Yoga Chest Stretches for Carpal Tunnel

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Theresa Murphy on behalf of Expert Village and in this clip we're going to look at some chest openers to improve breathing and circulation down the arms into the wrists and hands. So you want to be in a comfortable seating position when you're doing any sort of breathing or meditative practice. I tend to prefer to sit on a block in between my heels. All right, so you want a block or maybe two blocks. Your block has a couple of heights that you can use to adjust for your own comfort. Sit bones squarely on the block. This is a symmetrical seating position. If you have knee issues, you can always sit cross-legged on a bolster. And for this particular exercise you will need a belt with a medium sized loop in it. You're going to put the whole loop over your body like a hula hoop. Make sure the belt isn't twisted in any way. And then you're going to take the loop and put it back over your head. So I've created sort of backpack straps with the belt. You're going to want to cinch it down so it's a little bit taut. You pull the tail of the belt so the strap is tight to your degree of comfort. Slip it up onto the heads of the shoulders, so then the shoulders are pulled open. The chest is opened and I'm free to take some nice deep breaths; so breathing in and out of the nose, if you can. If you're a little stuffy, you can breathe in the nose, out the mouth, or in and out of the mouth if you must. So the idea is, you fill the lungs and ribs as full as you can, enjoying a stretch in the chest and through the collar bones. Feels really good. Spend one to two, to ten to twenty minutes, as much as you can, just sitting enjoying your breath and enjoying the openness in your chest. It will absolutely help the arms, the wrists, and the carpal tunnel."