This Weeks Focus:

For this week I chose to focus on my shoulders, neck, and wrist mobility. After working on different areas of the past few weeks I have noticed a lot of tension in my back and neck and thought that this week would be a great week to work on it. I have also noticed that my right wrist has started hurting as it does every once and awhile so because of that I thought it was the perfect time to add in wrists stretches as well.

What I Did:

I did the following stretches for around 10-15 minutes as I have found throughout this journey that 10-15 minutes seems to be the perfect amount of time for my stretching routines.

Shoulder Stretches:

  • Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch: Bring one arm straight across your chest. Use your other arm to gently pull the arm across your chest closer to your body. Hold for 20-30 seconds, then switch sides.
  • Shoulder Rolls: and Arm Circles: Sitting or standing roll your shoulders forward about ten times and then do the same thing but backwards.
  • Eagle Arms Stretch: Extend both of your arms in front of you at shoulder height. Cross your right arm over your left and try to bring your palms together. Lift your elbows slightly and hold for 20-30 seconds. Do it all again with the other arm.

Neck Stretches:

  • Side Neck Stretch: Put your left ear towards your right shoulder. For a bigger stretch you can put your right hand on your head and gently press down. Repeat on the other side.
  • Neck Rotations: Starting from the front roll your head around going clockwise about ten times, then repeat going anti clockwise about ten times.
  • Chin to Chest Stretch: Put your chin towards your chest until you feel a stretch on the back of your neck. Hold for 20-30 seconds.

Wrist Stretches:

  • Wrist Flexor Stretch: Put one arm straight out with your palm facing up. Use your other hand to gently pull your fingers back toward your body. Hold for 15-20 seconds. Repeat on the other hand.
  • Wrist Extensor Stretch: Put one arm out with your palm facing down. Use your other hand to gently pull your fingers down. Repeat on the other hand.
  • Prayer Stretch: Place your palms together in front of your chest. Lower your hands while keeping your palms pressed together until you feel a nice stretch. Hold for 20-30 seconds.
  • Wrist Circles: Make fists with both of your hands and then rotate your wrists in slow circles 10 times going clockwise and then 10 times going anti clockwise.

Reflection on my Learning:

I did these stretches throughout the week of October 8th-14th but I accidentally saved it to my drafts instead of posting it. So that is why there is two blogs posts in the span of a week. thought I should mention. Throughout that week while doing the stretches above I noticed a big difference in how my neck, shoulders, and especially how my wrists felt by the end of the week. My shoulders felt less tense, loose, and my wrist pain felt a lot better. I really want to make the wrist stretches apart of my daily routine. Maybe not every day but at least a few times a week because of my reoccuring wrist pain and with these stretches my wrists felt a lot better.

Resources:

While looking for resources for this blog post I came across Yoga with Adriene. I remembered her from when I took yoga in grade 12 and I really enjoyed her videos. I really enjoyed following along her video and using some of the stretches she did for my blog post.

I used a few of the stretches that Dr. Jared did in this 6 minute wrist stretching video. I really liked how he explained why we were doing wrist stretches, how to do each stretch, and what each stretch did. I thought that it was really helpful to know what each one did for my body.

Next Weeks Plan:

Next week I want to move on to my calves/ankles, chest, and toes as these are a few areas I haven’t covered yet. I also did not know that you were able to stretch your toes or chest so I thought it would be interesting to go over. I am excited to see how I feel after doing these stretches.