I have many favorite warm ups for this Forearm Balance Posture. One of them is this stretch over a chair. You have to have a chair with the back removed, otherwise it won’t work. Make sure the chair is on a mat so it won’t slide out from under you. Place a blanket over the chair seat to pad the back of your shoulder blades. Sit in front of the chair, facing away from it. Lean back (if this is too much of a trust exercise for you, you can sit on two blocks or a bolster to make it easier to lean back) and place your head and shoulder blades on the chair. Once you are secure on the chair, lift your hips up in the air so your torso is parallel to the floor. Use one of your hands to feel that the top of your head is lined up with the back edge of the chair seat. This is important; otherwise it won’t be a stretch in the right place! Once you are lined up, thread your arms through the chair back, reach down and grab the back rung of the chair. Take your hands wide on the back rung. The sides of the chair will not let your elbows splay out. Start with your body parallel to the floor. With your breath, gradually allow your seat to begin to drop towards the floor. You should not be able to touch the floor. If your block or bolster is in the way, you might want to remove it. It is nice to have it there when you want to come down, however. Hold the stretch for five breaths and then release down and rest. You can try it again, if you want. I like to do it three times. Each time I try to move my body so that my back is getting leveraged in a slightly different spot over the front edge of the chair seat. That does mean that one time my head is slightly past the back edge of the chair and the third time, my head is in a little form the edge of the chair seat. Be careful, this can be a big stretch. You don’t want it to move towards a painful stretch.
If you are not sure about it, please ask. Ok? I’ll see you in class! Karin