Upper Back & Shoulder Stretch: 7-Min Desk Yoga Class

Hey everyone, welcome to class today. This is another in the Yoga for Deskrats series and what we'll do today is we'll stretch out the shoulders, the chest and the upper back. This will just be a few minutes in this video so that you can do it on your break at work or if you want to just step away for a few minutes from work you can sit in your office chair or your work chair and do this and it shouldn't affect your day too much. Okay so to begin with we'll just get some movement in the kind of upper back area so either have your hands on your hips or on the arms of your chair and just lift your shoulders up so shrugging them up towards your ears then back and just open your chest out and then bring them back forwards in front of you just so you're moving that upper part of your back it's almost like someone's cemented you in here and you're just opening that part of your back so inhale as you go back exhale forwards you just get some movement there and if your head goes back slightly that's fine just tuck your chin exhale forwards you can bow your head down as you do it whatever's natural there just find some movement good good you've probably been slouching a little bit today or kind of leaning back in your chest it's good to just get some movement you can try and exaggerate that even more every time which will feel really good okay sit upright again and we'll do similar movement but interlace your fingers and put them around the back of your head and open your elbows out as you come up and back and then as you come forwards bring your elbows together and bow your head again good back up and open try not to put too much pressure on the back of the neck as well and then fold forwards let's go up and back good two more of them maybe exaggerate that movement a little more for your chest open and again up and open down and close good now just bring your left hand either to the arm of your chair or the base of your chair and then grab the right side of your head almost like you're kind of grabbing your cauliflower here and then just lean over to the left and feel your your lats and everything stretch as your elbow doesn't come down it goes up to the ceiling and lean over good next exhale undo that and set up the other side so right hand down left hand up over feel that cauliflower here elbow up and leaning next exhale reverse inhale comes up exhale over coming up back over just find a bit of a flow here you can do this from your chair as I said just stretching out those lats maybe the back of the shoulders a little here as well and each time maybe drive your shoulder away from your hip a little more and keep your hips heavy on your seat good and now sit upright again just make sure you've got that nice straight back and then similar kind of movement but as my left hand goes down my right hand's up and instead of reaching over so reaching over my head I'm stretching it over to the side now go to the other side and just keep flowing that with your breath maybe inhale as you come up exhale over to the side we don't want anything too intense obviously you're gonna go back to work in a minute just get everything stretching out good now we'll add a little fold so as my hand comes over I'm dropping my hand and bowing how I was before feel that opening in the right side of your back then coming down right hand comes to the floor and then left hand comes up good bring that down right hand comes up bring that down left hand comes up good just try and as I said earlier exaggerate those movements a little more every time just feel your upper back wake up your shoulders move a little bit as well they're not just reaching forward to a keyboard or a notepad or whatever who writes in notepads these days it's all notes on the computer isn't it good and after the next side just sit yourself back up and now I'm gonna bring my knuckles together behind my back if you can't reach just keep for like not forcing but reaching them together behind your back so kind of the back of your waistband here just reaching your knuckles together and then open your chest out slightly good so driving your shoulders back behind you and then just lightly press the backs of your hands on that waistband feel your chest open feel that nice stretch on your shoulders as well good and now just gently inhale open just like we're doing at the start keeping the backs of your hands on your back exhale fold a bit and just keep a light amount of pressure on your back here inhale up exhale fold good one more and sit yourself up straight and then just interlace your fingers behind your head again last thing just look over to the wall to your left over to your right just get some nice twists you probably haven't twisted much today unless you're talking to whoever sits next to your work too much in which case get on with your work just a couple more twists and then bring yourself up and just just remember this open feeling remember how good it feels just moving for a few minutes stretching your shoulders your chest your back and everything and come back to this video if you feel silly doing it in the office put the video on at your desk in front of you so people can see what you're doing the main thing is you're moving okay before you get back to work now just get yourself a drink of water or something and I'll see you in the next video cheers guys