Today we are talking about shoulder stretches to open your shoulders and give you a better upper body position when you’re riding. All of us tend to slouch because everything we do, whether it’s on our phones, texting, driving, working on the computer, or sitting on the couch, we tend to slouch and roll our shoulders forward. These are some stretches and exercises you can do to really open up your shoulders so you get that nice upper body position we all want.
For the first exercise, you want your elbows to stay in the same position and rotate around your upper arm, with the rotation coming from your shoulders. This is a great exercise to strengthen your shoulder and also to help you give a correct rein aid, so when giving an indirect rein, you can correctly bend your horse by taking the rein towards the middle of the circle. I do this exercise a lot because my left shoulder especially is really tight from breaking my collarbone. The main thing here is to keep your elbow in one place and then rotate your hand open without moving your elbow. You should feel this work your shoulders.
The second exercise is just a simple row with your Thera-Band. I put the Thera-Band around a chair or anything stable, and as I row my arm back, I’m really working on keeping my shoulders open and being able to pull my shoulder blades together.
The third stretch is called the “ITY” stretch. I lay on the foam roller with my spine along the foam roller. I start with my palms facing up and my hands down near my hips, this is “I.” Basically, you just want to breathe and hold each stretch for 30 seconds. For “T,” you see my arms are out to the side, and again you’ll feel this stretch in your chest and pectoral muscles. Then put your hands above your head for the “Y.”
The last stretch with the foam roller is to put your elbows up and your hands behind your head, then just roll up and down over your shoulder blades. I get really tight shoulders, so this helps loosen them up.
These are just some exercises, I hope they help!
Amelia
