How can one improve performance on the back scratch test (zipper test)?
The Apley Scratch Test (aka zipper test, or Back Scratch Test) involves trying to touch your middle fingers behind your back, with one arm reaching back over the shoulder and the other reaching up from behind. How can I increase shoulder mobility (most likely scapular mobility) to be able to do this? What specific shoulder function is it testing?
I can do it with my right arm, but not my left. Is it possibly a natural shoulder-blade alignment difference from being right-handed?
Edit: Here is a video of me attempting the test. Even through my back hair, you can see my left shoulder blade moves differently right from the start. I believe this is a muscle issue because a muscle activation therapist massaged various muscles and I was able to touch my fingers on the left just as well as on the right... but only during that one session. I have not been able to achieve it with self-massage. Which muscle could be responsible for the difference?
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I remember training myself to get a better extension on this when I was learning yoga as a child. The simplest way to train for it is to practice it. If you are able to link your hands, either with a hand clasp or with your fingertips, you can gently increase tension that way. If you are not yet flexible enough, dangle a scarf from the upper hand and catch hold of it with the lower hand. As with any stretch, apply enough tension as to feel the stretch, but not so much that you injure yourself.
You can also individually train either arm from either position, getting it into general position and then using the other hand to gently push up or down at the elbow to get it more into position. As before, be careful to not apply too much pressure. Shoulders can be a amazingly fragile.
On a side note, the book I learned the stretch from identified it as the "cow pose". That's generally used for something entirely different, the counter-position to the Cat Pose, but it does exist under the name of the Cow Face pose.
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