Puppy Pose Active Press

Flexopedia > Shoulders

Puppy Pose Active Press

Muscle Group(s) Stretched: Shoulders, Upper Back

Muscle Group(s) Strengthened: n/a

Type of Stretch: Active Static

Difficulty: All-Levels

Suggested Prerequisites: none

Here’s a slightly more challenging version of the traditional puppy pose that works to actively strengthen our shoulders while they’re in an end-range stretch. This is great for students working on their overhead shoulder flexibility for things like bridges and handstands.

How To

Step 1

Get into your puppy pose: from kneeling on all fours, walk both hands forwards, keeping arms straight and butt stacked on top of knees, relaxing your chest and armpits towards the floor. Wrap the outsides of your armpits towards the floor to help hug your shoulderblades towards the sides of your ribs (don’t let them squish together toward your spine).

You should be feeling a stretch in any of the following: the outside of your armpits, your chest, between your shoulder blades. If you’re feeling “pinching” in the tops of your shoulders, or tingling in your fingers - try a smaller/lesser version of the stretch.

Step 2

Staying in your puppy pose stretch, start to press your hands down into the floor, engaging your upper arms, chest, and underside of your shoulders, as if you were going to push the floor away. But don’t push so hard that your chest lifts! Stay in the pose - only push enough to engage your muscles. We want this to be an isometric contraction, a contraction where the muscles’ lengths don’t change.

Hold the active press for 10 seconds

Step 3

Relax your arms, and you may even sink a tiny bit deeper towards the floor.

Feel free to repeat for another 1-2 reps.

Modifications

Need to make it easier?

Elevate your hands on a chair, table, or yoga blocks. This helps take some of the weight out of your arms/shoulders and sink it into your knees on the floor. The higher you lift your hands, the easier this stretch can become.

Want to make it harder?

Elevate your hands on a chair, table, or yoga blocks. If you have enough flexibility to reach your chest to the floor in your puppy pose, elevating your hands will give you more space to stretch!

Related Content

• Flexopedia: Puppy Pose

• Blog Post: [Video] 5 Puppy Pose Variations for Open Shoulders

• Blog Post: The Importance of “External Shoulder Rotation” in a Backbend

• Blog Post: How to Get More Open Shoulders in a Bridge