Have you ever had anyone massage your pectoral muscles? Usually when I get hands on work on my pectorals it´s super tight and getting that area released just feels so great. My arms feels lighter and my shoulders drop.
For a lot of us it´s a “ouch, man that´s tight". The pecs work hard for us. In our everyday life it helps us when we lift our children, and what I like to do sometimes, arm wrestle (no, I am not good at it, so don´t challenge me) and with much else the pectoral has to work to make it happen. The muscles big role is to connect our arm to he trunk (upper body, back, abdominal) of our body.
What can we do to release the pecs?
We can stretch
Stand close to a wall. put one of your arms out and bend it by the elbow. Place the inner side of your arm against the wall and gentle stretch your body away from the arm and wall to feel the a stretch in pectoral and chest. Hold for 30 sec and release, repeat 3 times. Make sure your shoulder is relaxed and that you feel no pain anywhere. If so, stop and replace yourself.
In Thai we work with different pressure points, stretches and rotation stretches that opens and releases pectoral tension.
We can also use a ball
If you have a ball, tennis ball or bigger. How hard or soft you want it depends sorely on how tight you are. You can gentle put the ball underneath you while you lay face down on the floor. Place the ball on the pectoral area and feel for tension. Be aware, do not press on breast tissue or to close to the arm pit. listen to your body. Does it feel weird? does it tingle or get numb. stop it right away. It should be a feeling or “good pain” as I like to call it, what do I mean by that? good pain is where you feel that something is releasing by doing it. The feeling of enjoyment by doing it is farther more beneficial than pain. If you are in pain, you can safely assume you are tensing yourself and that makes the muscles contract.
All of this, I just have to say that all of this you do on your own risk. I say this with love cause I don´t want you to hurt yourself. I really don´t think you will as long as you listen to your body and try everything with ease and a gentle touch. As in a Nuad Thai Session we work with a gentle work, from there we feel if its possible to work deeper. Same things when we are done it´s easy and soft. In Thai we call it. Easy-deep-easy
Smaller things we can do more often that actually may make a big difference.
Massage your hands, fingers, in between. Get to know your hands. Press with your thumb and point finger where the thumb and point finger emerges on your other hand. That is a acupressure point that can release head aches. Massaging the hands is very relaxing for the whole body and can promote relaxation in stressful situations.
Drink water, now why is this girl mentioning this again? well drinking water is a amazing way of keeping you healthy. It can flush toxins out of your body and you get healthier. Always start the day with drinking water. If you don´t like the taste. spice it up with lemon or cucumber.
Hold hands - I really like this one. The power of loved ones touch is so health promoting for us. We get relaxed and soke up the love. It does not have to be a partner. Hold your friends hand, or your cat. I just love holding my cats paw. She usually squeezes me back as well. Now that is a rush of love.
Your turn, how´s your pectorals doing? Do you have any great ideas on how to release them? Would love to hear,