# Pass Through With Towel - Canonical: https://fitwill.app/exercise/9011/pass-through-with-towel/ - Media ID: 9011 - Primary muscle: Shoulders - Body part: Shoulders - Equipment: Towel - Video: https://fitwill.app/videos/9011/pass-through-with-towel.mp4 ## Description Pass Through With Towel is a shoulder mobility drill that takes a towel from a wide grip in front of your hips, up over your head, and down behind your back without letting go. It works like a shoulder dislocate with a broomstick, but the towel gives and flexes, which makes it friendlier for stiff shoulders and easier to scale by simply moving your hands closer together or farther apart. The main benefit is range of motion through external rotation, flexion, and extension at the shoulder joint, all in one continuous arc. Anyone who presses overhead, benches, swims, or sits at a desk with rounded shoulders will feel tightness in exactly the spots this drill targets — the front of the shoulder, the chest, and the upper back. Gymnasts, weightlifters, and CrossFit athletes use pass-throughs as a daily warm-up staple because overhead positions demand more shoulder range than most daily life ever asks for. Even though this is a mobility exercise, you are not completely passive. Your arms stay straight and actively pull the towel taut the whole time, which lights up the deltoids, rotator cuff, and the muscles that control the shoulder blades. That active tension is what makes it more useful than simply hanging your arm around — you are teaching the shoulder to reach those end ranges under control, not just borrowing flexibility. Setup matters more than speed here. Your grip width determines the difficulty: a very wide grip lets almost anyone complete the pass, while a narrower grip turns it into a genuine flexibility test. Keep your ribs down and your lower back quiet, because arching backwards is the most common way people fake extra shoulder range. The towel should travel in one smooth arc over the top of your head, not swing out to the side. A practical starting point is a grip roughly one and a half times shoulder width. If you feel pinching at the front of the shoulder or have to bend your elbows to get over the top, widen your hands. Over weeks, you can narrow the grip slightly as your range improves. Move slowly, especially through the overhead position, and let the towel tell you how far to go — mild stretch is the goal, pain is not. Use Pass Through With Towel before upper body training, between heavy pressing sets to keep the shoulders moving, or as a standalone daily mobility habit. A regular bath towel works fine; a longer towel just gives you more room to find the right width. ## Instructions 1. Stand tall with your feet about hip-width apart and hold a towel with both hands in an overhand grip, arms straight and hanging in front of your thighs. 2. Set your grip roughly one and a half times shoulder width to start, and pull the towel taut so there is no slack between your hands. 3. Brace your core lightly, draw your ribs down, and keep your chest open without arching your lower back. 4. Keeping both elbows locked straight, slowly raise the towel forward and up in an arc toward the ceiling. 5. Pass the towel over the top of your head, rotating the shoulders as it moves behind you. 6. Continue the arc until the towel rests against your lower back or glutes, arms straight the entire way. 7. Pause briefly at the back, keeping tension in the towel rather than letting your shoulders dump forward. 8. Reverse the path in the same controlled arc, back over your head and down to the front of your thighs. 9. Breathe steadily — exhale as the towel travels overhead and behind, inhale on the return. 10. Reset your posture between reps and complete 8-10 smooth passes, widening your grip if you cannot keep your elbows straight. ## Tips & Tricks - If you have to bend your elbows or lean your torso back to get over the top, your grip is too narrow — slide your hands out and rebuild from there. - Keep the towel pulled taut the entire time; a slack towel lets your shoulders skip through the exact range you are trying to improve. - Watch for the ribs flaring and the lower back arching at the overhead point — that is your body cheating around a stiff shoulder, so brace lightly and stay tall. - Move slower through the top of the arc than you think you need to; rushing the overhead turn is where most people lose control and shrug. - Keep your shoulders away from your ears throughout the pass — shrugging the upper traps is a common compensation when external rotation gets tight. - Do not force through a pinch at the front of the shoulder; a pinch usually means the grip needs to widen or the path needs to arc farther out in front rather than straight up. - Warm the shoulders up first with a few arm circles before your first pass, especially first thing in the morning or in a cold gym. - Progress by narrowing your grip a thumb-width every week or two, not by yanking harder at the same width. - The towel should travel in one plane close to your body — if it swings out to the side, one arm is doing more work than the other, so slow down and match the pull. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What does Pass Through With Towel stretch? It primarily targets the shoulder capsule through external rotation and flexion, along with the chest and front shoulder muscles that often restrict overhead and behind-the-back positions. The upper back and shoulder blade stabilizers also work to keep the arms controlled. ### Why use a towel instead of a broomstick or PVC pipe? A towel flexes and gives, so it is more forgiving if your range is limited and easier on the shoulders at the end positions. You can also adjust difficulty instantly by gripping wider or narrower, and you can toss one in a gym bag. ### How wide should my grip be on the towel? Start around one and a half times shoulder width. If you cannot keep both elbows straight through the entire pass, widen your hands until you can, then narrow gradually over time as your mobility improves. ### Is Pass Through With Towel suitable for beginners? Yes, it is actually one of the safest entry points for shoulder mobility work because the towel's give and adjustable grip width let beginners find a pain-free range immediately. Start wide and keep the movement slow. ### How is this different from a shoulder dislocate with a stick? The movement path is the same, but the towel bends instead of forcing your arms to match a fixed width. That makes it gentler on irritated shoulders and lets you self-select the challenge, whereas a stick locks you into one distance between your hands. ### Should my elbows stay straight the whole time? Yes, straight arms are the point of the drill — bending the elbows shortens the lever and lets the shoulders skip the exact rotation range you are trying to improve. If straight elbows are impossible, the fix is a wider grip, not bent arms. ### When should I do this exercise? It works well as a warm-up before pressing, pulling, or overhead lifting, and many people do a set daily to maintain shoulder range, especially if they sit at a desk. Avoid doing it as a max-effort stretch right before very heavy overhead attempts if your shoulders feel loose and unstable afterward. ### What are the most common mistakes with Pass Through With Towel? The big three are arching the lower back to fake extra range, shrugging the shoulders up toward the ears as the towel passes overhead, and rushing through the top of the arc. Slow the tempo, brace lightly, and keep the towel taut to fix all three. ### I feel a pinching sensation at the front of my shoulder — is that normal? A mild stretch is fine, but a sharp or pinching feeling is a signal to stop and adjust. Widen your grip, let the towel arc slightly farther out in front of your body rather than straight overhead, and avoid forcing through pain. ### Can I use a resistance band instead of a towel? Yes, a light band works and even adds a small pull-back that encourages active rotation. The trade-off is that a band stretches in ways that can let you cheat, so keep checking that your elbows stay straight and your torso stays tall.