Thread: help me with my shoulder/ chest

my posture ,f:: is not so good because of my closed shoulders and my upper section body tends to put all its heavy on the belly.... it seems i have the scifosi and my chest lies inside my lower section body... (am I a sort of monster??..l;, )...anyway, mine its not the classical posture (with the lift chest that allows free down movements) !!!!

...are there any possibilities to lift my chest (exercises or othere tips???)

Is this an actual medical problem or just a "I have always had bad posture" type of thing?

a bad position....

Would it help you to learn how it feels to open your chest by lying backwards on a vinyl excercise ball?

Check with you doctor first.

I have a very bad neck and back, and lying backwards on the ball sometimes helps relax my muscles.

Make sure it's a good one, it's very dangerous if it pops, especially if you're holding weights in your hands.

Originally Posted by gothique

Would it help you to learn how it feels to open your chest by lying backwards on a vinyl excercise ball?

Or try a couple of tennis balls taped together. Place them across your back - one each side of the spine (with a pillow under your head). Lie foe a few minutes and move it. You basically want to work from below your neck to your bra strap.

The other one is a rolled up towel along your spine - so you open up at right angles to the tennis ball thing.

For extra benefit, do it with your arms in the I surrender position ie upper arms at right angles to your body and lower arms at right angles to upper arms.

thanks a lot girls!!

I have very stiff shoulders indeed. I do yoga which helps me and I go for regular acupuncture.

The single best tip I have is that for mobile shoulders and upper body you must keep as warm as possible. If you get cold or sit in cold winds it has much more of an effect than you think.

Lying across a ball:


My favorite!! Forearms on a door frame, elbows at shoulder height, press your weight forward. (all dancers should do this stretch every day!)


Also very important is strengthening the upper back muscles.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

Lying across a ball:


My favorite!! Forearms on a door frame, elbows at shoulder height, press your weight forward. (all dancers should do this stretch every day!)

I Looooove this one to. I injured my lower back years ago and so my upper back tries to compensate for it and I do this stretch all the time to help with the stiffness. It can feel weird at first, your body may fight it, but relax and only hold it as long as you can and try to increase the time a little bit each day.

Lying on the floor with a small cushion between your shoulderblades gives you gentler version of the same stretch, too. VERY pleasant and effective.

...love all your suggestions!! do you know that a tribal workshop with sharon kiara in palermo helped me a lot??!! it was incredible but the tribal style ( with its postures made me discover I also have a chest and shoulder muscles!!....ok, now at work thanx to all your tips..

For me, my real breakthrough came with yoga. I always rolled my shoulders forward because - I think - of my job. Habitually sitting every day in front of a computer. But then yoga really stretched out that area so that I could hold my shoulders back. For years, teachers said to me to keep my shoulders back but I was so tight that it actually hurt to do so. It took another form of exercise (in this case yoga) to stretch that area out so that I could actually do what people were telling me to do.

My shoulders also started to open up after workshops with Sharon Kihara a couple of years ago. In retrospective it was the combination of yoga and tribal fusion arm drills that worked for me. I'm going to try the suggested stretches too, my shoulders and upperbody need a lot of excercise to stay open.

maybe the arms and shoulder tips of rachel brice dvd can be the right work to do at home....