Elbow shoulder flexion stretch

Hi Coaches,

What do you think of the above (picture) stretch for improving the thoracic bridge?

From my understanding, elbows with hands up forces external rotation which removes basically all shoulder flexion and moves the stretch to the thoracic spine, so is it more a thoracic stretch than the normal cat stretch? how should we do it if so?

And following on the concept of external rotation, is it still your view that no protraction/retraction and no rotation (internal, external) should be performed in the thoracic bridge?

Thank you!

The limit of this exercise is that the external rotation produces scapulae abduction and scapulae abduction is optimized with spine flexion rather than the extension.

Cat variation is by far superior. during these variations and also in the bridge the scapulae is elevated, upward rotated and in a neutral position.

Thanks Alex! Upward rotation and elevation go hand in hand?

which other cat variations other than the one in the tb series do you recommend?

On healthy shoulders, upward rotation and maximum shoulder flexion and elevation occur in the final last step the flexion range of motion.

The ones in the TB are fine to develop thoracic spine extension. if your shoulder has limited flexion, of course, you will see great improvement (in the bridge) once the shoulder flexion is restored first.

Thats great thanks!