OK, here is part 2. This was something that I was describing in the chatroom, and everyone there thought it would be helpful to have it written down. So here it is.

This is an exercise that really helps get people out of the "slumped forward" posture (a.k.a. the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" look). When I learned it it was called the Upper-Quarter Stabilization Exercise. I prefer to call them "Wall Angels". This also includes a little explanation of what happens and why you want to know...

Upper-Quarter Stabilization Exercise

Step 1

With your feet 8-10 inches away from the wall and shoulder width apart, lean against the wall, placing your buttocks, mid and upper back/shoulders and head against the wall. There can be a small space with your low back.

Step 2

Bring both arms up so that they are at 90º to the torso, and bend your elbows 90º. Place your elbows and wrists against the wall. Do this without arching your back or removing anything from the wall. If you cannot do this completely, do the best you can.

Step 3

Now that you have reached this position (hopefully) it is time for the exercise part. Keeping your elbows bent, slowly slide your arms up on the wall until your fingers touch over your head. Then slowly lower them back to the starting position at 90º. The entire time you are doing this you must strive to keep everything against the wall. It is more important to focus on keeping the proper form rather than on how fast you do it.

Tip: Since trying to keep yourself from arching your back will be a challenge, I recommend placing a small ball in your mid- to lower back and holding it against the wall as you lean back. That way if you do happen to start arching your back, the ball will drop and you will have to do it again.

Step 4

Repeat 10 times or as many as you are able. Work your way up to 10. If you can do 10, try 20. Do this every day or every other day and start seeing and feeling results within a couple of weeks.


This exercise does a few things all at once. First thing it is doing is helping to stretch your chest open, especially the Pectoralis Major muscles. Most of us tend to fall into a very common postural pattern: the collapsed chest/“bulldog” shoulders look. This is caused by life and habit and how we are built. Pectoralis Major (along with other muscles) is a major contributor to putting us into that position (protraction of the scapulae) and especially holding us in that position. What this does over time is overstretch the muscles that are meant to retract or pull your shoulders back, the Rhomboids and the Trapezius. This holds them in a bad position and makes them work harder than they should, which makes them become weak. This is why pain on the top of your shoulder and in between your shoulder blades is so common. Raise your hand if that sounds familiar… So by doing this exercise, you will be helping to remove some of the chains that hold us in that bad position.

The second thing it does is strengthens the Rhomboids and Trapezius. They are weak, so they need to get stronger. By holding your back/shoulders and elbows against the wall you are retracting your scapulae, therefore you are using those muscles, and since they are weak, you are forcing them to adapt. They get stronger.

But wait, there is more! By holding your wrists against the wall, you are also externally rotating your shoulder joint. One of the things that Pectoralis Major also happens to do really well is internally rotate the shoulder, which adds to the “bulldog” look. (This means when you look at yourself in the mirror and let your arms hang relaxed at your sides, you see the back of your knuckles. Heck, your hands are probably not even at your sides, but partially in front of your hips/thighs. Protraction anyone?) So by externally rotating your shoulders you are stretching Pectoralis Major and strengthening a couple of others (Infraspinatus and Teres Minor if you must know). You also happen to be stretching a few other internal rotators of the shoulder, Latissimus Dorsi, Teres Major and probably the most powerful internal rotator, Subscapularis (the strongest rotator cuff muscle).

If most of this is over your head, don’t worry about it. Trust me, you are doing a good thing! For those of you who are still with me and want to know a couple of other things, read on a bit more.

Did you know that by exercising and strengthening these muscles, you make it easier to stretch the others? Really! You are actually making it easier to stretch those tight muscles in the front simply by using the muscles in the back. You are doing this by invoking a Physical Law: The Law of Reciprocal Inhibition. This law states that when one muscle or a group of muscles contract (we will call these the agonists), the muscles that do the opposite job (the antagonists) must relax. Use one, relax the opposite. This law makes it possible for us to kick or throw or move around in a fluid manner. Here is a quick example: you are going to kick a ball. You contract your hamstrings and your glutes (in particular your Gluteus Maximus) to pull back your leg far enough for a really good kick. Then you have to contract your quads and hip flexors to actually do the kicking part. Your hamstrings bend the knee and extend your hip (pull your leg back at the hip). Gluteus Maximus extends the hip. Quads straighten the knee and hip flexors flex the hip (pull your leg out in front of you). So if your hamstrings and Glut. Max. don’t relax, your quads and hip flexors cannot pull the leg forward. They fight against one another, you don’t kick the ball, and you fall to the ground wondering what happened. This is what is so neat about the Law of Reciprocal Inhibition. You never think about all of that complex stuff… you just kick the ball. It is automatic. It is Law.

So when you contract your Rhomboids and Trapezius muscles (and your Infraspinatus and Teres Minor too), your spinal cord literally sends a signal to your Pectoralis Major muscles (and your Subscapularis and Teres Major and Latissimus Dorsi) and tells them to relax. How cool is that? Doing that is also known as active stretching.

Now can you see why this exercise is so effective and so important? Class dismissed. Don’t forget your homework for tomorrow!

Thank you very much for this info. I work with my husband doing drywall taping and we get sore shoulders. I do a lot of streching but this sounds good. So if I do this and the other stretching one you posted in the other threas which would I do first???

Ven

My pleasure.

It does not really matter which you do first. That being said, I would do the pec stretch first. May make the exercise a little easier...