Welcome back to our Move With Us series! This week’s focus is on shoulder mobility. With posture and the amount of time we spend sitting at desks and on our phones, our shoulder mobility can be largely impacted. Today’s Move With Us includes some stretches to release commonly tight muscles that impede movement, as well as some great mobility based exercises to increase your range of motion.

Let’s get moving

Shoulder Rolls

• Starting standing with your arms by your side and your feet hip width apart

• Lift one shoulder up towards your ear and then roll in backwards, continuining to roll down to that side gliding your hand down the side of the leg

• Slowly slide your arm back up your leg, restacking the spine

• Repeat on the other side

• Do 3-4 rolls on each side or more if you’d like

Pec Stretch

• Our aim is to release through the muscles at the front of your chest (pecs) which will allow you to open up through the chest

• Coming towards the wall, place your right arm up against the wall

• Leaning into the wall, step your outside foot forwards and place as much pressure through the chest as comfortable

• You should feel a release and stretch through the front of your chest, hold for at least 20 seconds

• Now, bring your right arm higher up the wall to swap from your pec major to pec minor muscle

• Repeat on the other side

Cross Arm Stretch

• This stretch is targeting our posterior rotator cuff and the muscles through the back of the arm and shoulder

• Cross one arm across your body, then with the other arm fold your forearm over the elbow or upper arm of the arm you’re stretching

• Use the folded arm to increase or decrease the intensity of the stretch

• Hold for 20-30 seconds then repeat on the other side

Wall Rainbows

• In a kneeling position with your knee that’s on the floor being closest to the wall

• Bring your arm that’s next to the wall out in front of you so that your palm is flat against the wall

• Keeping your palm in contact with the wall, slowly rainbow your arm up overhead and then behind your in a semi circle shape

• Slowly rainbow back to the start position

• Repeat 4-6 times before

We hope you found this helpful! Feel free to repeat this series multiple times through out the week and keep Moving With Us. If you have any questions or need any advice on any of these exercises, please don't hesitate to reach out and chat to us.

Remember that you shouldn’t feel pain during any of these exercises. If they are painful for you, consider avoiding that exercise or decreasing the intensity. We are always here to help if needed.

If you’re after some more advice or are in need of some hands on help, we’d love to see you at Collective Motion! Collective Motion offers Osteopathy, Myotherapy, Dietetics and Pilates and is conveniently located to service our Bentleigh community as well as its surrounding suburbs including Bentleigh East, McKinnon, Ormond, Glenhuntly, Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Oakleigh, Gardenvale, Brighton East and Hampton East. Click below to book an appointment and let us help you get moving again.