Shoulder D's

Art by Alicia Martin

It the time of year when people are cleaning out their living spaces and consequently returning more books. If you've seen an uptick in returns, remember to take a stretch break from checkin and shelving regularly!

There are a lot of stretches you can do to relax your shoulders, but the simplest - shoulder rolls - for a long time were a mystery to me. They usually made me more tense and sore.  They provided no relief.  Fortunately, a physical therapist told me to try much smaller rolls, like a tiny, lower case "o" as opposed to the Indy 500 laps I was trying to do. Et, voilà! Shoulder relaxation.

And a further refinement of the shoulder roll - if you do most of your reaching forward, which I think most shelvers do (I haven't seen anyone talented enough they can shelve behind themselves without looking), try shoulder "D"s instead. That is where you roll your shoulders straight up and around to the back, with no forward movement as your shoulders have already gotten enough motion in that direction... from shelving!