maratoolRound The World Shoulder Stretch
How to do the round the world shoulder stretch
- Stand up straight with your legs together, holding a bodybar or broomstick.
- Hold the pole behind your hips with a wider than shoulder width grip. Your palms should be down and your thumbs facing out.
- Slowly lift your arms up behind your head. Don't force it if it gets hard to lift further.
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.
Nothing travels, but holding the position is not the target muscle’s job alone: the biceps add force at the elbow; the chest adds pushing force at the shoulder.
How this movement works
Nothing travels once you are in position. The muscle holds a length under tension instead of working through a range, so effort is measured in seconds rather than repetitions — and the honest progression is more time in a good position, not a deeper one forced early.
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:
- Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raisedumbbell
- Seated Cable Shoulder Presscable
- Seated Front Deltoidbody only
- Seated Military Pressbarbell + bench
- Shoulder Press - With Bandsband
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.