Zibby Mag

By Sarah Ezrin

August is National Wellness Month, and Zibby Mag teamed up with senior yoga teacher and author of The Yoga of Parenting, Sarah Ezrin, to learn the best stretches for writers. Sarah will be leading the yoga on our Zibby’s Wine Country retreat, September 22 – 24.

I used to have a limited view of wellness. I thought it only entailed the foods we eat or how often we move our bodies, but wellness is much more holistic than that. It includes our mental health and doing things that we love—things that light us up and sustain us creatively. For me, that’s writing. When I have time to write, the hours fly by. I feel connected to something bigger than myself and the importance of this practice for my well-being is most discernible when I don’t get to do it. I’m often snappier with family members, quicker to react, and always feeling like I’ve forgotten to do something.

Unfortunately, as much as my heart, soul, and brain love writing, my physical body does not. In fact, the more my writing flows, the more my body seems to lock up. If I am deep into whatever I’m composing, my elbows flare to the side and I hunch closer to the screen. It’s almost like my heart is protectively wrapping around my computer and its creation. Even when I’m able to stay mindful of keeping my spine long and my shoulders out of my ears, I still feel tight afterward. I’m often more sore after writing than working out!

It’s imperative for writers to carve out time for movement and stretching. This isn’t just for our physical health. Our mind is inextricably linked to our body. The nervous system is the superhighway of information that runs from our brain, through our spinal column, and into the rest of the body, controlling all of our body’s autonomic responses and conscious movement. We need a healthy and mobile body, particularly our spine, to let our writing flow.

Here are five simple stretches you can do throughout your writing sessions.

Cat/Cow

Though I encourage you to do most of the below stretches standing, if you’re able, we can get a lot of benefit out of simply moving the spine every once in a while during long sits. Remember, the spinal column is the path from your brain to your body, so having a free-flowing spine might be the key to having a free-flowing writing session.

How to: Place your feet on the floor and separate your legs hip-width. Sit up tall in your spine. On an inhale, arch your back, rocking toward the front of your sit bones, and lifting your chest skyward. On an exhale, round your back. Come to the front of your sit bones and look down on your belly button. Repeat ten full rounds. You’re welcome to do this on the floor in a quadruped position, which can help with wrist mobility, as well.

Clasp Hands Behind Back

Pecking furiously at my keyboard when I get swept up by an idea or I’m on deadline locks up my ribcage. This doesn’t only lead to tight pecs (our chest), but it can interrupt proper breathing, too. No wonder we get so tired after marathon writing sessions. This stretch is a simple, yet effective way to lengthen the pectoralis muscles after those intense typing bouts.

How to: Clasp your hands behind your back, either by interlacing your fingers or holding a towel behind you. Lift your chest up and reach your knuckles toward the floor. If it feels intuitive to look up, go for it, but if this bothers your neck or bunches your shoulders, then look straight ahead. Hold for ten breaths.

Lateral Neck Stretch

Text neck is a very real phenomenon where the vertebrae in our neck start to degenerate because we spend so much time with our heads looking down and forward. This forward head posture, as it’s also known, can occur whether you are on your phone or sitting at a desk writing. The head is quite heavy and the more you drop it to look down, the more strain it puts on your neck, shoulders, and upper back. This stretch uses the weight of our heads to our advantage and helps lengthen the muscles that work hard to try and keep our heads up.

How to: Reach your right arm overhead and lightly guide your left ear to your left shoulder. There is no need to yank on the head here; a gentle amount of pressure can go a long way. You can explore very slowly adjusting your gaze and head placement while in the stretch to change where you’re feeling lengthened. Hold for five breaths. Slowly lift your head and switch sides.

Quad Stretch

Writers tend to notice tension in our upper bodies, but our lower bodies get taxed too. I’m often more sore in my hips after completing a long assignment than anywhere else. This is particularly true of the tops of my thighs, where my pelvis and leg meet, a muscle group known as our hip flexors. One of the hip flexors’ jobs is to draw our thighs to our chest. Lengthening the front of the leg and hip is a great way to combat tightness here.

How to: Place your hand on your desk, chair, or wall for balance. If you are non-ambulatory, you can try this lying down on a bed. Use your hand to pull your right heel up toward your bum. Think of pulling your belly button in toward your spine and reaching your tailbone toward the floor, which can help isolate the stretch to your front thighs and protect your lower back. Hold for ten breaths. Release the leg and repeat on your left side.

Wrist and Forearm Stretch

Even if we manage to align our spine and shoulders perfectly, our hands, wrists, and forearms work very hard to match our brain’s speed with our fingers to type. Carpal tunnel is often linked to vocations and habits where you let your wrist bend for long periods. Its symptoms include numbness and tingling in the hands. The hands can also lose strength, which is any writer’s worst nightmare if you use your hands to compose your work. This stretch targets the underside of the wrist.

How to: Consider doing this near a wall, though some of you may not need to press your hand into anything for a stretch. Reach your right arm straight out in front of your chest and turn your palms open toward the sky. Bend your wrist and use your left hand to pull your fingers back toward your forearm. This may be plenty, simply pressing into your opposite hand, but if you want to up the dial of intensity, press your palms into a wall. Breathe for a count of ten. Switch sides.

Writing Is a Physical Activity

Most of us think that writing isn’t a physical activity. But if we spend hours and hours each day in any position, the backside of our body can get weak and lengthened and the front side can get short and tight. This can lead to myriad challenges, from muscle injury to mental fatigue. We need to take care of our bodies in order to take care of our minds.