Desk & posture · Upper back

Shoulder blade retractions

Target Rhomboids  ·  Equipment Body weight  ·  Level Beginner  ·  Reps 6

Shoulder blade retractions is a beginner-level desk & posture movement targeting the rhomboids, written in Posecode, a small open-source language that capable language models can use to describe human movement as text. Authored joint targets and reach-IK solves are constrained to Posecode's configured per-axis bounds. Those bounds constrain the visualization, but they do not certify that a complete movement is safe or clinically correct. This page documents a code example; it is not exercise instruction.

Movement phases

Phase cues are display-only coaching text. The executable joint and contact directives in the source below determine the animation.

1. Reach forward1.8s · flow Reach both arms forward at shoulder height, rounding the upper back slightly
2. Squeeze back2s · flow Draw the elbows back and pinch the shoulder blades together
3. Reset1.6s · settle Release to a tall, neutral posture

The .posecode source

This is the exact text used by the linked playground animation: phases and joint angles, not 3D transforms.

posecode stretch "Shoulder blade retractions"
  rig humanoid
  pose start = standing

  step "Reach forward" 1.8s flow:
    shoulders: flex 80
    elbows: flex 20
    chest: flex 6
    ground-lock: feet
    cue "Reach both arms forward at shoulder height, rounding the upper back slightly"

  step "Squeeze back" 2s flow:
    shoulders: extend 15
    elbows: flex 95
    chest: extend 12
    ground-lock: feet
    cue "Draw the elbows back and pinch the shoulder blades together"

  step "Reset" 1.6s settle:
    shoulders: flex 0
    elbows: flex 0
    chest: flex 0
    ground-lock: feet
    cue "Release to a tall, neutral posture"

  repeat 6

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