CHEST OPENERS

Do you have upper back/neck pain??

Do you spend a good amount of your day in a forward slouch?

Do you need more energy?

Chest openers need to be part of your daily life. Performing 1-2 stretches EVERYDAY can significantly open the tight chest muscles, increase blood flow bring in energy, and allow for a deeper more efficient breath.

Our muscles were designed to work in both directions, therefore if we are only bending in one direction, we are creating an imbalance and pain will result. It becomes a domino effect; tight chest muscles lead to shoulder and neck pain, which leads to shallow breathing, lack of energy, and bad posture, which affects our mental health.

Tight chest muscles lead to shallow breathing. Science says most people today are breathing from their nipples up, yet your lungs are the length of your ribs. Diseases like pneumonia and bronchitis can breed in stagnant areas of your lungs. (Think of water in a bird bath that sits stagnant.) Good posture, flexible chest pectoralis, and strong rhomboids will facilitate deeper breathing, more oxygen going throughout, more energy, better blood flow to heal and your mental status improves with proper oxygen levels.

Backbends can seem intimidating and yet many yoga poses can stretch the pectoralis and rhomboids is an easier pose to achieve the opening of the chest muscles. Let’s look at just a few that you could incorporate today.

PRAYER ARMS

Reach behind you, and grab your elbows or forearms depending on your tightness. Walking your fingers up your forearm or upper arm (humerus). Keep head back so ears remain over shoulders. Hold for 3-5 breaths. Allow the tightness in your shoulders to relax with each exhale.

CACTUS ARMS

This pose can be done sitting or standing. Keep head back, ears over shoulders while you extend your arms at 90* angles back. Try to get your elbows to go back further than your shoulders. Squeeze your scapula together like holding a walnut between them. Hold that squeeze for 3-5 breaths then circle your arms back around to be in front of you.

FORWARD FOLD with ARMS BEHIND

Grab your hands together behind you and stretch your arms up as much as your chest will allow. Breath into that for 2-3 breaths. Then bend your knees, and fold forward lifting your arms away from your body. Hold for 2-3 breaths, then let your hands fall to the ground and feel all the blood rushing into your arms😊

UPWARD DOG

Lie on your belly, press your hands into the mat and lift your chest. A slight bend in the elbows will assist you in keeping your shoulders down and back creating an open chest. If this is easy lift your upper thighs off the ground as I have in the picture. Keep your gaze straight ahead.

CACTUS ARMS SUPINE

This is my favorite pose. I end most days with this one. Lie on your back, and place a yoga block lengthwise under your spine. The top of a block should be at top of the shoulder so that your head can fall back. If you need to place a rolled-up towel under the head if too much tilt. Your arms are at 90* angles in the shape of a cactus or the letter U. Your forearms may not touch the ground and that is okay. Allow the pose to develop as you lay on the floor. You may experience a tingling in your arms and hands, that is okay.

Try a chest opener or two today and survey how much better you feel after just one of these poses.

YOGA MOM KIMBERLY Wellness Yoga