Open Sesames
Open Sesames
Muscle Group(s) Stretched: Shoulders
Range of Motion Strengthened: Shoulder external rotation
Type of Stretch: Passive Static
Difficulty: All-Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
This is a great drill to help strengthen your shoulder external rotation, especially if you’re trying to use that range of motion in arms-overhead positions like a bridge or a handstand. While I have a zillion drills I like for shoulder external rotation conditioning (because it’s so important to backbending!), this is a particularly nice one because you have to train one arm at a time, and can’t let a “stronger” shoulder make up for a “weaker” shoulder.
How To
Step 1
Start by bending your elbows and stacking your forearms on top of each other in front of your chest with palms facing down (just like you’re doing a pose from I Dream of Jeannie). The bottom arm is just going to be there for support, the top arm will be the “working” arm.
Step 2
Keeping the top arm’s elbow in the same spot, rotate your upper arm to peel your forearm away from the bottom arm, trying to reach your fingertips up toward the ceiling (or if you can rotate past that position, continue to rotate the arm to reach towards the outside). Make sure to keep a 90 degree bend in the elbow the whole time, this motion should be coming entirely from rotating the upper arm (bicep rotating away from your midline).
If it feels easy to rotate your arm 90 degrees from the starting position, lift your elbows higher until it feels more challenging (as you lift your elbows, instead of rotating the arm to lift your hand toward the ceiling, it’ll start rotating to reach the hand behind your head).
Step 3
Lower the forearm back to the starting position resting on top of the other arm.
That’s one rep, repeat for 8-12 arm opens.
Modifications
Need to make it easier?
Keep the elbows at chest height.
Want to make it harder?
Lift the elbows up heigher.
Related Content
Flexopedia: Robot Arms
Flexopedia: Prone Strap-Assisted Shoulder External Rotation
