Who is this stretch for?
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Anterior Shoulder Pain.
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Posterior Shoulder Pain.
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Difficulty with achieving full stacked overhead positions without low back extension.
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Tight Shoulders.
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Desk workers.
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Basically everyone who lifts anything overhead, IE: everybody.
If you’ve ever had pain in the front of your shoulder and tried pec stretching and thoracic spine foam rolling with little to no change in your shoulder pain, it’s time to look at the back of the shoulder for some hidden mobility you didn’t know you needed.
What does this stretch do?
The glenohumeral joint, aka the shoulder joint, gains a lot of its stability from the surrounding joint capsule. (An important note: around the shoulder joint, the capsule is blended with your rotator cuff muscle tendons.) When the shoulder joint moves, the capsule and rotator cuff muscles work together to keep the joint centered allowing maximal movement without irritation or IMPINGEMENT. Stiffness of the posterior capsule or weakness of the rotator cuff can contribute to irritation of any of the surrounding structures such as your rotator cuff tendons, your bicep tendon, or anterior shoulder joint. Unfortunately, many of us spend a lot of time at the computer, in the car, or sitting in general resulting in a posture that often leads to some stiffness of the posterior joint capsule in the shoulder. As we reach overhead or push weight overhead this centered joint position is difficulty to achieve and can result in shoulder pain over time. This stretch addresses this restriction and can improve a lot of overhead shoulder pain when performed correctly and intentionally.