(taken from an e-newsletter from the Arthritis Foundation)

Do you hunch forward when you’re sitting? If so, your pectoral muscles may become weak, and that can strain your upper back and neck muscles. To balance this area of your body, you need to stretch and strengthen your chest. You’ll be better able to keep your shoulders back to sit and stand up straight, which can help ease pain in your neck and back.

The pectoral muscles, which are located on the upper chest, connect your arms to your trunk and help you push things like a loaded grocery cart or lawnmower, hug a grandchild close to your heart, or just more easily perform movements using your arms and shoulders, like pumping your arms as you walk up hill.

You can build up the strength in your pecs with chest or bench presses, push-ups or the dumbbell fly. Or try the two exercises listed below; the first one you can do any time of the day.

Try These Stretches

If you have wrist or hand OA, you can modify this exercise. Stand or sit in a low-back chair. Hold your palms face out to the sides of your shoulders and your elbows about waist level, making the shape of a “W,” keeping shoulders relaxed, not hunched. Bring elbows back to pinch shoulder blades together. Hold for three counts, relax and repeat.

Stand in front of a doorway, feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. With arms bent at the elbow in a 90-degree angle, place your palms on the sides or frame of the doorway. Lean forward and you’ll feel your pectoral muscles stretch. Bonus: The muscles on the front of your shoulders get a stretch, too.