Prone Snow Angel
oec:prone-snow-angel
A bodyweight postural exercise performed lying face down, sweeping the arms from overhead to the hips to strengthen scapular stabilizers and upper-back musculature.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: Reverse Snow Angel, Floor Snow Angel, Prone Angel
How to do it
Setup
- Lie face down on a mat with your legs extended straight behind you and toes resting on the floor.
- Extend your arms fully overhead with your thumbs pointing up or palms facing the floor.
- Tuck your chin slightly so your neck remains neutral, with your forehead hovering just above the mat.
Movement
- Engage your mid-back to lift your hands, forearms, and chest slightly off the floor.
- Keeping your arms straight and hovering, sweep them smoothly out to the sides in a wide arc toward your hips.
- As your hands approach your outer thighs, squeeze your shoulder blades down and back, rotating your thumbs outward if comfortable.
- Reverse the sweep along the same circular path back to the overhead starting position without letting your hands touch the ground.
Breathing
Exhale as you sweep your arms down toward your hips and contract your back; inhale as you return them overhead.
Cues
- Keep hands hovering off the floor throughout the sweep.
- Pull your shoulder blades into your back pockets as your hands reach your hips.
- Keep your neck long and eyes looking down.
Common faults
- Hyperextending the lower back to create height instead of moving from the shoulders and thoracic spine.
- Squeeze your glutes and brace your abdomen into the floor to lock the lumbar spine in neutral, lifting primarily through the arms and shoulder blades.
- Shrugging the shoulders upward toward the ears during the overhead sweep.
- Keep active depression in the scapulae, keeping the shoulders drawn away from the ears throughout the repetition.
Safety
- Individuals with acute shoulder impingement should reduce range of motion or avoid sweeping into excessive overhead flexion if pain occurs.
Muscles
Joints
- Shoulder blade: Retraction, Depression, Downward rotation, Upward rotation
- Shoulder: Horizontal abduction, Adduction, Abduction, Internal rotation, External rotation
- Thoracic spine: Isometric stabilization
- Lumbar spine: Isometric stabilization
Details
- Movement
- Horizontal pull, Mobility drill
- Modality
- Calisthenics, Mobility, Rehabilitation
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- pull
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- open
- Level
- beginner
- Equipment
- None
- Record
- Repetitions; or Duration
- Load
- bodyweight
Related
- variation of Wall Angel
- substitute for Wall Angel
- substitute for Prone Y-T-W Raise
- substitute for Prone YTW Raise
Sources
- wger: Reverse Snow Angel, by mike6426 (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.