Your Weekly Horoscope for June 23 to 29, 2024

Training your shoulder mobility may not seem as exciting as, say, lifting heavy weights or sprinting on a track. But it deserves to share the spotlight in your fitness routine.

The reason? Having adequate range of motion in all shoulder movement patterns is what allows you to complete even the simplest of actions, says Shannon Keane, PT, DPT, a physical therapist at House of Physical Therapy in New York City.

“Our bodies are not linear, therefore we need to be able to move our shoulders freely to perhaps tuck in a shirt, buckle a seatbelt, eat our food, or maybe even throw a ball,” she explains.

Maintaining full range of motion in your shoulders is also crucial as you age, helping to preserve independence and, according to research, lower-body functioning and walking endurance capacity.

So how can you gauge if your shoulder mobility is up to snuff—or has plenty of room for improvement? Try the Apley Scratch Test.

What is the Apley Scratch Test?

Simply put, the Apley Scratch Test is an assessment used to determine strengths and weaknesses in all active ranges of motion within the shoulder, Keane says.

In case you don’t know, the shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint that allows for a variety of motions. Think of your elbow: All you can really do from that joint is flexion (bringing your hand up to your shoulder) and extension (straightening your arm) with a little bit of rotation.

But within your shoulder joint, you can flex (lift your arm out in front of you and overhead), extend (raise your arm behind you), abduct (lift your arm out to the side), adduct (draw your arm in toward the center of your body), and externally and internally rotate (rotating your arm), says Andy Fata-Chan, PT, DPT, a physical therapist and the founder of Moment Physical Therapy and Performance in New York City.

“That’s kind of where the Apley Scratch Test comes in,” he explains. “It’s combining a lot of these motions that you’re seeing in isolation, but starting to coordinate a pattern that you actually might use in everyday life.” Think: scratching a nagging itch in the middle of your back or scrubbing your shoulder blades with a loofa.

Physical therapists may utilize this test as a screening tool to decide if a client could benefit from a more thorough shoulder mobility assessment and improvement plan, Keane says. Athletes who require a high level of shoulder mobility, such as tennis, pickleball, or baseball players, will also particularly benefit from checking their shoulder mobility regularly, Fata-Chan adds.

“These are times where you really want to maintain as much shoulder range of motion as possible because if you lose mobility, you end up putting a lot of stress in this small window of range of motion,” he says. “Having a full range of motion, you can distribute that stress to more tissues.”

Still, the Apley Scratch Test can be a worthwhile tool for the average person to assess shoulder mobility, especially because you can easily do it at home, according to the experts.

“Our bodies are not linear, therefore we need to be able to move our shoulders freely to perhaps tuck in a shirt, buckle a seatbelt, eat our food, or maybe even throw a ball.” —Shannon Keane, PT, DPT

How to perform the Apley Scratch Test

The Apley Scratch Test can be performed at home without much hassle, but it can be difficult to see just how much mobility you have if you’re doing it solo (or without a mirror).

If you can’t tell how far apart your fingertips are, try to use landmarks, Keane suggests. Ideally, it shouldn’t be difficult to reach your hand above your hip bone or touch where your bra strap sits, she explains.

You’ll want to avoid warming up before trying the Apley Scratch Test, as it could skew your results; the goal is to gauge your mobility at its baseline, Keane says.

Here, your step-by-step instructions for the Apley Scratch Test, demonstrated by Fata-Chan.

1. Stand tall. Lift your right arm above your head.
2. Then, bend through your elbow and reach your right hand behind your head toward your left shoulder blade, allowing your shoulder to externally rotate.
3. Simultaneously, reach your left arm behind your back, then bend through the elbow and reach your left hand behind your back toward your right shoulder blade, allowing your shoulder to internally rotate.
4. Reach your fingertips toward one another and take note of how close they are. Look for compensations that may occur if range of motion is limited, such as arching your back or rounding your spine.
5. Repeat on the other side.

Breaking down your Apley Scratch Test results

How close your fingertips get to one another determines your Apley Scratch Test results. At a minimum, you’ll want your fingers to be a fist-distance apart, Fata-Chan says. But generally, Keane says, the results are:

• Excellent: Your fingers overlap
• Good: Your fingers touch
• Average: Fingers are less than 2 inches apart
• Poor: Fin