Chest Stretches

Chest day might be your favorite meat head’s day in their workout routine. Even though it’s fun to pound the chest muscles in the gym, it can lead to tightness and poor posture. Or maybe you spend many hours hunched over your laptop or desktop. This posture can lead to tightness through the chest as well.

When we think about the chest muscles, usually the pecs come to mind. There are two types of muscles that make up the pec – the pec major and pec minor. As I’m sure you can guess, the pec major is a big muscle that connects from the arm to the rib cage and sternum. The pec minor is a smaller muscle that attaches from the shoulder blade to the rib cage. Each of these muscles can cause shoulder issues, pain, or discomfort if they’re tight.

Stretches for Your Chest

When we move through the day with poor posture in our upper body (back, neck, and shoulders), this can have a detrimental effect on the tightness we feel in our chest. It’s all connected so when we attempt to remedy the issue, we have to take that into consideration.

With the proper mobilization, exercise, and stretching routine, the tightness should subside over time. This will be great for your daily posture and your quality of life.

Fortunately, these stretches and techniques can be done from the comfort of your home with little to no extra equipment required. Take it one day at a time and really try to breathe through the stretches and positions. Utilizing deep breathing while in uncomfortable positions will allow you to get the most out of it.

If you’re ready to stretch it out, feel better than ever, and fix your posture, scroll through our stretches below. And just so you know – standing up straight also makes your chest look bigger [great news for our meatheads out there ;)