How to mobilize your shoulders in 6 quick moves
My eye is attracted to bright, shiny objects. This week I noticed a new bright shiny orange thing in the stretching room, and I assumed it was a new weighted bar of some sort. Imagine my surprise when I went to pick up the stick and it practically floated to the ceiling! About that time, my coworker Vince walked by, snatched up the orange thing, and started moving it in all sorts of positions, claiming it reminded him of his javelin days.
As he was moving the stick around, I thought, “what a fantastic series of assisted stretches for shoulders!”
It looks fancy, but it is really just a lightweight hollow stick with nice soft grippy handles.
Don’t have a fancy orange stick? Use a dowel or even a broom! There is always something lying around the house that has multiple uses.
Here are 6 of the poses Vince masterfully demonstrated:
1. Mighty Bow
Grab the top of the stick and drop your head down through your arms, feeling your chest and shoulders open up. Hold it for 90 seconds if you are at the end of your workout, and bursts of 2 seconds at the beginning for a warmup. Ease into it. Bowing deeply is very difficult 🙂
2. Shoulder Popper
Reach back hanging onto the stick, and then if that isn’t enough excitement, push back on the end of the stick to create more stretch. It might be enough to just hang onto the stick and bring your arm up behind your head!
3. Twisty Golfer
All of my golfing clients loooove to work on their rotation this way. The nice thing about the stick is that it allows both shoulders to stay in the same plane, and you actually can then focus more on your back and core opening up.
4. Hand Stuck in a Doorway and You Kept Walking
Vince’s right hand holds the stick behind him, and his left hand is on his pec or chest muscle. That is where your should feel the majority of the stretch, as well as in the front of the shoulder.
5. Cobra Hang Gliding
Wowza, how about that shoulder mobility! If lifting your head is too much, then let your chin rest on the floor. If lifting the bar that high is too much, then let it rest on your back. Ease into it! Maybe this is a situation where you get to be happy with being able to grab the bar at all, and work up from there.
6. Windup for a Big Karate Chop
Enough said. 🙂
Let me know in the comments below what you think of these 6 quick shoulder mobility stick/broom/dowel exercises! How did they work for you?
