This easy, standing stretch requires only a doorway!
Do you spend hours at a computer or on your phone? This chest opener will help open your chest and the front of your shoulders, prevent widows stoop and rounded shoulders, and reduce pain in your neck and shoulders! This stretch can also help improve alignment and reduce neck pain.
Important things to remember about this exercise are:
- Keep your front ribs down and back. Use upper abs to keep your ribs down so your spine stays straight.
- Relax your sternum. Keep the lower chest area relaxed so it can stretch. Careful it doesn’t pop open with the ribs.
- Keep your shoulders down and back. Just as if you were doing a shoulder roll from front to back, only walk as far forward as you can keep your shoulders down. If you can also keep your shoulder blades wide in the back while your shoulders are down, you will get an even better stretch. However, if you have to choose between the two, keep your shoulders away from your ears.
- Don’t drop your chin down. Keep it level or slightly lifted.
- If you feel any tingling in your fingers while doing this stretch, back off slightly so you are still stretching your muscles and not irritating any nerves.
Looking for more chest stretches? Schedule your free 90-minute consultation.
This blog was contributed by our Pilates guru, Kaethe Birkner. Kaethe is a certified Pilates instructor through Balanced Body and dances ballet professionally at Continental Ballet Company. She has been teaching Pilates since 2012 and has been taking Pilates since 2004.