Wall angels: how to do them with good form

A wall angel is a slow movement where you slide your arms up and down a wall behind you, like making a snow angel while standing. It is for people whose shoulders roll forward after long hours at a keyboard and who want an exercise that asks their shoulder blades to move.

How to do it

1. Stand with your back to a wall and your heels about a foot from it. Bend your knees slightly.
2. Bring your ribs and low back toward the wall so your low back rests lightly against it. Your head can rest against the wall if your chin stays level.
3. Bring your arms up to a goalpost position: elbows bent, the backs of your hands and forearms toward the wall.
4. Slide your arms slowly up the wall as far as you can without your ribs flaring or your low back arching off.
5. Slide them back down to the goalpost position.
6. Repeat 8 to 10 times, slowly.

The Cleveland Clinic describes a straight-arm version, arms out to the sides and overhead with the backs of your hands touching the wall ^[3]. The goalpost version is easier to keep in contact, so start there.

What you should feel

Work through your upper back and the muscles around your shoulder blades, with a stretch across the front of your chest if the wall makes you open up. Your low back should stay put. You should not feel pinching at the front of your shoulders or tingling down your arms.

Common mistakes

• Letting your low back arch. When your ribs flare off the wall, your lower back is doing the work. Shrink the range.
• Shrugging up. Keep your shoulders down away from your ears.
• Forcing contact. If your arms peel off the wall, you have gone past your range. A smaller slide that keeps contact is better than a large one that does not.
• Poking your chin up to touch the wall. Keep your eyes level.
• Rushing. Two seconds up and two seconds down is enough.

How long and how often

No trial we found tested wall angels as a stand-alone exercise for neck pain, so treat the numbers below as related context, not a target. The Cleveland Clinic describes holding the position for a few seconds ^[3].

In a lab study of 20 healthy adults, the wall slide, in which you slide your arms up a wall, activated a muscle that holds your shoulder blade against your ribcage (the serratus anterior) at and above 90 degrees of arm elevation. At 90 degrees its activity was not significantly different from a push-up plus or from raising the arm in the shoulder-blade plane, and it matched the shoulder-blade-plane raise at higher angles ^[1]. That was a measurement of muscle activity in one session, not a training result.

Scapula-focused strengthening has been tested in office workers. In a 10-week trial of 47 office workers with chronic neck and shoulder pain, exercises for the lower trapezius and serratus anterior, three 20-minute sessions a week, were followed by pain scores about 2 points lower on a 0 to 9 scale than in a control group ^[2]. Those exercises were a press-up and a push-up plus, not wall angels. A review of 27 workplace trials also found moderate-quality evidence for neck and shoulder strengthening in office workers ^[4].

An easier and a harder version

Easier: do the goalpost slide over a small range, or lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent and slide your arms along the floor. The Cleveland Clinic describes a floor version with legs straight ^[3].

Harder: stand with your feet closer to the wall, or use the straight-arm version. You can add a pause of a few seconds at the top. Keep the range where your back and arms stay in contact.

At your desk

If you do not have a free wall, use a door frame and a slower range. You can also do a smaller version seated with your back against the chair, though your arms will not touch a wall. A few reps after a long typing session is a reasonable pattern. The LaptopNeck coach lists this as "wall angels" and uses it in its 4-minute and 5-minute routines. See the 5-minute desk routine for where it fits.

Stop and see a clinician if

• You feel numbness, tingling or weakness in your arms or hands.
• Pain spreads down an arm.
• You feel dizzy or faint.
• You get double vision or other visual change, a drop attack, or new trouble walking or using your hands.
• You have shoulder or neck pain after an injury, or your shoulder feels unstable or catches.
• Your pain is severe or getting worse.
• You have new or severe headaches.

This page is general information and cannot diagnose the cause of your pain.