5 Shoulder Stretches to do When Finish Wrapping Your Christmas Presents

Overview:

In this article, we give you a few shoulder stretches to do this holiday season. After spending hours wrapping those special holiday gifts, you may notice pain in your neck and shoulder areas. It is important to relieve your shoulder stiffness to prevent further pain or discomfort. Loosening your shoulders with these exercises is especially important when you are in hunched positions for prolonged periods, like when you are wrapping Christmas presents for this holiday season. Make sure to do these stretches periodically throughout the day no matter if you are wrapping presents or just enjoying the holidays. 

Why this is important: 

As we mentioned before shoulder tightness can happen all year round when you are sitting in slouched postures.  Shoulder tightness may become more prevalent when sitting in a slouched position for a prolonged period of time.   Doing these stretches daily will relieve pressure and tightness in your shoulders so that you will be able to continue with your daily activities without the neck and shoulder pain. Sitting at your desk at work in bad postures can also cause shoulder and neck pain, if you would like to learn more about the benefits of a standing desk to help reduce even more shoulder and neck pain click here.

• Overhead reaches
  1. Stand upright in a good posture.
  2. Raise your hands high above your head reaching for the sky.
  3. Feel your upper back straighten and stretch.
  4. Hold in the extend position for 5 seconds to get your chest out of the slouched position.
  5. Repeat this 5-10 times.

• Shoulder Rolls
  1. Stand straight with your hands to your sides.
  2. Lift both shoulders towards your ears.
  3. Move your shoulder back to squeeze your shoulder blades together.
  4. Lower your shoulder to the original position.
  5. Repeat 10 times.

• Neck Stretches
  1. Stand with your hands to your side and look straight forward.
  2. Bring your ear to one shoulder and hold for 5 seconds.  
  3. You can gently add the weight of your hand for light overpressure.
  4. Do the same with the other side.
  5. Repeat 5 times for each side.

• Cross Body Shoulder Stretch
  1. Bring your right arm across your body.
  2. Bend your left arm to cover the right arm and pull back toward your chest.
  3. Hold for 20 seconds, then repeat using the other side.
  4. Repeat 5 times for each arm.

• Doorway Stretch
  1. Stand straight in front of a doorway.
  2. Put your palms on either side of the doorway.
  3. Shift your weight onto your front foot to feel a stretch in your chest.
  4. Hold for 20-30 seconds.
  5. Relax and then repeat 5 times

Don’t let aches and pains from wrapping gifts, moving boxes and setting up decorations ruin your holiday season. Contact us today for high quality, personalized physical therapy care to avoid small pains becoming bigger problems.