Video Transcript: Pec Muscle Stretch

Hey, everyone! Dr. Orit Hickman here from Pain Science Physical Therapy. 

I wanted to show you a really quick stretch for the pec muscle, but I want you to think about where you should feel this muscle stretching when you do it properly. Lot of times, when patients stretch this muscle, where they are actually feeling the stretch is more in the front of the joint capsule. And, we do not want to introduce too much flexibility in the front of the shoulder joint because this can lead to a lot of shoulder pain, especially when you’re doing overhead movements. So, the proper way to stretch the pec muscle is in such a way that you are not actually dropping the elbow behind the shoulder. 

So, a great way to do that is to find a wall, and you would bring the arm. There’s a fews ways I’m going to show you. One [way] would bring the arm out to the side and stretch by turning your body ever so slightly to the side. When I do this, I feel [a] pretty significant pull right through the front part of my shoulder into my pec. So, I’m not feeling [a] concentrated stretch right here in the joint. I’m feeling it more into the muscle. 

Another way that you can do that is by turning, rotating, and bending your elbow up about 90 degrees. Same thing turning the body ever so slightly. And then, playing with this, I also will bring the elbow down a little bit. Same thing turning the body slightly when I do this. 

What you’re not necessarily able to see is that as I do this, I am not just dropping my elbow back and stretching through the front of my joint capsule. I am actually bringing that pressure into the front to stretch in through that pec muscle which is a little bit more challenging to do. 

So, if you're doing pec stretches and the only place that you're feeling it is in the front of the shoulder joint, more than likely you are overstretching the joint capsule and you're not actually stretching the pec muscle. Where this is of concern, again, is if somebody has a history of shoulder pain, that can actually make it worse, and if you have any history of hyper-mobility or too much flexibility in your joints. Then, we definitely don’t want to introduce more flexibility.

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