Shoulder Protraction-Retraction Reaches

All-Levels
Written By Danielle Enos (Dani Winks)

Flexopedia > Shoulders

Shoulder Protraction-Retraction Reaches

Muscle Group(s) Stretched: Shoulders

Type of Stretch: Active Dynamic

Difficulty: All Levels

Suggested Prerequisites: none

This is one of my go-to shoulder warm ups to work on shoulder protraction (hugging the shoulder blades forwards towards the sides of the ribs), and retraction (squeezing the shoulder blades together towards the spine). This can be helpful as a warm up before doing arms-overhead flexibility work to make sure that we can properly engage the muscles responsible for wrapping the shoulder blades towards the sides of the ribs, which we want to happen in arms-overhead backbends.

How To

Step 1

Start standing or sitting comfortably. Extend your arms forwards in front of you with arms at shoulder height (palms can face any direction). Reach your arms so far forwards, that you feel your shoulder blades start to slide towards the sides of your ribs (but don’t let your back or chest move - this movement needs to come from the shoulders/arms, not the trunk).

Step 2

Then keeping the torso in the same spot, pull the arms backwards by squeezing the shoulder blades together.

Step 3

Repeat, reaching the hands forwards, separating the shoulder blades, then pulling the hands backwards by squeezing the shoulder blades together. Arms should stay straight the whole time. Aim for 8-12 reps.

 
 
Danielle Enos (Dani Winks)

Dani is a Minneapolis-based flexibility coach and professional contortionist who loves sharing her enthusiasm for flexibility training with the world.

https://www.daniwinksflexibility.com
Previous

Downward Dog Shoulder Shrugs
Next

Wall Block Hitchikers