External video — Overhead Wall Press: Shoulder Mobility Exercise by MVMT Performance & Rehabilitation.
How to do it
- Setup
- Stand with your back flat against a wall. One arm reaches straight overhead, forearm and hand flat against the wall. Low back stays flat against the wall too — not arched away from it.
- Execution
- PAIL: press the arm into the wall as if reaching higher, ramping the effort over 5-10s, hold the peak, release over 5s. RAIL: hold the same position as if actively resisting someone pulling your arm back down, for the same duration. That's one rep. Repeat, then switch arms.
- Common error
- Arching the lower back off the wall to gain extra overhead height — that's spine range, not shoulder range. If the low back lifts off the wall, you've gone past your real end-range; back off until it's flat again.
- Feel
- A building stretch through the lat and shoulder during the PAIL, a genuine active hold during the RAIL. Dull ache is fine. Sharp pain, or the arm visibly drifting forward off the wall to escape the position, means stop and use less range on that side.
Back and arm against a wall, reach overhead to your end-range — press the arm into the wall (PAIL), then resist it being pulled down (RAIL). Sharp pain, or the arm drifting off the wall = stop and regress.
Used in
- Week 1 · Fri — Shoulders · Reconnection
- Week 1 · Wed — Chest · Reconnection
- Week 2 · Fri — Shoulders · Groove
- Week 2 · Wed — Chest · Groove
- Week 3 · Fri — Shoulders · Load
- Week 3 · Wed — Chest · Load
- Week 4 · Fri — Shoulders · Deload
- Week 4 · Wed — Chest · Deload
- Week 5 · Fri — Shoulders · Rebuild+
- Week 5 · Wed — Chest · Rebuild+
- Week 6 · Fri — Shoulders · Push
- Week 6 · Wed — Chest · Push
- Week 7 · Fri — Shoulders · Peak
- Week 7 · Wed — Chest · Peak
- Week 8 · Fri — Shoulders · Deload / Test
- Week 8 · Wed — Chest · Deload / Test