Mat based class designed to gently stretch and strengthen throughout the shoulder.

The class begins in standing to warm up and then continues into four-point kneeling, our fronts and onto our backs. The class is suitable for most levels however, if you have any underlying shoulder conditions and find any of the exercises painful, please seek advice from a health professional.

This class includes:

• Standing dumb waiter and cleopatra stretch
• Book opener
• Squat with arm pulses
• Shoulder rolls and side bend
• Roll downs
• 4-point kneeling Cat stretch
• Shoulder taps
• Leg pull in prone prep
• Child pose
• Thread the needles
• Breaststroke with hundreds arms
• Swan dive
• Deep neck flexor activation
• Scapula isolations
• Arm scissors with opposite leg stretch
• Chicken wings with combined bridge
• Double leg stretch
• Knee hugs, lumbar rotation
• Sitting upper body reaches, neck stretches

The class begins with a gentle warm up in standing with exercises to mobilise and stretch through the upper body. We then combine some squats with arm pulses and side bend stretches. We then roll down into four-point kneeling and continue to mobilise and stretch into our upper back and shoulders with a cat stretch and thread the needle movements. We also begin some shoulder strengthening in this position with some shoulder taps and leg pull in prone prep.

Moving down onto our fronts on the mat we work on strengthening around the shoulder blade region with breaststroke exercise and into our neck and upper back with a swan dive movement. We then move onto our backs and begin by engaging our deep neck flexor muscles in our necks. We then mobilise into the shoulder with some arm scissors and chicken wings, adding in some opposite leg movements and bridges to challenge our core control. We then bring our arm and leg movements together with a double leg stretch. We then cool down with a gentle rotation stretch and finish with some neck and upper body stretches in sitting.