stretches from head to toe. it's a part of my office series, but you can do them

at home, you can do sitting at a desk, or even if you've been watching TV for a

while. so let's get started.

The levator scapulae stretch. so for the levator SCAP, which is this muscle here, you're going

to bring your arm up of the side you want to stretch try and get that elbow

as high as you comfortably can and then gently pull your head towards the

opposite knee. so you're just going to go down in this direction and that's

stretching this muscle right through here. and the purpose of bringing this

side up is to hold that scapula or that shoulder blade down. so it's gonna give

you a better stretch. if you have a lot of pain there and you feel like that's

too much, you don't have to put that arm up. you can still stretch over to the

side, but if you can bring it up it really kind of pushes it down. so you can

get that good stretch. and if you can't, again if that feels like it's too much,

just bring that arm down but maybe try and push it down a little bit or maybe

even sit on it if you can. that'll give you a little bit more of a stretch there

as well. but the best way to do it is kind of just resting that hand on the

back of the shoulder and then pushing that elbow up as much as you can, but

make sure you're getting an angled stretch here. so it's not over towards

the side, it's not straight down, it's at that angle. and this is really important

because that levator SCAP muscle is the one that elevates our shoulder blades, so

when we're sitting at a desk working all day, a lot of times are our soldiers

start hunching up and we overwork those muscles and they get really tired and

fatigued. so this is a great stretch just to get it all nice and loosened up and

relax everything and start everything kind of over again. and it also the

muscle connects down here to your scapula, but it goes all the way up into

the neck as well so sometimes this can cause

some shoulder pain. it can cause neck pain. it can cause tension headaches

sometimes, so again this is a really important one just to get it all

stretched out. so again bringing that arm and that elbow up, and then just gently

pulling down towards the opposite knee. and a lot of times after you're doing it

more, you'll you'll feel it just get a little more stretch you can pull just a

little bit more, but you don't ever want that stretch to be painful. you just want

to feel some tension in there. so if you're feeling some pain, maybe back off

a little bit up here, or just go ahead and bring that on down and get that a

little stretch in there as well. so the the rest break in between if you want to

kind of shake out the shoulders a little bit you can. if you want to kind of rub

these out a little bit you can do that as well, but then just going right back

into that stretch. and gently pulling over make sure you're not pulling your

whole body over like that. I've had some people try and do that. you want to keep

your back upright and just get that pull at your neck. so you're really getting

that good stretch right through there. so nice hold getting that stretch and then

just looking straight down towards that opposite knee, and if you feel like

you're getting more of like a pinchy pain versus a stretchy pain, make sure

you stop. make sure you talk to your doctor or physical therapist about it

because if you're not getting a stretch with this, if you're just getting pain,

you might have something going on where you where you actually don't need to be

stretching this out, but if you don't have any injuries and again if you're

working at your desk all day long, or if you're driving a lot. if you drive a lot

of the day and you're kind of holding on that steering wheel and those shoulders

kind of inch up like that, this is a great stretch to kind of work those

muscles back out for easing. the rhomboids stretch. so the rhomboids are

in the back they kind of hold those shoulder blades together. so you're going

to clasp your hands together and you're gonna punch forward now. as you push

forward, you're gonna tuck your chin in. so really just

round out your shoulders. so if you watch a lot of my videos, you know usually I

don't want people to round out their shoulders, but to get that rhomboid

stretch, you really just want to punch forward as much as you can and tuck that

chin in. so you're getting that nice stretch in your upper back area. so the

rhomboids are the ones that squeeze those shoulder blades, and they're right

in between and they connect into the spine, and on those shoulder blades and

squeeze them in. so a lot of times those get really tight and irritated when

you're sitting at a desk for a long time. maybe if you're driving or you know even

if you have to do a lot of lifting things at work, so this is a great

stretch to do. you can do it standing up you don't have to do it sitting down, you

can even do it on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you, but

really just punching forward and tucking that chin in. and you should feel that

stretch in your upper back area and it feels really good and it just kind of

lets everything be nice and relaxed. so again just kind of right through there

is where you should feel it and just kind of in between just get it nice and

relaxed and shake it out a little bit. and then go back into the last stretch

right here. so again punching forward, as far as you comfortably can. tucking in. try

and keep the lower part of your back straight, though, so you're not punching

forward like that, you're really just curling that top part forward and

punching as far as you can getting that nice good stretch in there. and that

stretching should never be painful it should just feel a little bit of tension

kind of stretch in there. the prayer stretch for your wrist.

so with the prayer stretch, this is for things like if you have carpal tunnel

syndrome, so put your hands together and bring them down as you bring them out

bring your elbows out. so you're getting a really good stretch right there. so

even if you don't have carpal tunnel syndrome, if you are working on a

computer a lot or using your hands for a lot of twisting and turning motions,

you're probably going to have a lot of tightness in the wrist area. so this is a

really good stretch just to kind of loosen everything up. and there so a lot

of times if you know that you're starting to get some of those symptoms

it's a tingly numbness kind of feeling in your hands. there's some pain through

there and so again this is a really great stretch. just see how my elbows go

out as I come down. if you already have some some symptoms of carpal tunnel

syndrome, you might get some more tingling when this when you do this

stretch, but as long as if you stop that goes away, that's okay because that's

just as you're stretching is putting a little more pressure on the nerve. but

like I said as long as it goes away as soon as you stop, then that's fine. but if

it seems to last a little bit longer you probably want to stop and make sure and

check with your doctor or your physical therapist because there might be

something else going on in there. but it's that median nerve going down and

there's usually the culprit that's getting pressed on right through that

carpal tunnel there. so I have a lot of other stretches for carpal tunnel

syndrome, but this is a good one to get you started. and again if you're working

on the computer and you rest those wrists on the table or on a little pad

while you're typing a lot of times that area gets really tight. so this one's an

easy one to do just to stop and stretch it out really quickly to get everything

nice and loosened up. and your co-workers might go oh that looks interesting maybe

we should try it too, so get everybody together and stretch out those wrists

Seated knee to chest stretch. so with the knee to chest stretch, all you're

gonna do is just bring your knee up towards your chest. so it's just how it

sounds. the key is don't bring your body forward, bring your knee up towards your

chest. if you can't bring it as high as mine that's fine. you know if you can

only bring it here and you're starting to feel a stretch that's cool.

okay if you have some knee issues, instead of holding it like this, you

might want to grab underneath and pull it up. I tell my patients to do that a

lot, but if you don't really have any issues sometimes you can get a better

pull when you're pulling on the outside versus the inside, but make sure you

don't end up irritating your knee by doing this stretch. but when you stretch

and you're pulling up you should feel a little stretch in your bottom area, in

your low back. that's where you're trying to stretch. some people feel a little

pinching in their groin area, so if you're feeling that little bit of a

pinching either bring your your hip out a little bit with your knee, or just

don't pull up as high because again you don't want to be pinching something and

get it hurting while you're trying to stretch something else out. but if you're

not feeling that that pinch in there, just give it a nice pull and get that

stretch as much as you can, and then take that little break in between. so make

sure that if you're sitting at a desk move out a little bit so you don't bang

that knee into the desk, but just get that nice little pull.

I like having the outside hand up on top and the inside on the bottom I just feel

like that's more comfortable for me. again you can kind of just hold it this

way if you want to as long as you don't have any finger issues or knee issues,

but again if you have some knee pain already

just go ahead and grab underneath and pull up and you're you're still going to

give the same benefit by holding up that stretch this way.

but again don't curl down and stretch like that keep your back nice and

straight and relax because anytime you're stretching something you really

want your whole body to be fairly relaxed. so if you're tensing up other

muscles to try and do it then you're kind of defeating the whole point. so if

this is hard and you're having a hard time pulling that knee up then you can

definitely do this lying down which might feel a little more comfortable for

people. you just might want to wait till you get home to do it. and you can check

out some of my other videos to be able to do it on the ground at home or even

on your bed if you don't want to lie on the ground. or if it's too hard to get up,

you can do it lie on your bed or on the couch as well so lots of different

places to try it, lots of different positions to try it, but just getting

that nice stretch in there. and again you should feel kind of in

that low back area kind of in the bottom area getting a good stretch in there.

again pulling up. some people ask about the foot should it be pulled up

should it be pointed down should it be relaxed. kind of goes back to the same

thing that I was talking about when you're stretching, I really feel like you

should be relaxed. so some people might feel more of a stretch if they're

pulling their toes up, but then again you're activating muscles

and the point of a stretch is to get those muscles nice and elongated and

stretched out so, if you're if you're contracting something, sometimes you're

defeating that point just a little bit. so again just taking a little rest break

in between. sometimes if you're on a harder chair versus softer chair it

might you know make it a little bit harder or easier depending on what kind

of chair surface you're on, but if it's a little bit harder it might be easier to

get the stretch but you might have a little more pressure on the sit bone, so

just make sure you're comfortable again while you're doing it because you don't

want to irritate anything down there while you're doing this stretch. and

again if you feel like you're getting a lot of pressure on that knee you can

even kind of bring it out a little bit because you're really focusing on

pulling this part up. but again if you want to get that knee in there too then

you can do that as well. standing quad stretch. so I'm going to go

ahead and start it and then we'll go along so with the quad stretch standing,

you're just gonna grab your foot and make sure the top part of your leg is

straight down. so the important part of that stretch is that that quad is down.

if it's here you're not really gonna getting a good stretch. so you want it there and

maybe even back just a little bit. the closer you can get your heel to the

bottom your bottom, the better stretch you're gonna get. but you know I have to

pull it all the way back just pull it until you feel a little stretch in there

and then take that little break in between. but again if you're if your

thigh is coming forward, then you're no longer stretching your quad, so you

really want to focus on that. so if you have to hold on a lot to be able to do