Shoulder Flexibility/Range of Motion drills

[Coach.Simon]

Short and to the point:

What are your best drills for increasing shoulder flexibility/ROM, I know a few but I'd like to expand.

This is mainly intended for coaches, but I'm not willing to put it in the coaches only forum and miss out on good input from non-coaches.

Thank you in advanced.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Bridges with feet up about knee height and hands close together. I don't worry about what their legs are doing so long as they are stretching their shoulders. This is a little confusing for them as the have to compete a bridge with straight legs in their floor routine which I think is unrealistic and not safe for many girls at their level.

'Cat stretch' on knees with bottom up and hands stretched in front, they then push their arm pits to the floor (also gets upper back so take care).

One arm pressed against the wall (horizontal) and turning body into the arm (can also point arm up the wall a little more to get a different stretch.
I have a gymnast who has very poor shoulder flex but it is actually her pectoral muscles, she has physio activities which she has adapted for use at gym. The one that has really helped is lying on the beam with a jacket under her shoulders and allowing her arms to hang in different directions. Two weeks of doing the activities has made a huge impact and she has picked up a few new skills because of it. I am annoyed with myself for not figuring this kid out. There are many muscles witch control the shoulders range of motion, so the standard stretches will not help every kid.

This Workout Wednesday had an interesting stretch/strength activity for the handstand, most of my athletes are too young to be trusted with weights, but for older girls it could work well.

I sometimes stretch girls by getting them to lye down and placing one of their hands on top of the other and then lifting their arms while holding shoulders down (make sure you lift at a point that wont put stress on their elbows).

The foam roller is also very good (for all flexibility).

For the active flex, lying on the floor holding a stick shoulder width and lifting is another good activity

Simply lying on the floor with arms up by their ears and trying to push arm pits to the floor. If one of my athletes can not get their arms down they generally get extra shoulder flexibility activities to do.

I am also interested in more ideas for shoulder flexibility. What do you use Coach Simon?

 

[Coach.Simon]

Bridges with feet up about knee height and hands close together. I don't worry about what their legs are doing so long as they are stretching their shoulders. This is a little confusing for them as the have to compete a bridge with straight legs in their floor routine which I think is unrealistic and not safe for many girls at their level.

'Cat stretch' on knees with bottom up and hands stretched in front, they then push their arm pits to the floor (also gets upper back so take care).

One arm pressed against the wall (horizontal) and turning body into the arm (can also point arm up the wall a little more to get a different stretch.
I have a gymnast who has very poor shoulder flex but it is actually her pectoral muscles, she has physio activities which she has adapted for use at gym. The one that has really helped is lying on the beam with a jacket under her shoulders and allowing her arms to hang in different directions. Two weeks of doing the activities has made a huge impact and she has picked up a few new skills because of it. I am annoyed with myself for not figuring this kid out. There are many muscles witch control the shoulders range of motion, so the standard stretches will not help every kid.

This Workout Wednesday had an interesting stretch/strength activity for the handstand, most of my athletes are too young to be trusted with weights, but for older girls it could work well.

I sometimes stretch girls by getting them to lye down and placing one of their hands on top of the other and then lifting their arms while holding shoulders down (make sure you lift at a point that wont put stress on their elbows).

The foam roller is also very good (for all flexibility).

For the active flex, lying on the floor holding a stick shoulder width and lifting is another good activity

Simply lying on the floor with arms up by their ears and trying to push arm pits to the floor. If one of my athletes can not get their arms down they generally get extra shoulder flexibility activities to do.

I am also interested in more ideas for shoulder flexibility. What do you use Coach Simon?

Haha, great minds think alike - because those are the exact ones I use! ; except the bolded drill. It never occurred to me that these kids might have other tight muscles that are hampering their ROM, I'll have to try that tomorow.

My girls are really split into two categories, most of them have shoulder flexbility and its a non-issue, then you have my two percent who have horrendous and laughable "flexibility" in their shoulders - I'm just kinda desperate to help these girls at this point.

Something else I do in addition to the ones you listed, which isn't exactly better than any of them (I hardly do it anymore, just use it to fend off slack-jawed boredom) is getting a yardstick or dowel, and having them do the "one arm bent above your head reaching down and one arm bent behind your back reaching up" holding the object and try to meet their hands together.

Tough to describe. Kinda like just grabbing your hands together behind your back (we had to do it all the time in PE. Hated it.)

I'm also a fan of many of the drills you listed off, in particular the roller and variations of the "brace their upper back+gently stretch them holding just below their elbows"

 

[ivyagogo]

I'm an adult gymnast and my shoulders really hamper my ability to improve. As a kid, I had no problem, but now I can barely hold a bridge and I can't do things like walkovers anymore. I am going to try these stretches and see if they help. Thanks!

 

[All Chalked Up]

This one looks super creepy if you have one of those gymnastics who can pretty much turn their shoulders inside-out and stuff... I'm like that and I even gross myself out with this one. These are done with the gymnast lying face-down.

Gymnast lies on ground. Take her/his arms (somewhere that won't put stress on elbows) and try to push them as far together as possible i.e hands together, wrists together, elbows together... and hold. Keep in position for about 15-30 seconds.

Gymnast lies down on ground with arms by sides. Bring them up as far as they can and hold. I.e I can put palms on ground but most kids get about to the point where the arms are straight up. Keep for about 15-30 seconds.

Gymnast lies down on ground with arms by ears. With the face down (you may have to get someone to hold the head) bring the shoulders as far back as gymnast can. Keep for about 15-30 seconds.

MAKE SURE GYMNAST SAYS WHEN IT HURTS AND STOP PUSHING WHEN THEY SAY. It can be dangerous if not, so be careful. Do this often and the shoulder flexibility will improve a lot!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yes. stop when it hurts or you can tear your labrum!

 

[fuzi]

To add another word of caution, be careful about shoulder stretching with gymnasts who already have decently flexible shoulders. As a gymnast and circus performer, my shoulders were always on the more flexible side, but I stretched them anyways, because that is what everyone did. Now, at 22, I just had surgery to tighten up my shoulder, as my shoulder had literally gotten to the point where it slid half out of socket when I swung my arm forwards as I walked, and then half out the other direction when I swing my arm back. Would it have happened anyways regardless of the amount I stretched them, maybe, but it seems like sometimes letting "flexible-enough" be enough might prevent some injuries or issues down the road.