STOIK The reach fix.
Three moves. Two weeks. Then you check again.
Everything in here needs a wall and a chair. Nothing else.
YOUR BACK DID THE REACHING.
Your arms got overhead, but your low back came off the wall to get them there. That means the range came from your spine, not your shoulders. It works, it just wears out the wrong thing, and it has been happening every time you reach a high shelf or press anything overhead.
The shoulder is usually not the whole story. An upper back that will not extend, or a shoulder blade that will not rotate, both get covered for by the low back. These three moves work all of it.
Ten minutes. Four days a week. Nothing here should hurt.
DO THEM IN THIS ORDER.
THORACIC EXTENSION OVER CHAIR
HowSit tall with the back of the chair hitting you just below the shoulder blades. Hands behind your head, elbows forward. Lean back over the chair, ribs stay down, then come back up.
Don'tArching the low back instead of the upper back. Flaring the ribs. Yanking on your neck with your hands.
You should feelA stretch between the shoulder blades and through the middle of the back. Nothing in the low back.
OPEN BOOK ROTATION
HowLie on your side, knees stacked and bent to ninety, arms straight out in front with palms together. Lift the top arm up and over, follow it with your eyes, let the chest open toward the ceiling. Bring it back.
Don'tLetting the knees come apart. Forcing the arm to the floor. Rushing it.
You should feelRotation through the upper back and a stretch across the chest. The hips stay put, all the turn happens above them.
WALL SHOULDER FLEXION SLIDE
HowFace the wall, forearms on it, elbows about shoulder height. Ribs down. Slide the forearms up the wall as far as they go without the ribs lifting, then slide back down.
Don'tShrugging the shoulders up to the ears. Ribs flaring or the low back arching to buy range. Bending the elbows out to the side.
You should feelWork through the shoulder blades and the sides of the ribs as the arms go up. A stretch under the arms at the top.
TWO WEEKS.
All three in the same session, in order. About ten minutes. Pick your days and keep them, four is plenty.
- Thoracic Extension over Chair
- Open Book Rotation, both sides
- Wall Shoulder Flexion Slide
The first two open the upper back up. The third teaches the shoulders to use the room. Doing them in that order is the point.
Stop doing that one. Stretch should feel like stretch. Sharp, pinching, anything that runs down the arm, or anything that gets worse over the two weeks means the shoulder is not the whole story, and guessing at it from here is how people waste a month. Come get looked at instead.
CHECK AGAIN.
Same wall. Back against it, low back flat, reach up with the backs of your hands. Same rules. Did the low back stay on the wall this time.
If it did, keep going. If it lifted just like before, the restriction probably is not where you assumed it was, and that is exactly what an assessment is for.
THE WHOLE THING IN ONE PICTURE.
Everything above on a single page. Tap it to open full size, then save it to your phone.
THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF TWELVE.
This is block one of the shoulder track. There are sixty two other things we check, and a program behind every one of them. That is the work.