Upper back · Shoulders
Wall angels
Mobility · Standing
- How to do it
- Stand (or sit tall) with back against a wall or firm chair back. Keep ribs quiet and slide both arms up and down the surface like a slow snow angel, trying to keep contact.
- Dose
- 8 reps
- What you should feel
- Your upper back working to stay flat
- Common mistake
- Arching the low back off the wall.
- Make it easier
- Stand away from the wall and do the same movement freely.
- Avoid this movement if
- Raising the arms overhead causes sharp pain.
- Why DeskBreak uses it
- Combines upper-back mobility with control, and gives the shoulders a rare overhead range.
Stop this movement if it causes sharp or worsening pain, numbness, weakness or dizziness.
Evidence
Moderate evidence.
- Effectiveness of small daily amounts of progressive resistance training for frequent neck/shoulder pain: randomised controlled trial (Pain, 2011)
- Effectiveness of exercise in office workers with neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis (South African Journal of Physiotherapy, 2017)
- Effectiveness of workplace interventions in the prevention of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders and symptoms: an update of the evidence (Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2016)