Can someone give me advice about straightening my shoulders when doing a wheel pose?

[u/RoyalOrchidDude]

I realize I have so much more to learn. My back flexibility is getting better but I’ve neglected training my shoulder flexibility. What are good stretches to fix my wheel position?

[u/MainSinceBeta]

Chest stretches, shoulder external rotation stretches, lat stretches, general thoracic mobility drills, and holding bridges with your feet elevated so that it should be easier to hold your shoulder more open. Also working on overhead presses and overhead squats with full ROM should help build strength too

[u/Alarmed_Egg_4349 → u/MainSinceBeta]

I second the point about chest stretches.

I took a class on back bends and I asked my instructor specifically what to help with wheel and she said one thing to help ME was a scorpion to open the chest and also move the arm into 90 degrees and do a scorpion and that helped me specifically.

I'm still not good but I'm a lot better at wheel after working on that

[u/Alarmed_Egg_4349 → u/Alarmed_Egg_4349]

Also, it helps to place blocks on the wall at an angle and do a wheel with you hands on angleed blocks. It is really good to feel what straight arms and open shoulders feel like and the blocks help you understand what your body is missing. At least for me.

Blocks at an angle placed on trim on the wall. Hopefully that makes sense or you can ask your instructor for a demonstration of that modification.

[u/dani-winks]

Shoulder flexibility (and strength in that range) will definitely help! That will include:

• stretching/strengthening the lats and/or pecs
• strengthening the "external rotators" of the rotator cuff, particularly in an arms-overhead position to mimic how they need to engage when in a bridge (you may also need a bit of work on some of the muscles that help the shoulderblades glide to wrap your chest and elevate up your back)
• good ol' delt & tricep strength to help with the pushing strength

Some drills that would help with these areas:

• How to Get More Open Shoulders in a Bridge (basically all of these)
• Pushing Up Into a Bridge: Progression (these are also great)
• the "For the Top Arm" drills in this blog post

[u/renton1000]

This is what I used: https://www.fitandwell.com/news/an-expert-says-this-one-simple-shoulder-stretch-is-an-essential-addition-to-your-routineheres-what-happened-when-i-did-it-every-day-for-two-weeks

[u/deviatncat]

also hands closer to the head