Hacking the Good days…

A good friend of mine has been complaining about her wrists that hurt so bad she has started visiting the physios regularly – and she’s only in her twenties!  That made me think, how many of us (who sit in front of a computer all day) are constantly suffering from back pain, shoulder pain and wrist pain?  I hope you’re not one of us, but if you do, I hope this blog helps.

I have started doing yoga about 6 years ago, and have been a total convert only a couple of years ago when I learnt how to relieve any kind of strain and pain by going into certain poses.  I also wrote about the main benefits of yoga for geeks in particular.

But as action speaks more than words, I feel oblige to share with as many of you all my favourite stretches for relieving pain around the wrists and shoulders, so easy that you don’t even go into a class to try!  But of course, boring reminder here, when there’s any extreme discomfort or sharp pain, make sure you check with you GP.  Otherwise these are great little exercises to give yourself a little impromptus massage.  I have linked all exercises back to their source, but I have added my own personal comment to bring out the maximum effectiveness of each stretch.

Enjoy!

1. Basic Wrist Stretch (ninja mask’s optional!)

This one is so simple that you can do it while you’re sitting in front of your desk.

• Remember to sit properly with your both feet parallel hip-width apart
• Inhale as you extend one arm (or if your neighbour colleagues don’t mind, both), remember to tighten your fingers and arm muscles, that way you can feel the the stretch more intensely
• Exhale while you stretch up, on the next inhale point your wrist up
• Exhale, return to neutral (hands pointing to the side)
• Inhale pointing down, exhale return to neutral
• For the creative type – feel free to use this exercise to focus on the breath and try to maintain longer exhale than inhale, that way you clear your mind and come back with more good ideas (sans the caffeine and hello good night sleep!)

* also take time to notice you *are not* slouching – imagine an invisible string pulling yourself up from the tip of your head.  No, I’m not trying to imply that you’re the sock-puppet mucking around on Wikipedia, it’s just that in the long run slouching messes up with your spine alignment and exerts prolong pressure in the wrong place.  And that can really, really hurt, now we don’t want that, do we? :)

Great for wrist relief!  Once you get into the hang you can start introducing variations, such as rotating your wrists clock-wise and anti-clock-wise, also great for relieving the tight tendons around the wrists.

2. Counter shoulder stretch

Knowing my blog’s audience, I am tempted to make this pose more macho sounding, like, Couching Tiger pose.  Right. ;)

As you know, but probably not often think about, that our shoulders are composed of highly intricate joints, muscles and tendons and we tend to stuck them in the same position whole day (arms 90 degrees typing/mouse maneuvering).  By now with all the damage done, you are probably like me – a quick test here -  if you reach your left arm above your shoulder to the centre back and right arm from below up, do your hands touch touch one another easily?  On both sides?   heh.  After years of trying (definitely not hard enough), I still can’t do that on my left side.

If you are like me, you’re going to *love* the couching tiger stretch,

This pose should bring immediate relief to upper back and shoulders, as well as relieving strains on the arms.  Also it clears the head a bit, too.  And if you’re good in holding your spine steady and lock your knees, you can get a great hamstring stretch too, great for the cyclists.

Finally!  I’ve been building up to this funky one!

3. Funky hamstring-lower-back stretch:

I love this one when I start feeling sleepy – and it’s so easy to sneak into an empty meeting room when you feel stale, uninspired, or just having bad shoulder strain!  Easier done than how it looks, too, I promise.  Not to mention having all the blood rushing to your head, guess how I quit my coffee addiction slowly and steadily?

Hope you like the stretches, and feel free to share if I have missed something obvious.  Now time to show some love to your shoulders, wrists and lower back… and let me know if these poses work for you!