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Video: Shoulder stretches and upper back stretches for the office

By Mayo Clinic staff

Transcript

These are some shoulder stretches and upper back stretches that you can do at your computer workstation throughout the day. Stretches should be held for 15 to 30 seconds each, and you should feel a strong but comfortable sensation in the muscle you are stretching.

The first stretch I want you to do is to take your hand underneath your elbow and stretch it right across your body. The important thing to remember with this stretch is that you're not rotating your trunk as you do it. And you should feel that stretch coming in the back side of your shoulder blade into the back part of your shoulder.

This is a good stretch to do if you've been typing for a long time and you're feeling some strain in the upper part of your back. And you can repeat with the other side as well.

The next stretch that I'm going to have you do is, you're going to bring your arm up in the air and you're going to use your other arm to assist in pulling it over and back behind your head. This is going to help stretch the muscle right in through this area and down into the shoulder a little bit. Once again, you can repeat with the other side as needed.

And the final stretch that I'm going to have you do is, I'm going to have you pinch your shoulder blades together. So what you want to do is as you're doing this, is you want your shoulder blades to squeeze in the back together, right there. You can get a little bit better stretch in the front part of your chest if you bring your arms up behind your head and then squeeze your shoulder blades together like that for me. And that, you should be feeling the stretch in your pectoral region up front.

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July 24, 2007

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