How to stretch your shoulders

Sedentary lifestyle where we work at computer desk is a big problem for our posture: we are rounded forward, specially in shoulders and after some time, our posture is rounded forward and we have a kyphosis. Don’t worry, everything can be fixed so as kyphotic posture, but today we are going to talk about increasing the movement ratio of your shoulders.

Stretching with a broomstick

To stretch your shoulders, you need to learn them that there is a bigger movement ratio then one they got used to, and they only know for forward rounded position. If you never tried to deal with this, your shoulders doesn’t even know for any other position and at the beginning you will have a limited movement ratio, but after some time you will increase it.

Take a broomstick, your grip width should be wider than your shoulders and wide enoguh that you can lift the broomstick above your head, and the final goal is to get the stick in front of your lower back.

Your elbows need to stay extended during the movement, if they start to flex or your trunk start to extend you need to widen your grip.

Stretching with a towel

If you do not have a broomstick with you, for example, you are in a business office and do not want the mess with the cleaning staff, take a towel from home. When you stretch it, it has the same purpose as the stick.

Take a wide towel so you can get it wider in case you still do not have enough movement ratio and perform exercise slowly, teach your shoulders that there is a bigger movement ratio than one you got them used to.

Stretching with elastic band

You can not use a stick, you can not use a towel. You can not bring any of them over your head brecause  you’ve been heading backwards (trunk extension) or your elbows have begun to bend.

There is a way for you and it is called elastic band. You can expand it even during the movement itself to compensate your disadvantages and make the desired movement in the shoulder joints.

When working out with a band becomes simple, narrow your grip and after some time, take the towel or a broomstick.

A challenge for you

Can you move a stick or a towel over your head to the bottom of your back? Try and tell us how it was in the comments below!

This post is also available in: Croatian