A seated upper-body stretch routine for your back, chest, and shoulders — gentle range-of-motion moves and 15-second holds to relieve tension and improve flexibility.

Hi. Today we'll be doing an upper body stretch routine to help relieve muscle tension and improve flexibility in your back, chest, and shoulders. If you recently had open-heart surgery, please make sure you're at least eight weeks out from your surgery date and follow your doctor's guidelines for exercise. Please do not stretch if you have any upper body injuries such as a sprain or tear. Make sure to ease in and out of stretches slowly, and do not push the stretch. You may feel a little bit of tension, but it should not be painful. Today's routine will be seated, so all you'll need is a chair. A resistance band or towel is optional if you want to use it for assistance. Go ahead and start a stretch or yoga session on your watch if you have that available, and let's get moving.

First, we're going to warm up our upper bodies with some range-of-motion stretches to improve mobility in the joints. Let's tilt our head to one side, ear to shoulder, hold for a second, and move on to the other side. We'll repeat this five times on each side, or 10 times total, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to relax those shoulders down and move only your head. Great job. For our second stretch, let's do shoulder shrugs — bring your shoulders up to your ears and then drop them down, relaxing the shoulders. Repeat this 10 times, holding for a couple of seconds at the top and then relaxing. Next, some shoulder rolls: start by lifting your shoulders up to your ears and roll them forward, down, and backwards. Do this five times, then go the other way, rolling your shoulders backwards five times, breathing deeply.

Now we'll do some trunk twists. You can hold onto the chair or fold your arms across your chest. Slowly rotate your upper body to the right as far as you can, hold for a second, and then relax. Moving on to the left, twist and come back to center. Avoid turning your lower body with your upper body — try to keep those knees facing forward. Repeat five times on each side, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth, and look over your shoulder if you can. Next, side bends: sitting upright, lean your upper body to the right (you can use the arm or seat of the chair to push off of as you sit up), hold for a second as you lean, and then sit back upright. Move onto the other side, breathing deeply. We'll do five times on each side — notice where you feel the stretch in your side.

For our next couple of stretches, we'll hold each for 15 seconds to let the muscles relax and work on flexibility. First, a chest stretch: place your hands behind your head, or on your shoulders if you cannot reach that high. Begin to pull your elbows back, out to the side, as far as you can, then stop and hold the stretch for 15 seconds. Breathe deeply through the tension, in through your nose and out through your mouth, noticing where you feel the stretch. Slowly relax your arms down. Second, an overhead arm raise: lift your arms forward as high as you can, and slowly look up for an added neck stretch. Reach high, try to stretch out those arms, and hold for 15 seconds. See if you can raise your arms a little higher as you stretch, then relax down. Now a side arm raise: lift your arms out to the sides and stop at about shoulder height, holding for 15 seconds. Try to keep your arms up as they start to feel heavier, feeling your hands reaching out to each wall and lengthening the arms. For an added stretch, flex your palms up and point your fingertips towards the ceiling — you may feel this more in your forearms. Relax those arms down, and shake them out if you need to.

Lastly, let's try a backward reach. You may need to scoot to the edge of your chair or turn sideways to avoid hitting the chair. Send your arms directly behind you and reach out as far as you can, holding for 15 seconds and breathing through the tension. You can also grab onto your hands to make the stretch more intense, or if this is too intense, use a resistance band behind you to hold onto. Notice where you feel the stretch in the chest and shoulders, and hold for 15 seconds, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, focusing on your breath. Then relax. Great job.

And that is the end of our upper body stretch routine. If you're recording this session on a watch, please remember to stop your watch for today. If you have any questions, please chat with your care manager in the Movn app. Thank you for watching "Upper Body Stretch Routine." You can find more exercise videos in the resource section of the app.

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