Touching Well’s top tips

You can massage your legs with your forearms. Rest the fleshy part of your forearm on the front of your thigh and relax. Perhaps try another spot. Or move your ankle. Alternatively you can slowly move your forearm towards your knee. Don't go over your knee. Or you can move across the muscle, in this case the quads. Imagine you are giving your quads a stretch sideways. You can go from the inside out, or the outside in. This will feel different depending on your direction. You can also use your forearm to go across the muscles on the outside or inside of your thigh.

A very effective body work technique is Muscle Energy Technique, or MET. That name does not tell you much. The essence of this technique is that you use (engage) the muscle in question a little, with about 10% of your strength. At the same time you are resisting that movement. You hold for about 10 seconds, rest, and repeat once or twice. The MET in this image is loosening the quads and the hips flexor. In the image I am trying to lift up my thigh which is resisted by my hand. You can be much more relaxed than I am in this picture.

The first tip involves a tennis ball and a carpet or yoga matt so that the ball does not roll away. As an assessment bend forwards as if your hands want to touch the floor, legs straight but knees unlocked. Make a note how far you can reach. Come back up. Roll a tennis ball under your feet. Spend time on each foot, roll the arches, the heel, the ball of your foot. You can stand, use it as a balance exercise or hold on, or you can sit down. You can vary the pressure, it should be comfortable and feel good. After a couple of minutes on each foot, bend forwards again and notice how far you can go down now. You might be able to reach a little further. The reason for that is that the sole of the foot is part of a chain of muscles at the back of the body. This also works the other way - stretching the back of the body will also help your feet. So will moving your ankles. You might remember the slow pumping action of your feet as thrombosis prophylaxis (prevention) when you have been immobilised. Still good to do when you are spending too much time in front of a screen.

Stand on it and keep your legs straight but unlocked. Put the ball of one foot on the edge of the step and let the heel sink down. Hold the stretch for at least twelve seconds and breathe. For strengthening your feet you can lift up and go onto your toes, and then back down again. Switch over to the other foot. You can also stretch both feet at the same time.

To finish, stand with both feet shoulder width apart, and notice how you feel now. Is there any difference? Perhaps conclude this session with a few belly breaths and a thank you to the earth that keeps supporting us.

Now put one hand on your belly and the other on your back. Do you feel the movement, how the hands move apart and together? Now follow the movement of your breath with your hands by providing a little bit of resistance. If you can reach, you can do the same on your chest.

Next put your hands on the side of your ribs and notice how they move with each breath. Is the movement even on both sides? Again, provide a little bit of resistance with your hands.

Out of curiosity, put one hand just above your breast bone and one on your pubic bone. Is there any movement in your hands as you breathe in and out? Imagine that your hands are moving apart, that your torso lengthens with each in-breath.

Now go back to your starting position, one hand on belly, one on your chest. Notice the movement. Pay attention to the end of your out-breath, perhaps extend it a little. Rest there, wait until your body starts the in-breath, let the air flow in. Feel your breath like a wave, with a pause between each one of them, going on and on and on, let's hope for a long, long time.

Now give your fingers a massage. You can use cream or oil for this. With each finger start at the wrist, moving to the metacarpal bone towards the knuckle, and then along the digits towards the tip of the finger. Gently mobilise each part, moving up and down, sideways, roll between your fingers. You can give the thumb pad a bit of a squeeze and gently work towards the bone. There is lots of interest to be had. You can spend a lot of time on this.

Finish vigorously stroking your hands from your wrists or even forearm towards your fingers and beyond.

PS you can also integrate the hand massage from a previous top tip.

Massage your ears thoroughly. Pull your ears. Where do you feel the pull?

Shampoo your scalp. Experiment with different movements: slow and fast, firmer and lighter, moving the tissue and gliding over the scalp, short and long movements. In Indian Head Massage there are at least seven different ways of massaging the scalp. Make sure you pay attention to the nape of your neck just above the hair line. Finish with fast windscreen wipers around your ears, this should wake you up.

The pectoralis muscles become tight when we are sitting forward for a long time. These tight chest muscles pull the shoulders into an internally rotated position and cause them to round forward. The muscles which run from your shoulder blade up to the back of your head become tight (upper trapezius and levator scapula) as your shoulders move up closer to the back of your head. This means that the chest muscles at the front and the neck muscles at the back become tight and over-active, forming the first cross of UCS.

When some muscles become tight, their partners (antagonists) become weak and lengthen. Therefore, the front of the neck weakens, so much so, that it is unable to push the head back so that it sits directly above the spine. Ideally, the middle of the ear should be lined up with the middle of the shoulder.   The upper back muscles that pull she shoulder blades down and towards the spine (rhomboids and lower traps) and stabilise it (serratus anterior)  become long and weak. 

Needless to say, that this can cause a myriad of issues, from jaw pain to neck strain, lower back pain, pins and needles in arms, hands and fingers, and much more.

Often with tight muscles it can help to relax them a bit before you stretch. An effective way to do this yourself is by finding trigger points and releasing them. Trigger points are these exquisitely tender and knotted spots in our muscles, sometimes the pain radiates out. When you find a trigger point in a muscle hold it for about 12 seconds with a pain level no more that 6 on a scale from 1 to 10. Trigger point work can be tiring for your hands, so tennis or spiky balls come in useful. An easy way of doing this is lying on two spiky (or tennis balls) against the ridge of your skull and relax. You can loosen your pecs using a tennis ball. Place it underneath your collar bone and roll it about. You can also try to put your weight on the ball.

Sit or stand upright, lift your chest, tuck your chin in slightly, or alternatively, imagine being gently pulled up by a golden thread from the crown of your head. Now place the palm of one hand on the skin of the top of your breast bone and stretch it down towards your belly. Place the other hand on top. While you stretch down push your chin in until you feel a stretch between you collar bone and neck. If you want to have a bit of fun grimace with your mouth, push the corners of the mouth down a lot, feel this in your chest muscles.

There are lots of ways of stretching your quads.

Here are a few. Stand tall with your lower back in "neutral". Throughout, don't arch your lower back, even though it might be tempting. Do both sides.

Stand on one foot, with your leg unlocked. Have something to hold onto for balance. Get hold of the ankle of the leg to be stretched. Pull your heel towards your bottom until you feel a strong stretch in the front of your thigh. Keep your pelvis straight. Hold. To increase the stretch, rotate your pelvis forward. You can do this stretch lying on your side, stretch the upper leg. You can use a rolled up towel or band if you can't reach.

For the side of the body you might want to start by visiting the neck exercises again.

Stand with your back against a wall, legs about shoulder width apart. Bring your sacrum, ribcage, shoulders and heels towards the wall. Tuck your chin in, and if possible have the back of your head touch the wall. Bend gently from one side to another while staying in contact with the wall. Stroke the side of your thigh and reach as far down your leg as you can with each bend. Now hold a stretch on one side. Feel the space between your hip and ribs expand. To increase the stretch, lift up the arm and hold for about twelve seconds.

Now stand with your legs shoulder width apart, knees still unlocked and with plenty of space around you. First keep your hips still and swing your arms around you by moving your upper back. First one way, then the other, and so on. Small movements first, then increase the speed of the swinging. You will notice that your circles become bigger. You can tap your body where your hands land, giving yourself an invigorating massage. At a next stage you can move your hips, too, and pivot on one foot. Go with the flow, stay relaxed, feel how your arms move.

Most of us get tight arms and hands, sometimes without us noticing it. When massaging your hands and arms you have to watch that you don't damage the massaging hand or thumb. Here are a couple of ideas. 

Sit tall and let one arm hang on the side so that the back of your hand faces forwards. With the other hand grab the muscle at the back of the upper arm (the triceps). Slowly rotate the arm so that the palm of the hand faces forward while keeping hold of the muscle. You can also let your fingers slide over the muscle, this works better on bare skin. Do this in a relaxed fashion, keep your hand loose.

Straighten your legs until you feel a stretch in the back of your legs. Rest, breathe, let your shoulders ease towards the floor/bed. Allow the back of your body to lengthen, don't let your lower back arch. After a little while you may be comfortable to straighten your legs a little more. Again, rest and breathe. Repeat. The next stage is moving your feet and ankles, for best effect nice and slow. You can start with big movements of your toes, get them moving. Then involve your whole foot, scrunch it up and stretch your toes towards your nose. You may feel all this in the back of your legs, do these movements until they feel easy(ish). Now involve your ankles - big circles both directions. Last in this section, pull your feet and toes towards you, in other words,  flex your ankle. You will really feel this in the back of your legs, but it will ease. You can use a towel or an exercise band to make the stretch more intensive.

For the lower back stretch bring your thighs towards your chest, bending your legs. You can use your feet to push off the wall for an extra stretch. Hold. You can hug your knees and move slightly from side to side, enjoy the opening of your lower back. You can use a towel or an exercise band.

Now bring one ear to the near shoulder, let the other shoulder drop. Wait. Next bend your arm at the wrist and stretch your arm out, imagining that it is elongating like a telescope. Hold. Place your hand just above your ear and let the weight of your arm deepen the stretch. Don’t yank or pull. Fine-tune the stretch with small movements until you find the point that feels really good.