While we’re typically taught to cringe 😬 if we see shoulder alignment like this in plank pose, the truth is that these positions are just different degrees of shoulder flexion.
In the example with the shoulders behind the wrists, the shoulders have simply moved into a higher degree of shoulder flexion. (In other words, the shoulders have lifted slightly more toward an overhead position.)
And in the example with the shoulders in front of the wrists, the shoulders are in a bit less flexion. (Obviously in this second example, the wrists have moved into more extension as well. This is also not an inherently injurious alignment – but one would want to make sure they have the wrist extension range of motion for this position first.)
Now there’s nothing inherently unsafe about loading the shoulders at these “non-stacked” angles. In fact, there are many strength training exercises that load our shoulders through their full range of flexion, strengthening them at every angle.
For example, in a full range front raise exercise, we lift a weight fully overhead, loading our shoulders through all of the angles that make up the arc of flexion. This exercise strengthens the anterior shoulder, and is a very good, advisable move to do!
