My husband and I just celebrated our 11-year anniversary (love you, babes!), and although I appreciated the bouquet of gorgeous Gerber daisies and the kid-free dinner out, I wanted to commemorate our relationship by doing something a little adventurous and out of our comfort zone. So I signed us up for an intro to rock climbing class. Even though I do CrossFit, my upper body was sore in a completely new way, and these are the upper-body stretches that helped relieve muscle soreness.
While this is mostly a move you'll feel in your chest and shoulders, you'll also feel this stretch in your hamstrings and lower back.
This stretch allows you to stretch the upper back and shoulders while also targeting the inner thighs.
You'll feel this stretch all the way from your fingertips to your toes. It's a great stretch for the lats and the side of the torso.
It feels so good to open one shoulder at a time in this twist.
Target the triceps with this common stretch.
Target one shoulder at a time with this simple stretch.
Get on the floor and try this stretch that targets tight shoulders and increases side-to-side mobility in your lower back. Admittedly, it looks very pretzel-like, even tortuous, but I promise that it feels amazing. There are three stretches in this series, so pause as long as you'd like in each and move to the next stretch as you're ready to increase the intensity.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
This is just one of the wrist stretches I love that also targets the forearms.
This simple and relaxing backbend will open your chest, neck, shoulders, and abs.
This offers such an amazing shoulder and chest stretch.
This yoga pose has several names, including Intense East, Upward Plank, and Reverse Plank. Whatever you call it, this move is a great strength builder for your wrists as well as a chest-opener.
This will stretch through the chest as well as the upper back and neck. This stretch feels especially good after I've been belaying someone, and having to look up for 20 minutes straight.
I love to end my upper-body stretching session with Child's Pose; it's not only a great way to relax and take a few deep breaths, but it feels great on my lower back and shoulders.