Easy stretches for tight shoulders, chest and neck

Modern lifestyles keep us bent over desks, laptops and mobile devices leading to poor posture and tight chest and neck muscles.  Literally a pain in the neck!  These easy stretches should ease that pain fast.

Add in an early winter and you also see us hunching with cold.  I’m seeing loads of tight and sore shoulders and necks across all clients, that are in desperate need of stretching.

So here goes. If you’ve found that your shoulder and neck muscles end up like tightly banded cords, leading to headaches, shoulder pain, elbow pain or pins and needles in the arms and other uncomfortable symptoms, then try these easy stretches you can do daily for rapid relief.

A great chest opener that will rest your upper back from all of that bending over, and open up the front of the body is a simple lying stability ball stretch.

You can of course do these exercises with a fitball,  foam roller or rolled towel (note that the stiffer you are, the lower the towel, go by what feels comfortable).

Lie backwards over a fitball or a couple of vertically stacked pillows, keeping the head fully supported and allow both arms to spread wide and drop down allowing the chest muscles to stretch.

Point your fingers and flex your hands continuously.  If you experience pins and needles you may be suffering Thoracic Outlet Syndrome – not as scary as it sounds and easily treated by a good myotherapist and loads of stretching.  Those pins and needles you’re feeling are a result of some nerve impingement most commonly related to poor posture and a rounded chest.

Keep breathing through the tightness and work through the stretches until you feel some release.

One of the least popular (but most effective) upper back and shoulder releases is the Standing Wall Stick Up.  It looks so inoffensive and mild, unless of course you’re tight through the chest and then – ouch! Not so nice. Don’t say I didn’t warn you :)

Look at the difference between Georgia and Rod.  Georgia is able to easily keep her elbows against the wall as she slides her arms up and down the wall.  She’s kept her natural spinal curve as well.

Rod’s elbows are way out from the wall and you could drive a truck through that spinal curve.  If that’s you, then step your feet away from the wall until you can keep your shoulder blades flat and the elbows get as close as possible to the wall.

Repeat this movement sliding your arms up and down the wall until you feel some release.  This one is a case of practise, practise, practise.

My favourite chest stretching exercises are lying Pilates chest openers.  Hands down favourite and I do these practically every day.  With a long history of lots of pushups (sooo many pushups) boxing and pressing movements, my chest is chronically tight so this is my go to exercise for relieving pins and needles in my arms and stiffness in my neck.

Lie on your side with your head supported and your knees drawn towards your chest.  Your upper arm should be resting palm down on the floor in front of you.  Open the arm so that it reaches and stretches behind you (turn your head to follow the movement of your hand) and allow the arm to relax in that extended position for a minimum of 3 seconds, much longer if you’re tight.  This will not only release your tight chest muscles (pecs), it’ll help in mobilising your upper back too.  Repeat the movement until you feel those tight pecs release. Winning.

None of these are complicated or technical stretches, and none should take longer than 2-3 minutes so give these a go regularly and I guarantee you’ll see rapid improvements in flexibility and reduction in pain.