Do you have chronic or intermittent weakness, tingling and/or pain in your neck, shoulders, arms or hands? Do you suffer from cervical spondylosis or have stiffness in your neck when trying to turn your head? Do your fingers seem stiff or painful? If so, this pearl might have some exercises to strengthen your muscles, tendons and joints while reducing your pain.
This part of this healthier living series deals with exercises that make your upper body parts stronger, better lubricated and less painful.
Disclaimer: Just because these exercises work for my clients and me, it doesn’t mean that they all will work in the same way for you. But if you find what does work, great—a combination of these and your exercises may be what works best for you.
Important Breathing Considerations:
► As with lower body exercises, upper body exercises are coordinated with Long Deep Breaths to keep your muscles oxygenated.
► If your muscles feel weak while doing an exercise, take an extra-long deep breath for each exercise and extra-long deep breaths between exercises to properly oxygenate your muscles. As you strengthen your muscles you will reduce your “oxygen debt”, requiring fewer extra breaths to complete an exercise.
► If you experience cramping in a muscle while doing these exercises it may be due to a lack of Vitamin-D and Calcium in your diet. Years ago, when I didn’t take Vitamin-D with my calcium supplement my legs cramped a lot. Since I have been taking 5,000 IU/day my legs never cramp up unless I skip my supplements for a few days. I did though, have some muscle cramping when I started doing these exercises because of my weak leg muscles, but it disappeared a week or so after I had strengthened them. Should you get lower leg cramps, stop and massage the cramped muscles before proceeding.
► An Exercising Routine Helps: The longer the time between getting up and doing your exercises the greater the probability of NOT doing them, especially if we have to go somewhere else to do them. The following is a description of each exercise—the pictures show the start, middle and end of each exercise.
► The use of Dumbbells: You will need two dumbbells that weigh enough to give you a challenge lifting them. I use two 8-pound dumbbells, although 4-pound, 6-pound, or 10-pound dumbbells may work best for you.
Shoulder Strengthening Exercises:
This is a set of four exercises to strengthen your shoulders and lubricate your shoulder joints.
UB-1) Pull-Up Exercise: Stand straight up, legs slightly apart, arms and dumbbells at your side. Take one long deep breath, bend over, and exhaling while lowering the dumbbells as close to the floor as possible. Then take a long deep breath and pull the dumbbells vertically up to your chest two times. Do this for 6 long deep breaths of two pull-ups each (a total of 12 pull-ups).
UB-2) Side-Lifting Exercise: Stand straight up, legs slightly apart, arms and dumbbells at your side. Take one long deep breath and lift the dumbbells vertically sideways, hold them for a second and then lower them to your sides; do this twice per long deep breath. Do this for 6 long deep breaths (a total of 12 side lifts).
UB-03) Shoulder Shrugging Exercise: Stand straight up, legs slightly apart, arms and dumbbells at your side. Take one long deep breath and shrug your shoulders twice. Do this for 6 deep breaths (a total of 12 shrugs).
UB-04) Front-Lifting Exercise: Stand straight up, legs slightly apart, arms and dumbbells at your side. Take one long deep breath and lift the dumbbells vertically in front of you, hold them for a second and then lower them to your sides; do this twice per long deep breath. Do this for 6 long deep breaths (a total of 12 front lifts).
UB-5: Finger Stretching Exercises:
This exercise is helpful if you have stiff or painful finger joints and can be done at anytime and anywhere. Take a long deep breath and stretch your fingers as straight up and far apart as possible. Next, close one joint at a time, starting from the tips of your fingers until you have a tight fist. Do this for 6 long deep breaths. Do each hand separately or both hands simultaneously.
UB-6: Neck and Shoulder Stretching Exercises:
Lay flat on your stomach on your bed with your legs straight and together and your arms stretched out above your head. Place your right ear and head flat on the bed looking towards your left arm—your neck and shoulder muscles should feel strained. Hold this position for 18 long deep breaths. When done, slowly rotate your head with your left ear flat on the bed looking towards your right arm and hold this position for 18 long deep breaths. If your muscles/tendons are tight this will be painful, but once done you will feel much better.
UB-7: Spine Stretching Exercises:
You can also use devices to stretch your spine and your tight neck & shoulder muscles. Picture “1” below shows a spine-stretching device that pulls on your entire spine, which I do monthly while sitting in a chair for 20 minutes. Pictures “2”, “3” and “4” below show cervical-only stretching devices. I use “3” below when I have neck problems; it warms my neck as it stretches, which works better for me. Google “Spine-Stretching Devises” to get a full list of what’s available.
The pain associated with these stretching exercises can be significant if you have very tight shoulder and neck tendons and muscles.
NOTE! The tighter your muscles, the longer you should do this exercise. Also, if you don’t have neck/shoulder pain, but find it difficult to turn your head 180o from side to side, you may need to do these exercises.
Combining Lower and Upper Body Exercises:
You can do all of the upper and lower body exercises together effectively and efficiently.
1) When you awaken, remove anything on your bed (pillows, etc.), to lie flat on your stomach and do a exercises UB-05 and UB-06 simultaneously.
2) Get out of bed and do exercise LB-01, the back of leg stretching exercise.
3) Obtain your dumbbells and perform the LB-02 bend over exercise UB-01 pull-up exercise, and then grab your dumbbells and do the UB-01 pull-up exercise.
4) Stand up straight and do upper body exercises UB-3 and UB-4
5) Return to your bed and do lower body exercises LB-03 through LB-12 exercises.
I hope that this pearl on productive upper body exercises has given you some helpful information on how to create and maintain a stronger and healthier upper body with less pain.
