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Unkink
timed stretching, cued by the second

5 min · 5 sequences published

Every sequence here runs exactly 5 minutes of timed steps. Narrow it by area and the list shrinks to what you need.

Five Minute Shoulder Blade Slide

The shoulder blade is a bone that floats on the back of the ribcage and is supposed to slide upward, downward and around it. A day of typing holds it in one place for hours, and the muscles that normally move it stop being asked. This sequence spends five minutes asking, in a small range, with almost no load — which is exactly what a shoulder that has been still all day can accept.

Neck & shoulders6 steps

Five Minute Wall Chest Opener

A wall gives you something a floor cannot: instant feedback. If your mid-back does not move, the wall will not let you pretend otherwise, because your lower back has to lift off it. This sequence uses that feedback to open the front of the chest and the front of the shoulders — the two places that a day of typing pulls forward and holds there.

Neck & shoulders6 steps

Five Minute Seated Spine Wave

Everything here happens without standing up. The spine is moved through flexion, side bending and rotation in the order that a stiff back tolerates them, and the whole sequence fits in the gap between two meetings. It does not replace a floor practice, but five seated minutes done three times a day beats thirty floor minutes done once and then abandoned.

Thoracic spine6 steps

Five Minute Calf and Ankle Ladder

Two muscles run down the back of the lower leg and they need different angles: the gastrocnemius crosses the knee, so it only lengthens with a straight leg; the soleus sits below the knee, so it only lets go when the knee is bent. This ladder does both, in that order, on both sides, and finishes by reminding the ankle that it can move in more than one direction.

Calves & ankles6 steps

Five Minute Desk Neck Reset

Six steps, fifty seconds each, done sitting in the chair you are already in. Nothing here pulls hard: the point is to move the neck through the four directions it stopped using while you were reading a screen, and to let the shoulder blades drop back down. If you only have one sequence for a working day, this is the one to keep on the rail.

Neck & shoulders6 steps

13 sequences published in total.