This Week’s Thrive In Five Is Stretch For Opening Up The Spine, chest and hips
With many of us sat behind a desk, working on a computer all day, resulting in compromised posture, back and spine issues and injuries. Prolonged sitting over time puts undue pressure on the low back and stress the surrounding muscles and joints.
So Liz our health Coach has a stretch challenge for you. It’s a really nice stretch for opening up the spine, twisting and opening up the chest, opening up the hips. It’s a great stretch and antidote to combat the stress on the back, spine and hips from sitting for long periods.
How to do the stretch
- Go into a squat, as low as you can. Make sure to keep within your range. If you can’t go as low as Liz does in the demonstration video, just stay up a little higher. Find a squat spot that’s right for you.
- Once lowered into the squat, put one arm down towards the floor and one arm up towards the sky. This creates a nice twist motion. Twist as far as you can, but also within the range that is comfortable for you.
- Breathing – It’s important to breathe whilst doing this exercise. You breathe in when you’re in the squat position, and exhale as you reach your arm up and twist.
- Do this ten times, five on each side. Breathing as you do each repetition.
A little bonus is it works the legs as well.
Weekly stretch challenge
So throughout this week, try adding this stretch in. You could do it before a lunch break and after you finish for the day. You could work it in as part of your movement snack exercises, pop a stretch in before bed.
We hope you enjoy this stretch for opening up the spine, chest and hips let us know how you get on!
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