6 Minute Everyday Stretch Routine | Good Stretch | Well+Good

Hi, I'm Clara, founder of Good Day Pilates, and this is Good Stretch with Well and Good. Today, I'm gonna take you through a quick everyday stretch series. We're gonna get started in a kneeling position. So you'll come to kneeling right in the center of your mat here. If it feels uncomfortable to sit all the way back on your heels, you're welcome to come up to a high kneel position. You could sit cross-legged, or you could have a block or a pillow underneath your seat. Once you're comfy, we're gonna go ahead and clasp our hands behind our head. Elbows nice and wide out to the sides. From here, we're gonna start to lift the chest, lift the gaze as you look up towards the ceiling, really finding that extension through your thoracic spine or your upper back. And then from here, we're gonna tuck the chin. Elbows can come forward a little as you round your spine. Chin looks down towards your chest. We'll move through that a couple of times. So lifting the chest, opening the elbows wide, looking up towards the sky. And then tuck the chin, gaze comes down, elbows come forward. And a few more like this, moving at your own pace with your own breath. In our, like, everyday lives, we tend to sit a lot of the day at desks, so it's really nice to open up through the thoracic spine and the ribs, the upper back area. We're gonna take one more each way. And then just coming back to a tall kneel position here. We're gonna take your right fingertips to the floor next to you. Reach the left arm up towards the sky and start to lean over to the right, finding a nice side bend. Really think about heaving through that left sit bone, so we're anchoring that left hip down, reaching up through those left fingertips and finding space along that whole left side body. Couple of breaths into the left ribs here. So big inhale, feeling those ribs almost expand. And then exhale, maybe see if you can fold a little deeper. One more big breath in. Stay as you breathe out. We're gonna come all the way up and we'll swap sides. So left fingertips now come to the floor, stretch that right arm up towards the sky, so get nice and tall, and then start to lean over to the left, really anchoring down through that right hip or that right sit bone and reaching up through your right fingertips. Take a big breath in, feel the space between each rib expand. And then as you exhale, see if you can fold a little bit deeper. One more breath. And then exhale, let it go. We're gonna come all the way back up and then let's make our way to hands and knees. So I'm gonna turn to face the top of the mat. Wrists will be under shoulders, knees will be underneath hips. We're gonna keep going with a little bit of twisting here. So your right arm is gonna reach up to the sky, we're gonna look up towards the right fingertips, really pressing down into that left palm to get a little more space. Then we're gonna thread that right arm underneath your left. Your right ear can come all the way down onto the mat as you find that twist. We're gonna take a few more like that. So pressing into your left hand, we're gonna peel the right arm up to the sky. Gaze comes up towards those right fingertips. And then right arm is gonna thread underneath your left as you twist right ear all the way to the mat if you can. Two more like that, right arm reaches up, really opening the chest here. And then right arm threads underneath left, find that twist. Last one, peel the right arm up and then threading that right arm underneath you for the twist. And then just coming back to hands and knees, we're gonna go for that second side. So now it's gonna be your left arm that reaches up, looking up towards that left hand, really press into the right palm to get a little more space. And then left arm is gonna thread underneath the right. Your left ear can rest down on the mat. Few more like that, left arm reaches up, find that nice stretch across the front of the chest. And then left arm threads underneath you, feeling that rotation through your upper back. Two more, and then you can move at your own pace if there's any sticky points, you're welcome to pause and take a couple of extra breaths there if that feels good. Last one of these. And then just coming back to hands and knees, we're gonna walk our hands one palm print forward, tuck your toes and lift your hips up and back to a downward facing dog. From here, you can pedal out those legs, bending one knee, bending the other, really exaggerating this movement, feeling that hamstring stretch, the lower back stretch, maybe even the upper back stretch. And then just finding some stillness, let the heels melt towards the floor. Take one breath here. And then start to walk your hands back towards your feet, you're gonna meet in a forward fold. Feet are about hip width apart, let the head hang heavy. And then maybe here we grab a hold of opposite elbows. Think for a moment about pulling your elbows apart and see how you feel a little more stretch underneath those armpits, kind of at the back of the shoulders. Maybe here you take a little sway side to side, just feeling that opening across the low back. And then finding some stillness here, hands can reach to the floor. An extra little bend of your knees and we're gonna roll ourselves all the way up to standing, one bone at a time, really restacking the spine, you can let your head be the last to lift. When you get to the top, just give your shoulders a big roll up, back and down. And then we are all done. Again, this was Good Stretch with Well and Good. I'm Clara, founder of Good Day Pilates. For more videos like this, subscribe below. See you next time.