Patients are frequently advised by other caregivers to stretch the front of their upper body / arms / shoulders / chest by standing in a doorway, placing the hands out on the door frames on each side, and leaning forward.
This will effectively give a good stretch, but I have found that people can easily overstretch due to loosing their balance, lack of control, or over-enthusiasm, and end up hurting themselves.
Instead, I advise my patients to stand facing a corner, place their hands on the walls on both sides, and lean into the corner. I have them change the height of their hands, up and down, which effects the stretch in slightly different parts of the chest, shoulders, and arms. Changing the distance from the feet to the corner can lessen or increase the stretch.
This is a safer way to do this stretch; patients are much less likely to hurt themselves.
