Dr. Kelly Starrett

Arm goes out in front, arm goes out to the side, arm goes behind.

That's really it.

In some version of that, I'm going from position to position.

What gets confusing is that the arm can bend and be straight, right?

And it can rotate.

So suddenly I can get into some very complex positions, but this is just still arm out in front, right?

A plank is training what?

Arm out in front.

And we have some, we call them archetypes, right?

So a push-up, the start of a row, start of a bench press, those are all beginning shapes that are similar.

And then we can ask...

How am I spending time in these shapes?

Do I have any exposure to these shapes?

Or do I even have access to this shape?

So if my arm is out, I should have a rotational window of about 160 degrees.

So it's easy to see, harder to see with the arm straight, easier to see when the elbow is bent.

So from 90, arm is parallel to the ground, I should be able to go straight up to 90.

That's normal range.

If my hand is here, I should be able to get my hand all the way down to my hip if I was laying on the ground without my shoulder coming forward.

And that shoulder coming forward is how your body solves the problem if you can't access that position.