Hi, this is Jennifer Dean from www.jenniferdeanwellness.com and you're joining me today for a low impact arm workout.
I'm going to teach you three arm exercises that you can do using the wall to strengthen and stretch out through your arms.
So as you can see I'm already sitting comfortably with my back against the wall.
You can sit with cross legs, straight legs or if it's more comfortable for you
you could pop yourself up on a couple of cushions to take some of the pressure out of the low back.
So whenever you're ready just make your way down and you're just going to press the entire back from the back of the hips all the way up to the head against that wall.
From here let's open the arms like a cactus shape and start to press the back of the arms into the wall
trying to get the all ten fingertips as well as the back of the elbows down.
So all we're going to do right now is just hold onto this and you'll feel that chest stretch
and depending on how tight you are you might not be able to completely push the arms against the wall
but that's just the goal that you're working towards.
So just keep on breathing here and we'll take a few breaths just opening the front of the body.
Check for me though that you haven't pushed your chest forward, you're still pressing the bra lines firmly into the wall behind you.
So now let's work on a little bit of stability and strength through the back muscles like the trapezius, the rhomboids and the lats.
All we're going to do is reach the fingers up to the ceiling just a little bit keeping the shoulders down.
Now pull those elbows down and in towards your ribs a little bit
and you'll notice that it's a little bit harder to get the hands down and keep them against the wall
and then slide them back up and then pull them back down.
So you're just going to keep doing this a few more times just nice and smooth, steady motions
and when you're doing this at home you can take it for up to 30 repetitions or about 2 minutes just of this subtle movement.
It's a really good one to do every single day.
So then we're going to pull the elbows back down and just hold it here for a second.
Check that you still are firmly pressing everything back against the wall.
Take a big breath in and then rest your arms.
So that's a really good exercise if you have any issues lying on your stomach to do back work.
Say if you're pregnant, have had recent abdominal surgery or it's just uncomfortable for you to be belly down on the floor.
This is getting the same muscles, it's still working postural strength and alignment in just a little bit less impact kind of a way.
So our next move we're going to be putting a foot against the wall and do a spinal balance with a push-up.
So for our second move we're going to come onto hands and knees.
If you've got any knee tenderness you could put a rolled up blanket or some extra padding down underneath your knees just to give yourself a little bit more cushioning.
Then come on up and bring your shoulders over your wrists and your knees are underneath your hips and we may need to readjust here in a second.
I'm going to have you extend one foot and put it straight onto the wall.
So I'm just going to move myself forward a little bit more because of these long legs.
Now drive that heel into the wall, press into all 10 fingertips and push up and out of your arms and then just stay.
So why I'm doing it here with my foot against the wall is that we're working on lengthening the spine and really engaging our legs before we do a push-up.
So your hips are square to the ground, they're equal in height, you haven't hiked one hip up.
And then with a very soft bend in the elbow I want you to try and pull your breastbones forward and then push the heel back and you should feel your entire spine lengthened.
Now it might be enough for you to stay here but if you'd like a little challenge I want you to keep your abdominals engaged and just reach the opposite arm forward.
So I've got right arm, sorry left arm and right leg and you should feel the gluten hamstring on the leg working and the arm is reaching and then put it down.
Again you could just hold that but if you'd like the final challenge we're going to take the toe up, hug the elbows into the ribs and lower down into a small push-up,
press back up and push the heel back into the wall.
So we'll do that series two more times.
First we lift the arm, then lower the hand, I'm going to take my hands a little forward,
bend the elbows, keep squeezing the backside as you lift the leg, then come back into the spinal balance, final time reaching forward, long spine,
bending elbows, pressing up, foot to the wall, finish where you started and just take a moment and really feel how that slow controlled movement brings a lot of strength into the upper body
and then lower the knee down and just roll out your wrists and then do that on the other leg as well anywhere between three and twelve repetitions per side depending on how strong you're feeling in your upper body today.
Then we'll come on up for the final move.
I want to do wall push-ups.
So what I love about wall push-ups is that we're strengthening the chest and the bicep muscles but you don't have the full impact of your body weight coming down onto the floor.
So it's much more gentle on your wrists.
Start with the hands much wider than the chest and the shoulders and then draw your abdominal in and slightly tilt your pelvis underneath you.
From here, bend the elbows out to the side and just bring your chest in towards the wall and then push back out.
We're going to bend in and push out.
So I've got my feet in parallel position and they're just a narrow hip distance apart.
I'm drawing my shoulder blades together and then I'm separating them slightly.
You can just keep doing this if you'd like the final challenge.
You're going to bend and then push up, clap, cat and clap.
So you don't really stop.
Try and keep your shoulders down away from your ears and you're getting a little bit extra core work right here.
Let's just do it one more time.
Finish in a push-up position and hold. Find a little bit more length through the spine to press down through the heel.
Keep your hands super glued to the wall but start to pull up.
Straighten the elbows and let's take a little back extension.
Look up to the ceiling.
Look back forward.
Step on up and again roll out your wrists.
And you're all finished for today.
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