Exercise #1 – Standing Jacks
- Stand against a wall.
- Bring your feet one shoe distance forward from the wall.
- Bend your knees so they are over your ankles. (Not a wall sit)
- Tilt your pelvis back to flatten your lower back against the wall.
- Touch your head and shoulders to the wall.
- Raise the back of both your hands to touch the wall, elbows bent hands are close to your shoulders.
- At this point your head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, upper and lower back should all be touching the wall at the same time. If they cannot that is ok, do the best you can.
- While holding everything to the wall straighten your elbows as you move into a Y (YMCA) position, and then bend the arms again pulling back to the start position. THIS is the exercise, 1 repetition.
- Repeat raising and lowering your hands in the best position you can.
Commonly performed at 3 sets of 15 reps, but you can start much smaller if these are difficult. The more years you have worked at a computer the more difficult this will be.
Exercise #2 – Wall Angels – Same start position as above, but this time your arms are down.
- Stand against a wall.
- Bring your feet one shoe distance forward from the wall.
- Bend your knees so they are over your ankles. (Not a wall sit)
- Tilt your pelvis back to flatten your lower back against the wall.
- Touch your head and shoulders to the wall.
- Arms at your sides, pinkie fingers touching the wall. Fingers and thumbs straight, not thumbs up.
- Raise both arms forward and up to touch the wall. Keep head, shoulders, upper and lower back against the wall. Lower your arms until the hands touch the wall at your sides again. This is 1 repetition of the exercise.
- It is common to be unable to reach the wall with your elbows locked or your back still against the wall. It should improve with practice.
For many students and office workers these motions are very difficult. If you want your posture to be better than Master Yoda: do these, you must.
If they are easy:
- Have a friend check that your back stays against the wall. Sliding a hand behind you should not be possible.
- Have them check that all points touch the wall and that your elbows wind up straight with the wall angels or stay straight for the standing jacks.
- If still easy congrats, you are flexible in this area and do not need to do these exercises. Some people do them anyway to feel looser before or after working at a computer.
If they are too difficult:
- Start small, can you do 10 reps? 5 reps? 3 reps?
If that is still too much pain, see a provider to determine the cause.
We can help accelerate the healing process and teach you how to break the cycle of pain returning with use. Contact Beyond Wellness, a local chiropractor in Virginia at 703-723-9355 or www.mybwdoc.com
