Name: Your Quick Standing Stretch Break
Uploaded: 2025-02-11T23:28:09.798Z
Duration: 12 min 4 s
Description: Your Quick Standing Stretch Break

Transcript for "Your Quick Standing Stretch Break": From EXO's here at Intuit. I'm gonna take you through a ten minute standing stretch break. So go ahead and come on up out of your seats, Get some nice space around you, and we will go ahead and get started. Starting with a side bend overhead reach. So let's have those feet right about hip distance with apart. Soft bend in those knees for stability. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna take that left arm. It's gonna go right down our left leg as it does. We're gonna push our hips to the right, and that right arm is gonna go up and over, reaching as far as we can, keeping the lower body still. Big inhale as you come back. Exhale and push same side. Good. Keep it going. Every exhale, let's see if we can drop that left arm a little lower and reach that right arm up and over a little bit further. Very good stretch of those obliques and those lat muscles in your back. Keep that breathing with you. Good. One more reach, and we'll switch sides. Lovely. Bring it on back. Shake it on out. Same thing. Now that right arm is gonna go down my right leg. Left arm up and over, pushing my hips off to the left, loosening everything up, working our way up to that full reach, that full extend as we continue to loosen up the joints, the muscles, any tension we may have as well. Good. Ten seconds left. Final five. Really reach. Three, two, and one. Perfect. Shake that out as much as you need to. Next up, what we're gonna do is we're gonna open up that chest. We're gonna send those arms as far back behind us as we can, and then we're gonna give ourselves some love. We're gonna give ourselves a hug. As we do, you're gonna cross right over left, and you're gonna tuck that chin into your chest, allowing those shoulders to rise so we can really round out the back and relieve a lot of that tension that I know a lot of us carry in our upper shoulders. So here we go. Same stance. Nice bend in those knees. Open up the chest. I know it's physically impossible, but imagine you're trying to bring the back of your hands behind you so so we can really get a full extension of lengthening and opening of that chest. Big inhale and exhale right over left. Tuck that chin into your chest. Allow those shoulders to round. You'll feel that belly button getting pulled into as well. Resuming normal breathing. We're not holding our breath here. Whenever you're ready, you're back to that big inhale, open, lift, rise. Big inhale, and then exhale. Alternate that top arm now, so left over right, rounding, giving ourselves that big tight hug. Chin is tucked. Back into that inhale and open whenever you're ready. You don't have to follow along with me. I'm actually gonna kinda pick up my pace here a little bit. I'm not gonna hold these poses for as long. Beautiful. Keep going. Open, lift, round, and tuck. Last five, four, three, two, and one. Very good. Next, what I would like you to do is we're gonna go ahead and kind of clasp those fingers, interlock them behind our head so those elbows are pointed out. And we're gonna inhale and lifting that chest open proud again. On your exhale, you're gonna rotate to either the left or the right side, and then you're gonna bring yourself back again. Always resend with that inhale and lift, exhale and rotate sides. Alternate those sides that you are rotating to and keep your lower body still. This is just that upper body here. So let's go ahead and interlace those fingers behind us or get them as close as you can. I know everybody's shoulder mobility is a little different. So big inhale and lift. Exhale and twist. Inhale back center and lift. Exhale and twist to the opposite direction. Your goal is to take that elbow in the direction that you're heading as far back behind you as possible. Remain grounded, driving those heels into the ground so your toes resist that urge to twist. They resist the urge to squish the bug and rotate with you. Keep those toes pointed forward and continue focusing on your breath, aligning your breath with this movement. Every time we inhale, we are centered. We are lifting. We are open. Every time we're exhaling, we are rotating off to that side. This allows us to be present in the moment we are in because our focus right now is breathing and twisting. Doesn't allow us to think about anything else right now in this moment. Good. Let's do one more each side. Once you're done with that, you can go ahead and drop those arms. You may need to have a little bit of a release loose noodle moment if you're feeling it in those shoulders from all of this upper body stretching we've been doing so far. Now we're gonna go ahead keeping that open arm, but now I'm gonna play with your balance a little bit. We're gonna get the lower body involved. We're gonna inhale, open, and on your exhale, we're gonna pull one knee up and in towards our chest. Set that down and then switch. Inhale, Exhale. Shift that balance. Drive that knee up. Now your modification, we're still gonna open that chest up. And as you exhale, those arms come in, and you're just gonna shift that weight, lifting that knee up as high as you can and then right back down. And maybe today, it's barely above the ground, but that's what you can do today. That's what you can do in this moment, and I love that for you. Okay? Do what you can do right now and know that we all have goals and things we can continue to work on. Something as simple as getting my foot up off the ground, getting my knee lifted, transitioning into that knee hug. As simple as that, a goal is a goal. We're always working on ways that we can improve ourselves so we can be a better person for not only ourselves, but everybody around us as well. Good. One more each leg. Good. Go ahead and lower that down. Now what we're gonna do next is we are gonna go into a wide stance, deep inhale, and forward fold. When you go into that forward fold, I'd really like you to keep those legs very straight. So I've got a soft bend. When we inhale into that forward fold, I'm gonna collapse all the way down, allowing my head, neck, and jaw, everything to just relax with me and trying to really keep my lower half of my body straight so I can stretch out my hamstrings and my glutes. So set those feet out wide, a slight turn out to the side. Here we go. Big breath in. Hold it. Push the ceiling away and exhale. Completely fall forward, relaxing your head, your neck, your jaw. Arms are dangling down or maybe you're giving yourself a hug like we did earlier. You now also have the option to add in a sway from side to side if that feels right. That can make some feel dizzy, so please only do so if that feels good for you in this moment. If you added that sway, come back center and slowly roll up one vertebra at a time, keeping those legs straight right back into another inhale. Hold it. Push the ceiling away. Exhale. Optional sway yet again, side to side. If you added that sway, hold center. Slowly roll up everybody one vertebrae at a time. Good. One more big inhale. Hold it. Hold it. Longest hold. And exhale. Forward fold. If you added that sway and hold center, slowly roll up. Good. Step those feet in. Shake out those legs. Thank you so much for stretching with me today, and I hope you have a great rest of your day and a great week.