A 7-Move Dynamic Stretching Routine to Loosen Your Upper Body

If your typical gym session warm-up begins and ends with a casual five-minute jog on the treadmill, you may be short-changing the impact of your workout. To enhance your performance and prepare your body for the movements ahead, add dynamic upper body stretching to your warm-up routine.

Dynamic Stretching Primes Your Muscles Before a Workout

During dynamic stretching, you take a muscle and joint through its full range of motion, mimicking the exercises you’re about to do, explained Leada Malek, a physical therapist and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association, based in San Francisco. So if your strength session is going to include barbell or dumbbell rows, for example, you might warm up with a set of rows using a light elastic band, moving the same muscles and joints but at a lower level of intensity. To prepare for a day of kayaking, you might include some wrist rotations and shoulder rolls. Scapular protractions and retractions—when you bring your shoulder blades forward and away from the spine and pull your shoulder blades backward and toward the spine, respectively—you can get your shoulders ready for reaching, grabbing, and pulling on climbing holds.

“You’re priming all those muscles and joints that are about to play a role in your workout,” Malek says.

Unlike static stretching (when you get into a stretch and hold it for 30 to 60 seconds), dynamic stretching gets your muscles and joints warmed up by revving your heart rate and increasing blood flow to the area, says Malek. There’s a neuromuscular element too, she says, in which you’re also improving your coordination, proprioception (your body’s ability to sense its place and movement in space), and control.

The key is to keep moving throughout the stretch rather than holding in place. Fluid motions have been shown to improve performance in your main workout by increasing muscle force and power. Doing dynamic stretching prior to a workout has been shown to improve muscle flexibility during that activity and decrease the risk of exercise-related injury.

Before your next workout, try spending a few minutes priming your muscles for movement with dynamic stretches specific to your sport. “That would get you the most bang for your buck,” says Malek.

Here are seven stretches that, done together, will work all the joints and most of the upper body muscles..

7 Dynamic Stretches to Prepare for Your Upper Body Workout

Before any upper-body-focused workout, Malek suggests doing dynamic stretches that target the arms and shoulders, the thoracic, cervical, and lumbar spine, and your core.

If you do two sets and ten reps for each movement, this routine should take you about 15 minutes to complete.

1. Arm Circles

Muscles and joints worked: shoulders (anterior and posterior deltoids), traps, rotator cuff, shoulder joint

How to Do It:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
• Open your arms out to your sides and begin to rotate them in small circles forward, keeping your arms relatively straight (you can have a soft bend in your elbows)
• Continue to make your circles larger until you’ve reached your end range of motion
• Reverse the circles, starting small and getting bigger as you go

2. Banded Upright Row

Muscles and joints worked: shoulders (anterior and posterior deltoids), traps, rhomboids, biceps, shoulder, and elbow joints

How to Do It:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
• Loop a long resistance band in a light weight under both feet and hold the opposite end in your hands (your hands should be slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart, and your knuckles should be facing forward)
• Keeping your torso upright, pull up on the band, drawing your elbows high up towards your ears. Pause when the band meets your chin.
• Slowly lower your arms down. Repeat.

3. Plank Scapular Protraction/Retraction

Muscles and joints worked: core muscles, pecs, lats, traps, rhomboids, serratus anterior, shoulder joints

How to Do It:

• Begin in a straight-arm plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders (avoid raising your hips or allowing them to dip down, causing an arch in your back)
• While pressing your hands into the floor, squeeze your shoulder blades together, then push them away (the only part of your body that should be in motion is your shoulder blades)

FYI: If a full plank is too challenging, you can drop your knees to the floor like this.

4. Standing Open-Book Wall Rotations

Muscles and joints worked: shoulders (anterior and posterior deltoids), shoulder joint; cervical, lumbar, and thoracic spine

How to Do It:

• Begin by standing sideways to a wall
• Take a small step back with the foot closest to the wall
• Raise both arms up in front of you and bring your palms together at chest height (the back of your hand closest to the wall should be in contact with the wall)
• Begin to reach your outside arm away from your opposite hand, opening up as wide as you can, rotating your torso as you open up
• Follow your moving hand with your head and your gaze

5. Thread the Needle

Muscles and joints worked: core muscles, thoracic spine, shoulder joint, and elbow joints

How to Do It:

• Begin on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders
• Lift your left hand from the floor and reach your left arm underneath your right, with the back of your left hand gliding along the floor
• Your left elbow will bend as you reach, and your right elbow will bend as well as you continue to reach across the floor. Allow your head to twist to the right.
• Try to keep your hips still throughout the movement, keeping the motion contained to your torso and arms
• Slowly slide your left arm back to the starting position
• You can repeat all repetitions on one side before stretching the other side, or you can switch sides with each repetition

6. Dynamic Chest Opener

Muscles and joints worked: pectorals, shoulders (anterior and posterior deltoids), shoulder joint

How to Do It:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart
• Bring your palms together with your arms straight at chest height
• Open your arms as wide as possible out to the sides, then bring them back together in the center

7. Wrist Rotations

Muscles and joints worked: wrists

How to Do It:

• Sit or stand in a comfortable position
• You can extend your arms or keep your elbows bent at your sides
• Rotate your wrists outwards in slow circles
• Then rotate them inwards in slow circles

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