5 STRETCHES TO SOOTHE PHONE-SCROLLING HANDS

Raise your hand if you’re on your phone more than ever before.

Is your raised hand holding a phone? Then this article is for you.

Here are 5 moves that will get your hands moving more and differently than the phone death-grip, index finger swipe your upper body has grown accustomed to and bonus: you have to put your phone down to do them. #stackyourlife

Stretch your thumbs. Make a loose fist with your right hand with the thumb pointing up. Grasp the thumb as low as you can with your left hand and move it like it’s an old-fashioned Atari joystick, slowly moving it toward you and side-to-side at varying angles. “PEW PEW” noises not required. #80skid

Stretch your wrists. Keeping your shoulders down and relaxed, touch the backs of your hands together including the thumbs, then bring them down to waist level. Hold there or move them slowly up and down in front of your torso, or right to left. Keep those thumbs touching!

Stretch your shoulders and upper back. Place your hands on a wall, step back to bring your hips behind you, then lower your chest toward the ground to give your upper body an overhaul! This is one of my all-time favorite moves. Learn about more about the Thoracic Stretch here.

Stretch your nerves. That’s right, nerves need to move through their ranges of motion too! Reach your hands away from you making a T with your arms and a "STOP" motion with your hands. Spreading your fingers away from each other, slowly work your fingertips toward your head. Keep your middle fingers pointing up, thumbs forward, and elbows slightly bent toward the ground. Think of reaching the upper arm bones away from you as you work your fingers back towards your body’s midline.

And finally, Head Ramping

Keeping your eyes on the horizon, and without lifting the chin or chest, slide your head back to the wall behind you. This is an easy adjustment that immediately decompresses the vertebrae in your neck by lengthening it, stretches the small muscles in the head, neck, and upper back, and increases your height. Back your face away from that screen!

This move is so effective you can do it all the time including as you’re using your tech. We think it's so important we even created head ramping reminder stickers for your screens.

Place your un-tech your neck decals on the top of your phone, computer, or where I added one: my steering wheel. Here's more on how (and why) to pair the move with your tech-use:

Computer technology is absolutely affecting how and how much each of us move each day. To keep my body from becoming tech-centric, I balance my tech-moves in a few ways: I take long breaks, I use corrective exercises like these, and I work hard to keep a large portion of my life analog. If you're into it, you can read more about my online time and movement "best practices." Find more body-restoring moves on our "movement multivitamin."

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