Stretches

Upper Body Stretches

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Upper body stretches that cover the shoulders, chest and upper back in one place. The page collects filmed moves, from lat and T-spine rolling to thread the needle and the pec stretch, in an order you can follow, plus guided routines.

Upper body stretches with video

These are the 8 movements from the MoveWell library for this area. Each page has a demo, numbered steps, the muscles worked and common mistakes.

Lat Smash demonstrationLat Smash60 to 90 seconds per side. T-Spine Smash demonstrationT-Spine Smash60 to 90 seconds. Cobra demonstrationCobra15 to 30 seconds. Double Flat Needle Pose demonstrationDouble Flat Needle Pose30 to 60 seconds. Pec Stretch demonstrationPec Stretch30 seconds per side. Reach Through Shoulder Stretch demonstrationReach Through Shoulder Stretch20 to 30 seconds per side. Thread the Needle demonstrationThread the Needle20 to 30 seconds per side. Upward Dog demonstrationUpward Dog10 to 30 seconds.

A simple upper body sequence

Do these in order: warm-up drills first, then any rolling, then the longer holds. Move slowly and stop if anything is sharp or numb.

#MovementHold or repsSides
1Lat Smash60 s/sideEach side
2T-Spine Smash60 sn/a
3Cobra20 sn/a
4Double Flat Needle Pose45 sn/a
5Pec Stretch30 s/sideEach side
6Reach Through Shoulder Stretch30 s/sideEach side
7Thread the Needle30 s/sideEach side
8Upward Dog20 sn/a
JR

Joel is the founder of MoveWell and IMPOSSIBLE. He became the youngest person to run an ultra marathon on every continent, and created MoveWell to make recovery easy with routines he would actually do.

More stretches

Pec Stretch demonstrationChest StretchesStretches that open the chest and the front of the shoulders.5 movements Video comingJaw StretchesNeck and trap stretches to start with for jaw tension.No video yet Neck Rolls demonstrationNeck StretchesGentle neck rolls and side stretches for a stiff neck.4 movements
View all stretches →