Neck and shoulder pain

Your thumbs are a good barometer.

Here is this week’s tip!

The vast majority of us are too tight across our chest and in the front of our hips. This is because we spend all day sitting in chairs which shortens our hip flexors which can lead to pain sleeping on our backs or stomach and also even from just standing or walking. It’s normally very easy to fix. However, another problem is that we are too tight in our pectoral muscles and the front of our shoulders. This is because we do all of our work with our arms in front of us. We sit at computers bent forward or drive our cars bent forward, hunched over the steering wheel. We eat our meals with our chins pushed forward, shoulders hunched and all of this leads to chronic tightness in the chest and shoulders. Moreover, the upper back muscles become overly stretched and weak. And if that isn’t enough, many of us with our good intentions go to yoga or Pilates and do crunches, roll up into a ball, bring knees to chest etc which further stretches the muscles that are already overly stretched. We worsen our condition. These are all stretches we almost never need to be doing.

So how do you know if your shoulders are rounded and your chest muscles are too tight? Here's today’s health tip:

• Stand up with your arms hanging naturally by your sides. Now look down at your hands.
• Do your thumbs face each other? Guess what, they should be facing forward. What your thumbs are telling you is that your chest muscles are so tight that they are pulling your shoulders forward and turning them inwards.
• Now pull your shoulders back and your thumbs will begin to rotate towards the front. It is probably a little uncomfortable to do this because your pectoral muscles are restricting you.

So here’s what you need to do:

You need to stretch your pectoral muscles. Here is how to do this correctly:

The Stick Up-the good, the bad and the ugly

The good…

• Stand in a doorway and place both forearms on either side, elbows at shoulder height( like in a stick-up position)
• Place one foot in front of the other
• Keep your chin in and your hip tucked under using your abdominals so that your don’t overarch your back
• Move your weight forward to feel a stretch through the front of your chest
• Keep your shoulders down and relaxed
• Hold for 15 seconds
• Remember to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

…the bad and the ugly

• Allowing your shoulders to pinch at the backs
• Jutting your chin forward
• Overarching your back rather than tucking the hip under by using your abdominals
• Hunching your shoulders
• Forgetting to breathe, relax, smile and enjoy

• Right after doing the pectoral stretch, drop your arms loosely by your sides and glance down at your thumbs again.
• If you did the pectoral stretch right, your thumbs should now be facing more forward because you fixed the tightness that rounds shoulders and rotates arms inward.

Remember that once you have done the stretch you will be able to stand straighter and probably feel a bit taller. The key is to do the stretches to allow you to have good posture and its your job to remain in that posture. One of the biggest mistakes we do is do our stretches and then get back to slouching at the computer or walking around with the shoulder hunched forward again. No. Check your thumbs during the day. Check other people’s thumbs! Stretch your pectorals and keep that wonderful posture.