barre yoga



hi, i'm caitlin hunt. today we're going to talk about one of the biggest problems we get our clients coming to see us with which is this rounded shoulder and improving your desk posture. now i don't care how good your setup is, eventually, as the day goes on and you sit at those desks for that extended period of time, we're going to start round forward and come into

this round the shoulder position. this is going to cause tension through the neck. we are probably going to start to push the chin forward a little bit to compensate for that rounded shoulder position. we are going to get tightness through that upper back and that shoulder girdle. so if you imagine your shoulder joint, it's basically a

ball-and-socket so here's your socket and here's the arm bone and that ball at the end of the arm bone. now as you fatigue, what happens is this shoulder starts to clamp forward over that arm and it starts that creates an impingement so that arm bone hasn't got full function and we're getting impingement through the tendon. we can get this tightness

through the upper neck and tightness across the shoulder blades as a resulting factor. so what we want to do is really start to open back that shoulder, get that girdle sitting strong in an open position, open out through the chest to keep you in a better position where you are going to have less pain and less muscle tension through the neck. so one of the first stretches

that i will give clients that to come to me with this problem is with what's called a spiky ball. you can buy these through our website www.o2active.com.au or from most sports stores. we are going to take a spiky ball, we are going to place it across the shoulder blade and start to release through that upper back and the other shoulder girdle. so place it anywhere

basically if you think of when you wear those muscle back tops and where the skin is exposed, anywhere across that skin area is where we want you to work. just gently release and massage into the ball. so we are working at releasing the trigger points. especially if you do a lot of mouse work, this is a great way to release through that

tightness and that pinching that you get through the shoulder blades. so you'll normally work that for about 30 seconds to 20 seconds that's creating a nice release through that upper shoulder girdle. from here we're going to then bring you down to work a nice opening through the pecs. so we are going to lay long ways on the roller. if

you haven't got a roller you can always use just rolled up towel it's just something to open you out through the chest. so we have released through the shoulder blade as we lay ourselves on, and i'm going to try and get you to open out through the chest, so we're really feeling that nice breadth from the center of your breast bone to the side of the

collarbone. we take a neutral position here. now imagine that ball and socket joint and i want you to think of just reaching that arms, rotating the shoulder blade down the back of the ribcage and drawing that arm bone from the socket of the shoulder. you should start to feel a gentle stretch, kind of across the pecs and feel the weight and gravity just

opening that shoulder out. so again you can stay here for 20 seconds up to a minute and just work that nice release. if you do want a little bit more you can start to just gently move the arms up and down but making sure that you don't impinge forward and draw back into that bad posture. you want to think really rolling those shoulder blades back and

down, opening and create space through the socket, as we move those arms. so this next month at o2 active we're theming to keep you pain-free, strong through that shoulder girdle and flexible across the chest to help decrease that neck shoulder and back pain you get from sitting at your desk for an extended period of time.

happy stretching.... the o2 active team!! www.o2active.com.au the o2 active team!! www.o2active.com.au