How to Stretch Your Chest to Prevent Workplace Injuries

Trish Muse: Hi, I am Trish Muse from Body Productions Inc. I am a Physical Therapist. Today, I am going to show you how to avoid injuries in the workplace. Next, I will show you one simple stretch to stretch your chest.

Let’s begin by bringing your arms up in the formation of a ‘V’. Keep your shoulders down and really try to pull your shoulder blades towards your hip pockets. You are going to turn your palms up towards the ceiling and really try to bring those palms so far up towards the ceiling that you start to bring your palms around backwards like you are bringing your pinkies to the wall behind you. Really take those arms back, open out that chest. The importance of opening your chest is so the tight muscles don’t constrict blood vessels and nerves that run through your arm and neck and chest that often, get compressed and give you numbness and tingling through the arms and give you the pins and needles feeling or the feeling that your arm is going to go to sleep.

So you hold this stretch 20-30 seconds and simply repeat it 3-5 times or several times throughout the day. This stretch will also help you to properly align your posture and increase your awareness that your shoulder should be down and back and your chest should be nice and open and help to correct the forward shoulder posture that many of us assume from driving or extended computer use. That was great.

Next, I will show you how to stretch your mid back.

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