4 Ways to Stretch Your Shoulders

/ jackiesuepowell / 2 Comments

Is there anything you’d like to work on in your practice today?

I keep hearing “shoulders.” This is fine with me since I’m the one carrying a heavy backpack all over Europe. However, in “normal life” our shoulders are usually killing us from hunching over a computer 9-5…or longer.

There are two ways to stretch our shoulders — forward and back. Sometimes we think a shoulder stretch is a shoulder stretch and eagle arms do the same thing as cactus arms. This isn’t exactly true…

Our shoulders are connected to both back muscles and chest muscles. This is why we practice stretching our shoulders both forward and up (eagle arms) to stretch our upper backs as well as back and down (cactus arms) to open our chests, opposite of hunching.

The next time you’re stretching your shoulders notice how it either opens your chest or stretches your upper back. It’s all connected!

© Yoga By Candace

There are many ways to stretch your shoulders. Here are a few of my favorites:

Shoulder/back stretch:

  1. Lie on your stomach and cross your arms on the ground. Gaze towards the ground neck relaxed. Switch arms, do both sides.
  2. Eagle arms: don’t forget to do both sides!

Shoulder/chest stretch:

  1. Cactus arms with circles, slight back bend, drawing arms up and slowly draw shoulder blades down back.
  2. Bow pose, for a more intense stretch while in bow roll onto your side, pressing shoulder into the ground. Do both sides.

Noticing the Obvious

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Travels through France started well. Julie and I met at the airport and spent the next four days exploring Paris. Our travel styles match well. Julie likes to find interesting, off the beaten path, non-touristy activities and I like to keep costs down as much as possible — the two go together well!

Or goal everyday in France is to enjoy things we sometimes take for granted or might ot notice at all. This reminded me of an experince I had at the Vipassana Centre that was surrounded by several large wind turbines. Everyday we saw the huge blade spinning with the wind creating energy. However, it was not until the last day that I noticed not only do the blades move, but the top of the turbine also spins depending on the direction of the wind! It’s  interesting what we miss even when we think we are completely aware.

Sometimes the obvious goes unnoticed. Here are a few photos of how we stayed busy in Paris, appreciating the ordinary without spending more than a few Euro on a new baguette for the day.

Triangle pose at the Louvre

Triangle pose at the Louvre

 

Sidewalk art with a seated twist. " what would you do for love?"

Sidewalk art with a seated twist. ” what would you do for love?”

 

Warrior Two in front of beautiful red door of Notre Dame. It was on a busy street with many people passing by, we were the only ones who stopped to appreciated the bold door!

Warrior Two in front of beautiful red door of Notre Dame. It was on a busy street with many people passing by, we were the only ones who stopped to appreciated the bold door!