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Class 4 Lab

     On top of these stretches, I would like you to continue the breathing and neck stretches you began in class one. I know it's a lot. Work them in as best you can.

  Start by simply standing with your arms at your side. Make sure your feet are a hip's width apart and facing straight forward. Make sure your knees are straight, but not locked. Just stand there and breath for about a minute. How labored is your breath. How stable are you on your feet? How heavy do you feel within gravity? Are you naturally balanced between the balls and heels of your feet? Do you stand more on one foot than the other? Just make a complete assessment of how your body feels before you begin reorganizing it with stretches.

Begin in a standing position. Bring your arms around behind and clasp your hands together. Now raise your arms as high as you can and then bend all the way forward. As you hang forward continue raising your hands and allow gravity to help facilitate an even greater stretch in the chest and arms. Remember to breathe fully to create an even greater release. Perform this stretch three times holding for a count of 30.

Find a doorway in your home and stand in front about a two feet away from it. Place the entirety of your forearms hand to elbow on the sides of the door about shoulder height and lean forward. You should feel this stretch in the muscles on the front of your chest. If you want to get an extra stretch you can switch off leaning in on one side more than the other. I'll leave it up to you how long you want to hold this stretch. You know, if you hold it for five minutes on each side, you will have seriously changed the structure for the better because you will have released a great deal of connective tissue restrictions. In any case remember to breath calmly and fully in these stretches.

This is stretch is designed to balance the front of everything between your left hand and your right hand with the backside of everything between your left hand and your right hand. It balances front to back. All you have to do is raise your arms out to the side at shoulder level and actively reach away from your body. Make sure your arms are twisting so that your palms are facing upwards. You are not to reach backwards or forwards. Just reach strongly straight out to the side and hold it for as long as you can. Make sure you breathe fully in this stretched position.

This is a stretch for the back of the arms right up at the joint where the humerus meets the scapula. Place your arms straight out in front of you. Place your left elbow on top of your right elbow. Without changing the elbow position, bring your left hand to the left passing in front of the right hand so that the palms of both hands are touching. This should create a stretch in the back of the left shoulder joint. You can accentuate the stretch by then raising both your arms upwards. Perform this stretch anywhere from one to five minutes and then repeat to the opposite side.

Bring your right hand over your shoulder to your back. Bring your left hand up you back to meet your right hand as shown in the picture. Clasp you hands together. If you cannot clasp your hands, get a towel and bring your hands as close together  grabbing the towel as far up as possible. Raise your hands upwards a few inches and hold for a count of 10. Then pull you hands downwards and hold for a count of 10. Perform these stretches ten times and then switch sides. This will help align your shoulders to come up and back

Take a moment to study the pictures of the clavicle and rib cage. I'm not going to give you a whole lot of instruction here. You know how to release connective tissue and lengthen musculature.  By palpating with your fingers the intercostal muscles in between each rib, you can release them . Use your breath to help guide the release. You can reach under the big pectoralis major and release the pectoralis minor. You do not need to be afraid of touching anything. Connective tissue can get thick and stuck underneath the clavicle so thoroughly explore this area with your palpating hands. Remember to stay calm and neutral. You are just exploring and releasing as you find things. If a spot feels tender, you can just keep your hand there until the pain starts to decrease. Just spend some time being nice to your rib cage and the muscles of the area. Influence them to let go and clean up any hardened connective tissue you find by simply exploring the depths of it with your fingers. Good Luck. Let me know what kind of problems you have if any?

This is similar to the side stretch I taught you in class 1, but with one addition. Spread your feet about three feet apart. Strongly reach your arms out to the side. Never stop reaching even for a second. Continuing your reach, bring your right arm up over your head reaching towards your left while simultaneously bending your trunk to the left. Brace yourself by placing your left hand on your left leg and bending the left elbow. Reach out feeling your stretch all the way down your arm to your low back. From this position, blow every last inch of air out of your lungs as you maintain your reach. I mean really push it all out. Then once it is out, open your mouth and take as deep and forceful and complete a breath as you possibly can. Fill to maximum capacity and make sure you use this opportunity to reach ever farther with your stretching arm. Perform this three times and then move your arm to reach slightly forward about 30 degrees from where your were reaching before. You will feel the stretch move to your low back and the backs of the ribs. Maintain your reach as you force out every last inch of air. Then, once again, reach as you blast your ribcage open with a complete breath. Perform this three times in this position and then repeat these two positions on the opposite side of your body. Before you switch sides, however, take a second to feel what it feels like to have one side more open than the other.

Raise your arms out to the side and reach them over your head with your palms touching. Let your head fall back to gaze at your hands as you actively reach upwards. From this position, breath fully. Become very aware of the expansion of your ribs as you inhale. Maintaining your reach , reach your hands over to the left. Take Ten deep inhalations and exhalations. Never stop reaching! Then come up and reach to the right for ten full breaths. Then reach straight up for ten more breaths. Then bring your arms down slowly with your palms facing upwards. Hopefully you should now feel your shoulders and arms are directly on top of a wide ribcage. Relax and breath.

Now that you have spent time reorganizing your body, return to your original standing position and feel how these basic stretches have changed you. How do your feet feel on the floor. How heavy do you feel? How does your abdomen feel. How do your legs feel. Take a full assessment every day when you are done and be witness to the changes you are affecting I your body. How does all of this make you feel emotionally?

Have fun with these exercises this week. If you have been really working with me taking each class a week at a time, you have no doubt come a long way. Next week we will cover nutrition and cleansing before we continue on to releasing the core. Please make sure you are checking the Daily Focus page for extra consideration throughout the week and be sure to read the questions and answers page for clarifications you may miss during the course of these classes.