"It has nothing to do with sports," says
Murphy Halasz, a physical therapist at Champion Performance Physical
Therapy in Austin, Texas. "It has everything to do with sitting too
much.
That's because sitting usually looks like this: hips flexed,
shoulders rounded in, chest drawn, and head dropped. Staying seated like
this for hours at a time, like at work, can make your muscles and
joints feel "stuck" in that position.
Of course, there are
sports-related reasons that you may feel stiffness in these areas, but
they're not nearly as common of culprits as sitting, stresses Halasz.
Exercising moves these muscles and joints through a range of
motion—sitting does not.
[post_ads]For that reason, sitting fares far worse for
body stiffness than any sport ever could.This stretch, shown below,
opens the chest and shoulders and puts the joints in the opposite angle
than they're usually in when you sit. It's effective because it takes
all those areas of the body that are flexed (or shortened) while seated
and extends (or lengthens) them. Not only is this move incredibly simple
to do, but it just so happens to feel amazing.
How to do it
Stack two piles of pillows on a bed or on the floor—the higher, the
better. Lie back with the pile of pillows supporting your buttocks,
back, and shoulders, and extend your legs and arms (palms up) off the
pile into a star shape. Let your head rest back.
Breathe deeply, and
hold this pose for three minutes or more.Make it harder:
For a deeper stretch, use a stability ball to do a bridge. Stretch over
the ball in the same way you would stretch over a pillow stack, with
belly facing up. Hold here, and breathe deeply.
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