- Hello there.

This is Quick Fit and I'm Cassy Vieth.

Relieving pain so you can continue enjoying life is the goal of a great fitness program.

In today's class, we'll be stretching the tight upper chest muscles, and relieving the overstretched upper back muscles with a few strengthening exercises.

I think as we go through these moves you'll immediately feel better.

So join me.

[gentle music] This class can be done seated or standing.

Either way, remove your shoes for an added benefit to your feet.

Let's just sit up nice and tall or stand nice and tall, lifting those arms up over your head.

Okay, reach and lengthen.

[inhales] Very good.

Pulling those arms back just a little bit more to open up those armpits, and let's bring those hands down and then just push your fingers through your hair to the back of your head.

Good, one more time.

Up.

[inhales] Big inhale, exhale.

Think about moving your arms back a little bit more, back by your ears, lengthen, and bring those hands down.

Pushing your fingers back through your hair to the back of your head.

Good, reach, reaching behind your head, the other way, reach and reach, one more time, trying to reach the other side, other way.

Good, bring those arms down, roll them over just a little bit.

And now what I'd like you to do is reach up with your two arms and grab that left wrist, okay?

Then relax that arm.

It's gonna stretch, and then let's go the other way.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] Letting, letting your top arm relax and the other one pull it down.

Good, inhale, press.

Grab your other wrist and just let it, gravity pull down.

And now go this way.

Let gravity pull the other way.

Good, go ahead and release.

All right, circle those arms, lifting to the ceiling again.

[inhales] Bring those hands down.

Push your fingers to the back of your head again.

Lift the chin, pull those elbows back.

All right.

Now I'd like you to press your head into your fingers.

You can lift your chin, and now let's drop the head and pull the chin in, pressing the back of the head into your fingers.

All right, relax.

Good, relax your spine a moment.

Let your head relax.

[inhales] Let your weight fall forward, and you can rest your arms on your legs.

And then we'll roll back up, tucking that chin, real good.

Let's do a few circles right in front of you.

I have a nice base, I've got my feet forward.

I am sitting on the very front edge of the chair.

Reminder, we don't recline in this class.

For the short time of these classes, your spine and your muscles are gonna hold you upright.

All right, this is a great move right here for somebody with a frozen shoulder.

All right, let's involve in the torso, stretching those ribs, bringing that hand further and further to the back of the head.

Nice, let's do the other side.

Easy circles.

[inhales] Good, getting a little higher, a little further, up and around the head, lifting that elbow, involving the torso.

Good.

[inhales] All right, last one.

[exhales] Good, and now let's put that hand behind your head and press kind of in a diagonal.

So we're not pressing the head directly back or to the side.

It's on a diagonal.

Good, and release.

Let's put the heel of your hand on the back corner of your head, right?

And press back, stomach's in.

It's about 50% of the strength of your neck, all right, and release.

All right, reach it back, palms are forward, stomach's in.

[exhales] Inhale.

[inhales] Exhale.

[exhales] Again, inhale.

[inhales] Exhale into the stretch.

Feel the chest open, good, lift and open.

All right, let's just do one arm now, left arm, look the other way.

Let's drop that arm.

Middle height and up.

[inhales] Other side.

[exhales] Stretch the arm and look away.

We don't wanna turn the torso the same way we're trying to stretch the chest.

[inhales and exhales] All right.

Nice 90 degree.

Let's pull that back.

Look the other way.

Other side.

Nice 90 degree with that arm.

[inhales] Exhale, pull back.

Resist the temptation to turn with the arm.

Just pull the arm back and look.

All right.

All right, sitting up tall with your stomach in.

I'd like you to put your hands on your chin, fingers on your chin, and press back.

Okay, we're making this lovely double chin, but nobody's looking, but this is a really great strengthener for all those muscles on the back of your neck that are constantly pulling forward like this.

So sit up tall, pull that back.

All right, relax the neck now.

And just do some elbow circles with the elbows pulling back.

Okay, the intention is to stretch the chest and strengthen the upper back muscles, okay.

The shoulder blades are pulling in the back.

Don't think of the elbows.

Think of the back muscles.

Okay, one more time each way.

I'd like you to look to your right.

One more circle and look to the left.

Good.

All right, bring those arms down slowly.

Reaching back to the back of your chair, big inhale, and then I'd like you to exhale.

[exhales] And consciously relax the neck, the shoulder, all down your spine, letting your other shoulder hang towards the floor.

[inhales] Inhale, exhale.

[exhales] This is just a lovely stretch.

We'll do it again.

I'd like you to reach up a little higher though.

Scoot to the edge of your seat and, [exhales] exhale.

Good, that one feels really, really good.

Let's do the other side, reach it back, low to start.

[inhales] All right.

And hang forward.

This takes a couple times sometimes to really let everything relax.

[inhales and exhales] So don't let me rush you, reach up a little higher.

[inhales] And lean it over.

[inhales and exhales] That feels so good, so nice, sitting up nice and tall.

Still on the front edge of your chair, we're going to lift those arms nice and wide.

And we want to pinch our shoulder blades together.

Imagine there's a pencil.

Pinch the pencil between your shoulder blades.

Keep those palms up, arms at shoulder height.

Good, make sure you're not pushing your neck forward to bring your arms backwards.

Okay, keep that chin back.

Now, let's just do a nice V, right out in front of you.

All right, pull the shoulders back.

Palms are up.

Try not to push the head forward, stomach's in, this takes a lot of concentration.

And little lifts, lifts, lift.

Now let's run through the inventory again.

You're not forcing the head forward.

Your shoulders are pressed down and back, continuing to pinch the pencil, stomach's in, little lifts.

[inhales and exhales] This one gets hard, I know it does, but this one's really great for strengthening all those upper back muscles in the back of the shoulders.

We slouch so much.

All right, let's rotate over.

Take that inventory again.

We've got a V, we're not pushing the head forward.

The shoulders are pressed down, back, stomach's in.

Now imagine you have a rubber band in your hand and pinch the back to pull the band apart.

This is a really, really great one, you should do this every day.

All right, relax.

I know that puts a lot of tension in the neck.

[inhales and exhales] One more circling of the elbows, reach across, reach across, two big arms.

[inhales] One more.

[exhales] One more, into the Ws.

We're gonna do these low to high, last few.

All right, and you are done.

If you've been struggling with shoulder or upper back pain, these are moves you'll want to return to again and again.

So repeat them often right here at pbswisconsin.org/quickfit where you'll find easy and effective exercises to promote balance and keep you moving pain-free, because life is movement.