Microwave Fitness™ #2 Neck Stretch

Microwave Fitness™ #2

Welcome to the newest Microwave Fitness™ blog article. As Kathy Smith said, the best workout in the world won't do you any good if you don't have time to do it. My hope for you is to help you find better ways to use those spare minutes in your busy day to look & feel better.

Here's how it works.

While you are microwaving your lunch, instead of being bored, focus on fitness.

Most lunches take from 2 to 7 minutes to heat up. If you have a 2 minute lunch, pick your favorite microwave fitness workout. If you have a 5-7 minute lunch, you can do 2 or 3 workouts! They are quick, fun & easy and each one focuses on a different muscle group.

Microwave Fitness™ exercises will improve your muscle tone and circulation, improve your energy level, help your concentration, and help you relax from your day's stress. You won't work up a sweat, so you won't need a shower afterwards. You'll just feel better and you'll soon notice you look better too.

Neck Stretches
Stretching is great for relieving tension and improving blood circulation. If you have frequent headaches, this may become your favorite Microwave Fitness workout! A funny thing I learned from a physical therapist is that this stretch can even relieve pain in your upper arms, deltoid and trapezius muscles for the body-builders and med students reading this.

ALWAYS do stretching exercises slowly and DO NOT yank or jerk. You can hurt your neck and that ruins the whole point of Microwave Fitness.

Stand normally, with your feet together. Hold your left arm down at your side. Imagine you are reaching for your toes.
Tip your head gently to the right, your right ear should be close to your right shoulder.
With your right hand, GENTLY apply a little pressure to your head to bring your right ear a little closer to your right shoulder.
Watching the timer on the microwave, hold for about 5 seconds to start.

Repeat on the left side. Hold your right arm down at your side. Imagine you are reaching for your toes.
Tip your head gently to the left, your left ear should be close to your left shoulder.
With your left hand, GENTLY apply a little pressure to your head to bring your left ear a little closer to your left shoulder.
Watching the timer on the microwave, hold for about 5 seconds to start.

As you do this stretch more often, you can work up to 10 seconds on each side.