to hit yourself in the face at the end of the strap.
So it's almost like we're making semicircles here trying to keep the strap long and straight and you can eventually work up to a full rotation in one direction and then in the opposite.
If that doesn't feel accessible for you then work with the half semicircles.
These are all just options to help move the shoulders and take it down to one side,
Back a little,
Back up to the top and then down to the other side and take it back to get stretched further into the shoulders,
The front of the chest.
Now place your belt,
Your strap to the side and come back to the seated cat cow pose.
Your back should feel a little looser now,
A little more mobile.
Maybe if you've had a headache brewing it feels a little better.
Taking any movements that you need to here,
Maybe some more neck stretches,
Settling with the breath and then bringing your attention back to the present moment.
