Chest And Front Of Shoulder Stretch
Also works: Shoulders
A shoulder pass-through: hold a broomstick or light bar in a wide overhand grip, then take it up and over your head to behind you with the elbows locked. Grip width is the entire dial — every centimetre you narrow it demands more shoulder range, so the same stick fits a beginner and someone who has been at it for years.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Use a broomstick, a length of PVC or an empty light bar. A 20 kg barbell is heavy enough to drag you past your real range.
- Stand tall, feet together or hip-width, ribs down and glutes lightly squeezed so the lower back cannot arch.
- Take an overhand grip well wider than shoulder width — start almost at the ends of the stick.
- Hold the stick at thigh height in front of you with the arms straight and palms facing back.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Exhale as the stick travels overhead and behind, inhale as it comes back. Roughly three seconds in each direction, no pauses, no bouncing at the back.
How much, how often
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
A broomstick or PVC pipe, no more than a kilo or two. Five to ten slow passes as a warm-up. Progress by narrowing the grip 5 cm at a time once you can complete the arc with locked elbows and no rib flare — never by adding weight to the stick, which loads a joint at its most vulnerable angle.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Widen the grip by 10 cm and try again with locked elbows. A wide pass-through with straight arms is worth more than a narrow one with bent ones.
Squeeze the glutes and pull the front ribs down toward the hips before you start, and hold that. Do it kneeling if you cannot feel the difference standing.
Set the grip where you can pass through cleanly, then narrow it by about 5 cm every week or two. Grip width is the progression; treat it like adding weight.
Keep the neck long and let the shoulder blades rotate rather than lift. If they will not stay down, the grip is too narrow for now.
Why bother
Because the elbows stay straight, the arc of the bar forces the shoulder through full flexion and out into extension behind you without letting the elbows bend to cheat. That combined path loads the pec major, the anterior deltoid and the front of the joint capsule together, which is what makes it a shoulder mobility test as much as a stretch.
The self-scaling is the reason it survives in warm-ups everywhere. Take a very wide grip and almost anyone can pass the stick over; move the hands in five centimetres a week and the same drill stays challenging for years. That gives you a number to track, which almost no other stretch offers.
Where it fits
As a warm-up before pressing or overhead work — done slowly and continuously rather than held, it prepares the shoulder without dulling it. Five to ten controlled passes is the dose. If you want a genuine length change, do a second round after training and hold the back position for 20 seconds.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
How narrow should my grip eventually be?
Shoulder width with locked elbows and no rib flare is genuinely good shoulder mobility, and most people never need to go past it. Chasing a hands-together pass-through is a party trick that usually rewards loose joint capsules rather than trained range, and people with naturally lax shoulders should stop well short of it.
Can I use a resistance band instead of a stick?
Yes, and it is a good option if the stick's fixed width feels harsh. A band lets the hands drift wider at the sticking point and narrow again on the way through, so the shoulder never gets trapped. The trade-off is that you lose the clean grip-width measurement that makes progress easy to track.
Is this safe to do before bench pressing?
Yes, done as slow continuous passes rather than as a held stretch. Movement through range warms the joint without the temporary drop in force production you get from a long static hold on the pecs. Keep the holds for after the session.
My shoulders click as the stick passes overhead. Should I stop?
Painless clicking is common and generally not worth worrying about — tendons moving over bone as the joint changes position. A click that comes with pain, or a catch that stops the movement dead, is different and worth getting looked at rather than stretching through.