Active Warm Up and Cool Down for Shoulders

Before swimming, use this routine to activate your shoulder muscles. After swimming, use this routine to open up your chest and retract your shoulder blades. Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades toward your spine, without causing discomfort in the shoulder socket. Move evenly from the starting position to the ending position for each exercise, hold and gently squeeze in the ending position for about a second, and return to the starting position. Each repetition should take 3-5 seconds. Repeat 15 times and then move on to the next exercise.

	Exercise 1 From the start position (left), squeeze shoulder blades together moving arms to ending position (right).
	Exercise 2 Begin with hands on the belt line and squeeze the shoulder blades and elbows back.
	Exercise 3 Begin with elbows pointing front, then squeeze shoulder blades and elbows back.
	Exercise 4 Begin with forearms and hands at shoulder level and rotate upward.
	Exercise 5 Begin in streamline position and squeeze the shoulder blades together while pulling the elbows down.