Let’s start out 2025 on a practical note. I know the world is literally burning/blowing/washing away, but part of how I cope is to stay on mission and keep offering practical embodiment content.
How many people do you know, including yourself…who don’t feel good when raising their arms above shoulder level?
The gesture of reaching up and out is so important on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels.
Asking for what you need, asking for help, reaching out to receive it, grasping what is given…it’s all foundational for us humans now more than ever. We are bipeds with arms that have been freed up just for this purpose.
Beyond all that, it’s simply one of the most satisfying and pleasurable movements to do. That’s why it makes me sad when I see discomfort and pain around reaching up and out.
Our shoulder joints are designed beautifully for reaching, but there are lots of misconceptions about where the support for this motion comes from.
Support doesn’t come from pulling anything in, or pushing anything down. Think about it. One of the first things we do as infants is look up to get our pelvis and legs underneath us to we can stand up and reach things. Unfortunately, this upward desire – it takes lots of energy and intention – is also one of the first things we forget when we sit down at our computers.
Our core body (legs, torso, and head) ends up sagging down. Then, we end up reaching with no support and crunching our shoulder joints in the front body. Or, still forgetting about our legs, we try to open our chest and push our shoulder blades back and down in the opposite direction we are trying to reach for.
Then, misconceptions about how to rotate our arms when we make this movement can at best cause discomfort, at worst cause pain and injury.
I clear that all up in this weeks video, and share an “exercise” (it’s really more like explora-cise) that helps you explore the range of motion in your shoulders and arms safely, until you get your joy of reaching back.
So to recap. Here are my two “don’t”s:
1: Pull your stomach in
2: Pull your shoulder blades/collar bones back and down
And here are my five “do’s:”
1: Support the reach by connecting from the ground through your feet, ankles, knees and hips to activate your legs to go up.
2: Relax your lumbar spine and let it move.
3: Allow your shoulder blades and collar bones to be “at home” on the backward curve of your thoracic spine instead of trying to flatten that area.
4: Allow your shoulder blades to move around your ribs in the back, following your hand
5: play with the rotational movement available in hands, forearms, upper arm bones and shoulder blades