maratoolArm Circles
How to do the arm circles
- Stand up and extend your arms straight out by the sides. The arms should be parallel to the floor and perpendicular (90-degree angle) to your torso. This will be your starting position.
- Slowly start to make circles of about 1 foot in diameter with each outstretched arm. Breathe normally as you perform the movement.
- Continue the circular motion of the outstretched arms for about ten seconds. Then reverse the movement, going the opposite direction.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the traps anchor the shoulder blade against the load.
How this movement works
One joint moves, and it moves the load away from the body. With nothing recruited to assist, the target muscle reaches its own limit rather than the limit of the weakest link in a chain — which makes this useful for adding volume after the heavy compound work, not for opening a session.
It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
What you need
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Arnold Dumbbell Pressdumbbell
- Back Flyes - With Bandsband
- Backward Medicine Ball Throwmedicine ball
- Ball Wall Circlesexercise ball
- Barbell Incline Shoulder Raisebarbell
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.